Yelling good, crying bad

In case you were confused, although women are welcome in the workplaces and boardrooms of these United States, they'd better not be themselves. (Big Girls Don't Cry). According to William H. Frey II, (author of "Crying: The Mystery of Tears"):

Nature may also make women more prone to tears than men, he said, explaining that both boys and girls cry about the same amount until the age of 12. But by the time women reach 18, they are crying four times as much as men, said Dr. Frey, who has conducted research on behavioral, personality and genetic aspects of crying. Scientists do not know exactly why women tend to cry more easily, but Dr. Frey said several factors may be at work. One is the hormone prolactin, he said, which is present in mammary glands and induces lactation but is also found in the blood and in tear glands. Boys and girls have about equal levels of prolactin levels in their blood during childhood. But from ages of 12 to 18, the levels in girls gradually rise, and that may have something to do with why women cry more than men. Tear glands in men and women also differ anatomically, and that, too, may lead women to cry more easily, Dr. Frey said.

Stoicism has officially replaced shoulderpads for women working outside the home. You can do a man's job, but don't you dare demonstrate frustration through tears. Even Martha agrees. Which brings up the question of Oprah, who cries for us regularly. Isn't that projected invulnerability part of what 'people' dislike so much about Martha? The work 'weak' hardly comes to mind vis a vis Ms. Winfrey.

"Men are allowed to be more direct," said Marianne LaFrance, a psychology professor at Yale University. "They can pound table tops and yell and throw something against walls and do various kinds of physical acting out. Women's mode of expression is supposed to be more passive, more childlike." She continued, "If women could act out like men, there would probably be less tears."

The goal is to be able to act out /like men/? Frankly, someone who punches a hole in the wall makes me far more nervous.