Beliefs About Emotion Are Tied to Beliefs About Gender: The Case of Men’s Crying in Competitive Sports

Abstract

Gender and emotion stereotypes suggest that men do not and should not cry, yet men's crying seems to be particularly prominent in contexts such as competitive sports. In two studies, I investigated the possibility that men's crying is more frequent and seen as more acceptable in these settings because such contexts are perceived to be highly masculine, and can buffer men from the negative consequences associated with violating gender stereotypes. Specifically, I tested the hypotheses that (a) observers would perceive men's crying more positively in a masculine-stereotyped than a femininestereotyped setting, and following from this, (b) men would report being more likely to shed tears in a stereotypically masculine than a stereotypically feminine setting. To test these predictions, I conducted two between-subjects experiments in which participants (N = 250; N = 192), read a vignette about a man or a woman crying in either a stereotypically masculine (firefighting, weightlifting) or stereotypically feminine (nursing, figure skating) setting, and then rated the target on several emotion-related dependent variables. In line with predictions, results of Study 1 indicated that participants rated crying male firefighters as more emotionally appropriate, emotionally strong, and as higher in workplace status than crying male nurses, and that these effects were mediated by perceptions of the target's masculinity and femininity. Study 2 replicated these effects using sports-related vignettes, and showed that male participants reported being more likely to shed tears after losing a competition in weightlifting than in figureskating. Taken together, these findings suggest that men who are perceived to embody cultural ideals of masculinity may be given more room to cry than those who are perceived as less stereotypically masculine.

Degendering Male Nursing Students’ Intimate Care Provision: A South African Perspective

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“…Men who are overcome with restrained emotion—meaning maintaining a “stiff upper lip” in certain contexts where they are seen as trying to withhold emotional expressions—are judged less severely than women in the same situations (see MacArthur & Shields, 2019 for a review). Men get the benefit of the doubt with this “passionate restraint.” Moreover, men who cry in masculinized sporting contexts and occupations (e.g., weightlifting or firefighting) are seen as more emotionally strong and their tears are deemed more emotionally appropriate than men who cry in feminized contexts and occupations (e.g., figure skating or nursing; MacArthur, 2019). In a disagreement where an emotional label is employed against a man, his argument may not be delegitimized to the same extent as a woman's because his emotions are not seen as uncontrollable as hers—the same stereotype does not exist.…”

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