Boys don’t cry

Michael Jordan is the ultimate alpha male who is not afraid to show emotions. He publicly wept several times over, most memorable when he sobbed in open court after the Chicago Bulls won their fourth title on a Father’s Day that flashed back memory of his murdered dad.

He made a tearful speech after being inducted to basketball Hall of Fame and most recently, when he eulogized during the memorial for the fallen Lakers great Kobe Bryant. The creatively insensitive birthed the crying Jordan meme to make fun of someone who is sad or suffers a misfortune. Jordan doesn’t mind, he even cracked a joke about it when he paid tribute to not so little brother Kobe.

Tennis greats may neutralize blinding serves but they don’t suppress their feelings. When he was a kid, Roger Federer cried each time he lost a match. The Swiss Maestro has not outgrown the habit even if he ranked world number one. In fact, he now bawls after winning too, most notable when he won his sixth Australian Open title.

In one interview, Federer didn’t hold back tears while mourning the death of a former coach. Pete Sampras too shed tears for a similar loss. The Spanish bull Rafael Nadal welled up watching all his grand slam winning moments flashed on screen after he nailed his 19th crown at the US Open last year. Thirteen years earlier in the same tournament, Andre Agassi blubbered after his final career match in the third round, not because he lost but because he found love from fans all over the world, he said. Agassi may be second best to Pistol Pete, but is way more charismatic.

Even the gnarled Manny Pacquiao cried when interviewed during his homecoming alongside wife Jinkee, after his shock knockout loss to Juan Manuel Marquez. These sports greats didn’t lose fans for sobbing, they instead gained more for showing the man within.

Despite increasing success of gender sensitivity campaign shattering the myth that crying is only for women, many men, even women, still think it is. We all cried when we were born, it alarms if a baby doesn’t. But society wrongly taught little boys that crying is for the wimpy kid. That is why they try the hardest not to, no matter the pain, only for some of them to later in life nuance their tears to ugly forms of violence, even suicide.

Crying is a natural human reaction, except when used to manipulate, or gain public sympathy like doing it on cue while pleading to be wrongly accused on national TV. Try something else, tears do not evince innocence, crying is not a defense.

But thanks in part to these great athletes who showed the world that crying doesn’t make you less of a man. Lying will, cheating and stealing too, especially if it involves some government men. But when they become less of a man, it doesn’t mean they turn into a woman. They just become inhuman.