No. It’s not acceptable at all to have feelings. No one will care in a positive way if you do as a man.

There is no acceptable outlets for emotion as a man.

This is way weird political shit gets so much traction as it is considered to be acceptable to be angry at idea you don’t agree with,hate an opponent or other and you are allowed to be happy at the pain you bring them.

Everything else is shut up you don’t know how good you have it or shut up you don’t know how much worse it is for someone else.

I say whatever the fuck because I’m comfortable with myself.

Yep, and I dare someone to do something about it.

Men and women lie when they say they want you to express yourself more. Whether they intend to or not, they get angry or sad about you burdening them with knowledge of your own experiences. Many will atore away anything you confide with them, so they can use it against you further down the line.

Broadly and selectively, yes, I feel comfortable expressing my feelings. I’m usually more honest than the social norm, and probably more open than is common.

I think its a maturity thing for guys. My gym buddies and I were talking about mental health a while back and I said “I was on meds for a while because I had an irrational sense that life wasnt worth living. A year later on the meds I was fat, unmotivated and had erectile dysfunction and I was like ‘Great, now I have legitimate reasons to think about killing myself’ so I came off the pills.”

The 20 somethings all looked super fucking uncomfortable, the thirty somethings nodded and made sympathetic faces and the other 40+ guy said “How are you doing with it these days?” Of course I immediately deflected and said “Oh its hard as a rock” which got the laugh and broke the tension. But the only guy who didnt duck the conversation was the guy of a similar age who had a rough divorce years before I knew him…

I have to get very comfortable with the person to express my feelings. With most of my friends I’m already very comfortable so I usually feel okay talking to them about personal things. With romantic partners… Well if I don’t get comfortable enough then I think it was never meant to be.

Of course online, pseudonymously, I have no problem talking about it all. Mostly because I’ll never meet any of you, or if I do, I won’t know it’s you.

When people tell men “you can tell me anything” what they mean is “I don’t want to feel like you’re keeping things from me.”

It 100% does NOT mean “you will face no negative consequences for telling me.”

Men keep some things to themselves because sharing feelings has resulted in getting burned too many times.

These things aren’t necessarily bad. They might just shatter exciting illusions the other person prefered over the ordinary truth.

Male. Yes. Why the question?

The older I get, the more I realize that opening up makes things worse.

I’m an autistic male and for me expressing myself in general is a bit awkward. During tough times I really liked expressing it to my friends and siblings since it’s a decent way to process the feelings.

I am an enby who presents primarily masculinely but I have a lot of feminine traits and habits too.

Which is to say I am a bearded, muscular reserve sergeant who wears a lot of flannels and wooly clothes, but I have a beautiful, glimmering head of hair that goes to my lower back which I love to braid and the routine to keep it and my face in good shape is very long every day, and in my routines am generally considered very feminine. I do makeup, I cook and bake, I sing all the time, dance freely while doing household stuff, and most crucially, I am very good at listening to others talk about feelings and such, but am also myself very much a sharer in terms of my feelings and just general thoughts too, however fragile or even embarrassing, or just cute, whatever.

I also have adhd which kind of makes me just be myself whether I wanted it or not, I mostly do and think only after. Same goes for things I say or talk about. Couldn’t hold things in if I wanted to…

Which, in turn, is all to say that I’ve always just shared my feelings and intimate thoughts and all without restrictions, mostly because that just happens, but I also like it about me and it keeps me kind of grounded and well conscious of myself, but importantly, it encourages others to share too, and I feel very much more connected to everyone around me, since we tend to talk about everything, even the difficult things.

But I was born a biological male, I present visually mostly masculinely, am very traditionally masculine looking dude, got upbringing as though I was a man, so I think my pov might be relevant still, even though I learnt, as a young adult, who I really am, what I feel, what I see, what I indentify as and how.

I did talk quite freely back when I was young teenager too, when I was still confused and tried to fit the male bill, so I think it’s something more fundamental than what I consciously understand myself to be.

Either way, it’s always been super helpful and really helped me connect deeply with people. Help them, and also get help in turn. It’s a precious thing. To share. To dare to share.

I hope it gets easier for you too.

I will express my feelings with words no problem. I can cry under certain circumstances and in front of certain people. But I won’t do so in front of others, though I think it has to do with me not being used to do so, more than feeling that is not a masculine thing to do.

Like farting. You know your farting audience.

I think I’m emotionally stunted from years of repressing my feelings. I don’t feel that strongly about most things. A lot of people will comment about how stoic and quiet I am, but it’s not like there’s really too much to express. When I am “upset”, it’s usually because I’m exhausted or hungry.

That being said, in times of catastrophic events (deaths, break ups, etc), I might get upset. But I tend to be very good at expressing myself with words. I take my time and choose them carefully, so much so that sometimes other people will think that im being silent; im not, I’m thinking about all the ways this could play out depending on what I say.

Crying only happens quietly, to myself, maybe once a year, and usually because of some dumb kids movie that gets to me. I think the last one was Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.

No. I keep pretty much everything to myself. I am convinced that no good can come of me expressing any of my emotions. I need to be a rock. I allow myself a few minutes of crying when a relative dies.