Back in my mother’s day – you didn’t cry. You sucked it up and carried on. It was a sign of weakness to cry. To this day (she’s in her 80’s) she still subscribes to that belief. Kind of epitomized from the music from her era; i.e., Big Girls Don’t Cry – 1962 – The Four Seasons (among others).
Being exposed to that mentality, both hers and the macho stupidity in general, I also would avoid crying at any cost. An example of which from music in my era; i.e., Harden My Heart – 1981 – Quarterflash. I’ve included a snippet of lyrics:
I’m gonna harden my heart
I’m gonna swallow my tears
Fast forward to the divorce from the long term marriage that yielded my three children and my heart has surprisingly softened. I cry at anything, just because I seem to be more sensitive to the moment. Silly as it sounds, I’m getting weepy eyed writing this – just…one…of…those…things.
I guess in 1981 there was a slight shift in the musical world with the advent of the group “Tears for Fears.” Formerly called ‘History of Headaches’, they made the change due to an inspiration related to primal therapy. Courtesy of Wikipedia:
“Primal therapy was developed as a means of eliciting the repressed pain; the term Pain is capitalized in discussions of primal therapy when referring to any repressed emotional distress and its purported long-lasting psychological effects.”
Essentially you scream like a maniac to release all of those tears you had to swallow after hardening your heart.
babychristian55 