A bit of Juxtaposition

As recommended by his comment on one of my blogs, I read through a blog of Mr. Tallman's, and watched Jim Valvano's speech at the 1993 ESPY awards (Even if you don't like sports at all, watch this. It's absolutely worth it). One part of his speech specifically stood out to me: his advice that everyone should laugh, think and cry everyday. I found this to be very profound advice that really shatters a lot of the stereotypical idea of what we are supposed to be as males.

Immediately after viewing this video, I saw a post on Facebook that I found to be very interesting in light of that advice. A male (whose identity I will attempt to conceal) posted something along the lines of:

"The best way to prevent yourself from crying while peeling onions is to chew gum. The best way to prevent yourself from crying the rest of the time is to stop being such a little bitch."

This struck me as such a perfect example of how we as males have somehow missed the point of Jimmy's advice entirely. How somehow, males have not been able to shake this useless, detrimental idea that emotion is weakness, that somehow crying or displaying any sort of sadness means that you've failed as a member of the male gender.
This idea disappoints me. As someone who grew up with two sisters, I feel that I have found that displaying my emotions comes somewhat easy to me. If I feign stoicism, it's because I don't like making a scene, not because I'm afraid to admit that I hurt. And it hasn't hurt me one bit. I am a well-adjusted, intelligent, confident young male who is very secure of my place in the world and in the gender of male.
As someone who's a pretty terrible actor, I've never really understood the appeal of faking who you are, and this carries through to emotions. If you hurt, that's fine. No one's life is perfect and no one is infinitely strong. So go ahead, laugh, think and cry. I guarantee that it will make your life that much better.