Writing from a male's perspective?

I'm pretty reserved about it. It has to grow so unbearable as to require a good weep. Very few and far between, but not impossible.

The solution, to me, is know myself and know the opposite sex to the best of my abilities. Psych books are a good friend for a writer.

 

I do believe the default emotional reaction for most men is anger. It's to do with hormone concentrations more than anything. I never get stressed in a social situation and feel like crying. It is likely that the release of tension, through anger, which hits me first, is enough of a release that I couldn't cry if I wanted to. However, loss of significant people, or severe emotional upheaval, can, and does make me cry. Many years ago now, when my father passed away, I felt I dealt with his death well. I certainly was emotional, but never out of control. About two months later, I started thinking about him one morning, and a tsunami of emotions washed over me. I started crying and no matter what I did, I could not stop. I thought I had gone nuts. I cried all day long, litera Just as it started it stopped. Did I feel better? I wish I could bottle the stuff. The relief was remarkable.

 

Huh?

 

People don't seem to understand the difference between generalizations or statistical likelihoods, and characteristics of any given individual within the population at issue.

 

You're saying we're all the same but different?

 

Mhmm. I don't think there's a default emotion to any gender. I'd assume women get angry as the same thing men do, mostly. Obviously women and men have different agendas sometimes, but I can't see how someone could feel differently when they experience a situation where you'd expect them to feel anger. Depending on how you feel is dependant on what context to you take something in too, so it's a pretty difficult thing to summarize. Also, people express anger differently. Some burst into tears. Some punch walls.

I think pretty much every man acts how we did. They let their emotions build up and up until they burst. It's a really intense thing to witness especially if they're proper macho too. I remember seeing my friend in tears one time because his girlfriend of 4 years cheated on him. He's a HUGE guy, I mean he's like 220 pounds with barely any fat, so to see a guy like that like broken was really weird. Surreal even.

You don't agree that men are typically more egotistical than women? It's that 'I'm better than you mentality' that enforces the notion of not crying further. It would absolutely destroy their ego if they were caught crying.

 

I think you'd have a hard time supporting that statement, @Laze.

Which people would that be you refer to?

 

What, that men are typically more egotistical? Or that being egotistical means they're less likely to cry?

 

That's the trouble with circular arguments.

 

No, I'm saying how you write your character should be based solely on the character as a person. Despite statistical distributions, any given individual can fall anywhere along the gender continuum, and your character is an individual person.

 

You might be conflating aggression with ego.

As for ego and not crying, how about ego and clothing choice or ego and any number of other behaviors egotistical can be demonstrated by?

 

An ego is the perception you have of yourself—it's your self-image. Most men feel like they need to adhere to the stereotypical male image that society has created. Or as they say over here, to be lad. And being a lad means you don't cry. Which is what I meant when I said it would wound their egos.

 

I'll give you a like for that.

 

Male and female brains wired differently, scans reveal

That suggests the hormone effect of puberty rather than socialization given kids are well divided by gender throughout childhood.

Here's the abstract. The paper is behind a pay wall.