First disclaimer: I don’t know everything. Second disclaimer: I have never been a boy and will never be a man, so I can acknowledge there are certain things I will probably never be able to completely understand about manhood in America.

With that out of the way, there are many different reasons I identify as a feminist. The Reader’s Digest version of it is I believe a sexist society is an unhealthy and ultimately destructive one. In the interest of my feminism being inclusive, I feel compelled to point out something it seems people often forget: Sexism. Hurts. Men. Too.

To be clear, there are quite a few privileges that go along with being a certain kind of man in a patriarchal society. But if you do not fit into the unemotional, heterosexual, cisgendered definition of manhood we’ve come to accept over the past few centuries, well, you’re in for a hard time.

"Be a man. Stop with the emotions. Man up. Suck it up. Don’t be a sissy. Boys don’t cry." These are the things young men and boys often grow up hearing. There are such rigid ideas about gender in this country; ideas that start being forced on children from the moment girls get the pink blankets and boys get the blue ones.

The “Boys Don’t Cry” attitude is as damaging as it is utterly unrealistic. And yet is has been accepted for decades. Boys who don’t conform to their assigned gender roles are often ostracized. So much so that they aren’t given the freedom to explore different aspects of their personalities, explore "unmanly" interests, or learn to deal with their own imperfections.

A world where the only emotion men can express without judgement is anger is not a safe one for anybody. It’s not surprising that although boys and men experience depression at a similar rate to women and girls, they are less likely to seek treatment.

Let’s strive to create a world where a little girl being a Stormtropper for Halloween and a little boy being a princess are equally accepted. Where girls have complex female characters to look up to and boys have male characters that experience a full range of emotion. One where male and female survivors of sexual abuse are treated with the respect they deserve and are given the tools they need to heal. One where strength and courage in young women and sensitivity and compassion in boys are matter of fact. Let's do away with the idea that boys don't cry.

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