How did this western societal idea of how a man should act, and what emotions are appropriate to show come about? How far back in western history does this idea of limiting men’s ability to emote honestly go? And how did these ideas change over time?
It’s interesting to me because I feel like these traditional and limited roles that western society puts on men (and women) are just that traditions. That it’s just something “that we do because past generations did them.” So my curiosity is why did past generations have these societal rules in place? was there a legitimate reason for it, did having men be almost robotic even in the privacy of his home and around his family have some necessary and important reason? If so is that still necessary today?
Edit: had this posted on c/asklemmy but it was suggested this was a better place for this question.
Stoic ideals stress emotional resilience and personal accountability. Nowhere does it require or teach emotional suppression.
If you’re seeing the two as one and the same then you’re missing a great deal of institutional context for why men are expected to discard emotion in the first place. I strongly recommend reading some of the very good feminist literature that’s been linked in other responses of this thread.