Essay 19 speaks on the issue of men crying in public: "...public display of sensitivity such as crying, rather than signaling weakness, has instead become a legitimizing sign of the New Man's power." This statement is unacceptable because this "legitimizing sign" is written in a language that many Americans can not understand. This lack of understanding is not due to any type of ignorance to the changing times, but rather to the fact that there are still a many number of Americans who feel that men shouldn't cry. Even in my own family, my mother likes the fact that my father can be sensitive, but they both know that if Mommy sees Daddy shed tears, there will be total chaos. My mother has always depended on my father to be strong and steady in his emotions, which, at times, may make him appear hardened to emotional extremes, but his consistency and solemnity in expression allows the rest of the family freedom of emotional distress. A lot of this emotional distress is released through crying, and often times, my mother and sisters cry for no apparent reason at all... my fayher and I understand. Even though I've never seen my father cry, and I haven't cried since I lost a fight in the third grade, neither on of us feels that crying is unacceptable. At the same time, we definitely don't feel that it has become a "legitimizing sign of the New Man's power."