We live in a world that tells us what to do and what not to do since we’re born. We live in a world of stereotypes. If you’re a man, you are not allowed to cry. Man, since childhood, are told, ‘be a man’, ’emotions are for the weak.’, ‘don’t cry like a girl’, and what not. So we do that without questioning. We hold our emotions when we’re heartbroken, we wear a mask of toughness when we’re in pain, at least in front of the world. And then when the world sleeps, we too, secretly let our emotions out in form of tears.
This 21 year old Dutch photographer Maud Fernhout tried to break these stereotypes with a beautiful campaign “What Real Men Cry Like”; in which she captured men letting their feelings out.
Here is what the photographer says about the project.
I’m not trying to convey just my message in a bunch of photos and then “get it out there”; what I want to show you are the thoughts and feelings of the dozens of guys and girls from my generation that have sat on my chair and shown me themselves. Because they are real and they are truly beautiful, and they have something to say.
Some of the photos from the campaign
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Being a man does not mean suppressing your emotions. Your life, your rules. You do not want others to set rules for your life. Stop holding your tears back! Let them flow. Because, real men cry.
[Photos Credits: Maud Fernhout]