Trevor Noah suggests that men need to learn to be more comfortable with their emotions. He says they should allow themselves to cry in order to challenge gender stereotypes. The late-night show host was asked by Meghan Markle in a new interview today (November 29) how men (more specifically, men in media) can change the conversation about gender stereotypes within their own gender. “I think first and foremost, as men, we have to grow comfortable in our vulnerability,” Noah said. “If we exist in a space where we are perpetually portraying the stoic idea of what a man is, I think it’s limiting… and it means that we then hold only on to aggression and anger and strength and violence and we forget the balance that is needed.”
He continued, “I think many men have to become a little more comfortable understanding that they can be soft, they can be intimate, they can be kind, they can be crying. They can be all of these things and still be a great man. If we think we’re only going to cry when our team loses the Super Bowl or the Champions League final, that’s not enough,” Noah said, laughing. “We just have to have those conversations amongst ourselves and have them a lot more.”
As for the men in media, The Daily Show host said on Markle’s “Man-ifesting A Cultural Shift” episode, “I think it’s looking around you and asking questions. For instance, I’ve had to ask how my conditioning has been conditioned. I never think that I know and when I do know, I try to remind myself that I don’t know. I just know what’s happened up to that point, and it’s hard to do that because at some point you want to rest and say, ‘Alright, I’ve got it now. I’ve figured it out.'”
