I actually love this trope. People treat crying like some kind of moral failure. Boys shouldn't cry, girls *can* cry, but that's also what makes them inferior. If this is not an example of toxic masculity, I don't know what is.

Crying is normal. Even if it's over something trivial. We all face a lot of struggles in their lives, whether we acknowledge it or not. Something minor might end up breaking the camel's back.

Anyway, here's one of my favorite scenes in Beauty and the Beast:

Belle's reaction is completely understandable. I think Mrs. Potts put it best: "The girl lost her father and her freedom all in one day." That's not overreacting!

Thank you so much for adding Belle!

Really, none of the classic princesses deserve the misinterpretation.

Cinderella?

Originally posted by ahalal-uralma

Again, this is not after someone told her “yOu CaN’t MaRrY a MaN yOu JuSt MeT”—this is after she went to great lengths to get ready for the ball, adhering to the intentionally difficult (meant to be impossible) stipulations set by her abusive step-mother for her to be allowed to attend (when really she was invited and had as much right as the others to attend). She made that dress (I can’t recall off the top of my head if the classic animated version was also her mother’s old dress she restyled or not but still, she put in a ton of work on top of all the extra house work) and what did her step-family do? They tore to shreds while she was wearing it. Of course she’s lost hope: it’s the final straw after years and years of doggedly remaining optimistic despite constant harsh treatment.

Let’s go to another favourite: Mulan.

Originally posted by tae-yeontan

Mulan’s just had the worst day.

She tried her hardest to live up to her family’s and her society’s expectations and vision of a perfect bride but she failed. Not only did it go wrong, but she was publicly humiliated by the Matchmaker—by extension, humiliating her family.

Granted, her family has been kind and sympathetic about the whole thing. Her father even goes to encourage her, assuring her of his unconditional love for her and his confidence that she’ll get it right next time.

She’s just beginning to smile when the drums pound and news of war reaches their village. Her father—her beloved father who’s already a veteran and lives with a disability—is expected as the only male in their family to suit up and head out in the morning.

Mulan can’t help. Nothing she says will be listened to and she can’t take his place (until, of course, she thinks of a way to do so which this moment of crying it out in the rain leads to—score one for having a good cry and clearing your head).

There’s of course more. Take any princess’ dramatic crying momentTM and review the context and I’ll bet you’ll see it’s never as trivial as some have framed it. And, yes, like prev pointed out, it’s this awful thing of people believing boys can’t cry and girls can but then they can never be taken seriously.

Crying is healthy. And crying in response to emotional distress is totally normal. Writers and storytellers across the ages have understood it and portrayed it.

Has anybody added Ariel already?

Originally posted by tristanbabe24

She didn't deserve to see the things that she held dearly destroyed right before her eyes by her own father. No, it wasn't just about the cute guy she just met. Her family had never approved of her interests and she felt so isolated that she hid them away. Just collecting random stuff that she felt oddly inspired by. Then Triton obliterated it. Her memories, all the care she put into organizing it and keeping it safe—gone. He couldn't accept her passion because it didn't align with his beliefs, so he destroyed it. The ultimate rejection from a parent, the very people who are supposed to love you and make you feel safe.

My girl deserved—which she ultimately got in the end—but still.

Let's take a sec to mention Aurora.

Or Briar Rose, who she thought she was.

She's not just crying because her aunts/the three fairies told her she couldn't be with this guy she just met. She's crying because she just found out her entire life is a lie. She's not a simple peasant girl living with her eccentric aunties, she's a princess. She's a princess of a kingdom she knows little about, has parents she's never met, she's going to go see them today, they're going to leave their little cottage to go to this castle she doesn't even remember, meet people she can't remember... The 'hunter' she met in the woods? She can't keep visiting him after all, she's a princess and has to leave everything about this life behind her today

and on top of all of that, it is her goddamn birthday when she learns all this.

Snow White didn't collapse prettily somewhere, she tripped and fell while running for her life and was too scared/exhausted to get back up.

She's a young woman who was reduced to a servant in her own home by her abusive stepmother, and who knows how long the abuse was going on before her father died, and then one day she's told she can wear a nice dress again and go out with the huntsman to pick flowers. Happy day! She's finally being given a day off! She's leaving the castle! She's going to see the flowers, to be among nature! How wonderful! She has a wonderful time, she comforts a baby bird... huh. That's an awfully long shadow behind her........

So she turns around and the huntsman is standing over her with his knife out to stab her. That alone would be traumatizing to anyone, but then even as he can't do it he tells her that her stepmother has ordered her killed. Her stepmom is no longer satisfied with demeaning her and keeping her as a servant, she wants her dead. So he shouts for her to run, run and never come back, and while she's running in a panic through a forest she's never been in before, trying to comprehend and make sense of what she was just told and what nearly happened to her, her own terror makes everything look monstrous, scaring her even worse.

She's completely justified in just lying there and crying after she's finally lost her footing and collapsed, she has had a horrible last half hour on top of years of abuse.

In no particular order:

9. Lady Agatha Danbury (“Bridgerton” - 2020)

8. Static Shock/Virgil Hawkins (“Static Shock” - 2000)

7. Cyborg/Victor Stone (“Teen Titans” - 2003)

6. Signal/Duke Thomas (“Batman: Wayne Family Adventures” - 2021)

5. Raven Baxter (“That’s So Raven” - 2003)

4. Iridessa (“Disney Fairies” - 2005)

3. Okoye (“Marvel Cinematic Universe” - 2008)

2. Cinderella (“Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella” - 1997)

1. Tiana (“The Princess and the Frog” - 2009)