Slang dictionary
male tears
[ meyl 迟别别谤锄听]
黑料网 does male tears mean?
Male tears听is a phrase and reaction image used by feminists for when men complain about reverse sexism, e.g., that they feel they have it hard when it comes to equal pay, discrimination, and harassment.
Where does male tears come from?
The phrase听male tears emerged on Tumblr in 2012 on the blog Feminist Picture. In the post, the writer describes male tears as “a concept to make fun of men who complain about how oppressed they are, how difficult it is for them, when they are privileged.” Also that year on Tumblr, the blog Misandry began compiling macro images captioned with male tears,听and the phrase听only spread from there thanks to Tumblr’s reblog function.
Know Your Meme
In July 2014, journalist Jessica Valenti tweeted a picture of herself posing in front of the ocean in a sweatshirt that read听I Bathe in Male Tears.听Upset at this, a number of men claimed鈥攊ronically enough鈥�male tears was a sexist, man-hating phrase.
Time听magazine, The HuffPost, Slate,听and other popular publications all ran opinion pieces on the comic misandry of male tears听in 2014. In response to a trend of people posing with听coffee mugs with the phrase male tears printed on them (as if they were drinking male tears), one Twitter account posted an image of a woman sipping from a mug that read听That Means Semen. Urban Dictionary听confirms that, yes, male tears is also slang for semen.
Examples of male tears
We鈥檙e having a moment for听male tears鈥攏o, not the kind that the听popular feminist mug听metaphorically collects in听pursuit of bringing down the patriarchy. We鈥檙e talking literal tears that men shed in moments of televised vulnerability.
Who uses male tears?
Although some people might use it unironically and actually enjoy it when men cry, male tears is mostly used jokingly. The phrase or the reaction image can be posted in response to a man seen as whining on the internet, often to the amusement of some feminists when men express outrage over it. The phrase has been printed on all kinds of apparel and accessories, so it’s easy to proclaim to the world how you enjoy the male tears.
A couple of different variations of the听tears concept exist, including white tears (for when white people complain about their privilege or are told they can’t use the N-word) and sipping on male tears, used with an ironic ruthlessness.
Note
This is not meant to be a formal definition of male tears like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of male tears that will help our users expand their word mastery.