The girls in my family were treated differently than the boys. My sister and I were not prone to tears, but were not super emotional expressers. Mother was the role model for us girls. She tended to push the sunny side of life and used humor, but she was sensitive, too. Seeing her sensitive side helped me with feeling brave to be sensitive. Crying, though, is something still hard for me. Sometimes, I have to get outside of myself and find the most tear jerking movie to pull the plug on those tears. The boys were told to tough it out, led from Daddy. But he also had a sensitive side. Both of my brothers have compassion for their family members. I was raised, though, in different times and from my observations many of my generation concur with these experiences. I have (I hope) not raised my daughter to be gender sensitive, but just to be who she is, no special requirements because she is a girl, well now a woman. She is also not a crying type, but - like me - a good movie will pull out the tears. And since she is not blood related, we can't put that on genetics. Today, I am alive and glad of it and have a much better understanding of the depression I have had my entire memory of life. As far as present life goes, my fellow is open with his emotions and I think he was raised to be who he is, too. Maybe the looseness of rules or the fact that he is lucky to be alive, post a serious childhood injury, makes a difference.