I saw my boyfriend cry...now he's defensive.

Anonymous
We were in Les Miss, the movie, and at the end, I turned to look at him and saw a tear rolling down his cheek. I've never seen him cry before; I've seen him come close to crying, but never actually cry.

My response was to reach up, wipe the tear away and then give him a peck on the cheek.

After the movie he got defensive and began to justify his reaction saying he also cried at the end of Lord of the Rings and kept making references about how he was "still manly" and whatnot.

My question is, why? Why did he feel the need to justify it? We've been together for over a year and have been best friends for four years prior to that.

I know men have this thing about crying being emasculate and all that, but honestly, I don't see how my reaction could have made him think I thought he wasn't masculine. He brought it up, I didn't. I wasn't even going to mention it.

So, could you shed some insight into this? He's always been confident and all so this defensive reaction is out of character.

Updates
+1 y
Thank you for your insight. Now I suppose I need to set about finding a way to convince him that I don't judge him for it. In fact, I'm glad he's comfortable enough with his emotions to let them show.
I saw my boyfriend cry...now he's defensive.
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