Does It Even Matter If Gus Walz Is Neurodivergent?

While many - myself included - were filled with joy at the sight of Gus Walz cheering for his father, celebrating a major accomplishment, and - yes - crying in the process, some people are so callous and partisan that they decried (puns always intended) his emotions on social media and programs. Most of the posts have since been deleted, and some have apologized, after learning that Gus is neurodivergent. But I ask, why did it matter?

Gus Walz is seventeen years old. A teenager, the son of a man who just was nominated to a major party presidential ticket. He was excited. He was emotional. At what age do we cap it as OK for males to show emotion. Again I ask, why would his age matter?

As Gus pointed at his dad and yelled "That's my dad!" why would anyone care, in a negative sense, that he showed such emotion?

photo cr. People Magazine

The gist of the negative reactions was that it was 'unmanly' for a young man, not even 18 let alone 21, to show this level of emotion. Not only is this wrong, not only do I think it should be celebrated for men to show emotion, this reaction is also hypocritical.

How often do we see grown-ass men, 'manly' men, such as athletes crying for joy when they accomplish something? When they win a championship or a big game? Or, for that matter, when they lose a game in sadness. I know no one said a word here in Milwaukee when Giannis cried after winning the NBA championship with the Bucks.

I don't think anyone made fun of this guy for this scene...

Why is this OK, still considered manly, but a son crying in joy for his father isn't?

Mental health is a huge issue with American men, and men across the world. A big part of this is keeping our emotions pent up, not letting them out and talking about them. It is a stigma for men to show emotion. But as healthline states "Pretending you don’t have certain feelings might help you avoid expressing them publicly, but it doesn’t make them go away. In fact, holding back your emotions can actually intensify them." And the buildup doesn't just affect your emotions and mental health, it can impact your physical health as well. "Suppressing emotions increases our stress levels. This increase in stress helps explain why regular emotion suppressers tend to bring higher risks of heart disease and hypertension." reports Psychology Today.

As a group, we men need to support each other in displaying our emotions. All of them. Positive and negative. We need to rejoice when others rejoice and find joy in others finding joy. And yes, crying can be apart of both positive and negative emotions. It's just as OK to cry joyfully as it is to cry in anger. The reactions of the far-Right (and not so far Right) personalities to Gus's joy is unacceptable and deleting posts and 'apologizing' do not excuse it - it never should have happened in the first place.