Not to generalize based on gender too much, but in my observation women cry much more easily than men and at a variety of things/situations. I know a lot of this is sociallly conditioned, women have more of the enzyme that produces tears, etc., etc. I’ve only ever seen my father cry once (at the end of “E.T.” of all things !!) and most guy friends never.
Men, what does it take/has it taken to make you cry?
Onions.
Doing an ultrasound and finding no fetal heartbeat.
Having the hammer slip and hit my thumb… oh, wait… that’s swear like a sailor… never mind.
Well, before I became a dad, not much really. I was pretty bullet proof back then. Not even at funerals could I muster a tear.
Now, just the stray thought of something happening to one of my kids makes my throat close up till I can’t breath and my tears well up. I can’t even watch ER when there is a seriously ill small child on the show.
Strangely enough, I can flick right past Sally Struthers and her starving kids without a second thought. Don’t ask me, I can’t figure that one out myself.
I caught mononeucleosis my senior year in college. I’d never been very emotional, but while I was sick, I found myself getting choked up at the oddest times. The McDonald’s ad with the little kids playing football and their dads coaching, being goalposts, etc. really got to me. I never quite figured out what was going on.
I’m the ultimate girly-man. 
Truly, though, I hate watching movies in public because an unexpected sappy ending will put tears on my cheeks every time. I cried watching Jackie Onassis’ funeral on TV when they were laying her beside JFK, not because I was sad about her dying, but because it made me visualize them meeting again in Heaven after almost 40 years. I cry watching Disney movies (Mufasa’s death and Simba’s realization of it in Lion King, the scene where the Beast transforms back into a prince in Beauty & the Beast, when Bambi’s mother dies, when all the Dalmatians are rescued from Cruella DeVille…)
My mom’s the same way. If we watch a sappy or sad movie together, we’re always looking to see if the other is crying…then we make fun of each other.
The fear of dying alone; that someday, I may be an old man, alone with no family or friends, and die. And no one will care.
Ghod, I’m suddenly depressed. 
I have made my boyfriend cry before. Aren’t I evil? All I did was come online and yell at him since I was in a bad mood (it had nothing to do with him), then leaving without saying goodbye. I got an email later saying that he had been crying, and I choked up myself.
He cries when any animals die, or if he hears about animals being hurt or abused. Most recently his cat had a kitten, only to have it die within the week. He was heartbroken. :^/
The first time my son said “Wuv you,” well, that did it.
And that movie Homeward Bound when the old dog finally appears after they had given up on him… sniff
Beware of generalizations though, it takes a lot for me to cry, and my unhusband cries at the drop of a hat, and sometimes he doesn’t even need the hat!! His father was the same way. AND his mother was just like me, of course!
And ** Bosda, ** you’ll always be loved here punkin’!!!
Well, I thought that I was pretty much immune to giving in to sorrow, until this happened at the school where I teach last week. I wasn’t the only adult male tearing up, either - by a long shot. I must say that I don’t feel ashamed about it, - in fact it seems to have helped.
Please drive carefully, folks.
Movies. I cry like a little girl.
I have cried at the end (and sometimes in the middle) of dozens of movies. I cry when they show the Dieppe commercial on Canadian TV.
[Mod-in-Training beanie on]
Generalizing madly, but maybe men just cry over different things–and show it differently? Not different emotions, just different outlets.
My bone-stoic, Depression-era, Master Sergeant Dad would tear up over “Taps”, but never during a family funeral. The love wasn’t less, but maybe the cue/trigger wasn’t as clear.
I’ve seen men weep over sports loses; why is that less real than crying over a sappy movie or Hallmark commercial?
FWIW, tears for manipulation are contemptible, no matter the gender doing the leaking. Tears from the heart are the stuff of humans.
Veb
[Mod-in-Training beanie/]
I ripped the ligament out of my leg and couldn’t walk for 6 weeks; that did it. Ouch. I remembered my old Kermit the Frog puppet that I lost ages ago on holiday, and that did it.
I tear up at movies and have to stifle a good cry. I want to bawl my eyes out at the end of ‘Field of dreams’. Hell, I teared up at the end of ‘The Grinch’ movie.
I am such a wimp.
Mrs. Nipples was in an ICU ward shortly after we got married. I was having a little weep with my first born on my lap. He saw my tears and tried to wipe them from my face. Boy oh boy, that started the waterworks.
I haven’t cried in years. I do well up on occasion. Like other parents have stated, anything to do with the pain or discomfort of children.
A good story can make me teary eyed, but full fledged sobbing isn’t something I’ve done very often at all.
I tear up at all kinds of things, just thinking about how wonderful my kids are and how much I love them and Lola is enough to get the eyes a little damp.
You should see me watch movies… it’s pitiful for a man to behave that way.
Basically, if I’m happy or sad it shows.
Have you seen my new sig? It says it all.
… especially if I click the “show signature box”.
DUH!
I so cry like a girl, especially at commercials.
My all-time-favorite is for some brand of dog food…
ACT I: Little girl (10-ish) yells “Come on, Rusty, let’s go!” and hurries up the stairs, while a little puppy stumbles and staggers up the stairs after her.
ACT II: Same girl, now a teenager (15-ish) yells “Come on, Rusty, I’ll race you up the stairs!” while a grown dog races up after her.
ACT III: Same girl, now a grown woman (21-ish) yells “Come on, Rusty, you can do it!” and this rickety old dog with arthritis stumbles up the stairs after her…
Then there’s the one with the middle-aged black man looking over a room at a convalescent home, obviously he’s about to commit his father…
I also tear-up at a particularly moving worship service or sermon. This last Sunday was a three-hanky sermon as the minister talked about how his youngest daughter (now 3) is growing up so fast…
Me and my best friend have been dealing with depression for a long time, I had no problem with crying in front of him when either of us was close to suicide.
When animals get hurt or die, I tend to cry also.
As a child, I cried over all kinds of movies, but not any more. Just fiction to me now, with a couple of exceptions.
What really gets to me is the death of a close one, which is pretty common I guess. I still cry because of the suicide of my aformentioned best friend who eventually did himself in alone, after begging me to go with him. I have never missed anyone as much, nor felt such a traitor.
The unfair treatment of innocent people really gets to me too, especially the black race and the Palestinians. Say what you will about Israel, but I can’t look and Israeli in the face without wanting to hit them or cry. I am forced to avoid all social functions which include them.
Anyway, those are my two cents, pence, jiao, whatever.
G. Raven Johnson
“Raven is my middle name”
I cry when im extremely angry.