Lyndon Johnson said, "A man isn't worth a damn if he can't cry in the right spot."
Tremendous politician, LBJ, but. The "right spots" for a powerful man to cry, there's a paucity of those. I can't think of many powerful men who ever got away with crying in public. Obama did, sort of, at Sandy Hook. Maybe that was example of "the right spot", but Obama didn't lose control. He didn't have to stop or pause. I don't remember his voice breaking, maybe it did, but he didn't lose control and that's my point. Real crying is a loss of control. Seems to undercut "powerful".
Some may take the following as misogynistic or stereotyping. I challenge any who do to contest the accuracy: Women, including powerful women, cry more in public than men do. I always thought, the loss of control angle again, that women crying was the equivalent of men losing their temper. Losing: means you're not in control. Men, and women, can yell, shout, intimidate, without losing control. It's harder for a woman to do that, I allow. A person losing control of his anger is not a good look, most of the time. Like crying, it is manipulative, you use your emotion (if it's intentional, i.e. if you're in control of your emotions) to get your auditor to do what you want. Crying however tends to make you the victim (no power) and to elicit sympathy for your position. "You're going to fire me! boo-hoo hoo".
I have been in a lot of personnel management meetings and I came to be contemptuous of people, overwhelmingly women, who cried when we were criticizing or disciplining them. I told my boss of the anger-crying dichotomy that I felt and he agreed. He told me later, after a meeting with an employee where she started crying, that he immediately told her "Don't cry."
The New Yorker does not answer its own question. I had the same question when I read the accounts of Hicks crying. She was not in control; her lack of control did necessitate a break in a formal proceeding, and my question was, "Why did she cry?" at the time that she did. She was being asked a general background question of her time at the Trump Org. "Your portfolio was hospitality, entertainment". That caused the dam to break. Wait, what? That caused the dam to break and caused a break in the court room? I haven't read of an answer to my own question. I turn it around in my mind. What if Hicks had lost her temper? Started shouting? People would have been flabbergasted. What is wrong with her?! There would have been no break. "Ms. Hicks, just answer the question and keep the invective to your self.", by Justice Merchan. But generally women don't respond with a loss of anger control. Boo-hoo hoo and they get a break.
