Rather than crying when feeling down, for instance, boys may act irritated or lash out. Or they may engage in risky, impulsive or even violent acts. Inward-directed terms like “sadness” and “hopelessness” miss those more typically male tendencies. And masculine norms that equate sadness with weakness may make males who are experiencing those emotions less willing to admit it, even on an anonymous survey

I think it’s less that men/boys are less willing to admit they’re sad/depressed, even on anonymous surveys, and more that they haven’t even realised they’re depressed yet. I’ve had several friends whose realisation that they’ve been depressed has come from talking to me about how they’re feeling and me saying, “it sounds like you’re depressed”. I think a lot of men simply don’t have the tools to be emotionally introspective and honest with themselves enough to come to terms with the fact that they’re depressed in the first place.

That’s not to say men trying to hide their emotions isn’t an issue as well - it definitely is. But I think a lot of men aren’t even getting to that point where they know what emotions they’re trying to hide. It’s less “I’m trying to hide the fact that I’m sad” and more “I don’t know what the fuck I’m feeling right now or how to process it and I’m not even going to bring it up because I don’t understand it (or maybe even know that it’s an issue in the first place)”.