Countless human beings build bonds with other individuals throughout their lifetime. Once the bonds are broken as a result of death and dying, majority of the human beings will go through a period of mourning. There are multiple aspects that can contribute to the way an individual mourns the death of loved ones, however, gender plays a leading role in the human being’s reaction. I am going to show this by examining the natural stimuli, historic stimuli and social stimuli. In my opinion I feel that the way in which human beings mourn is most times unique to that individual and should not be compared to anyone else’s. In view of that, no human being should be judged by another individual’s personal experiences (Kahane 49). Many individuals mourn in different ways and this is heavily related to the gender of the individual. Gender is very influential on an individual’s awareness of mourning, knowledge of mourning and the individual’s display of mourning. For that reason, males and females most times do not require the same needs during their period of mourning because their reaction to the loss of their loved ones vary (Huang 4-29). The difference in males and females mourning is influenced by numerous natural stimuli, historic stimuli and social stimuli and I believe that if both genders are more knowledgeable of the other gender’s requirements, desires and expectations they would be more helpful to each other during their mourning periods. Furthermost, males and females both have some masculine and feminine traits which does not provide a clear contrast between males and females. This is because masculinity and femininity should not be the main focus but rather what impact these traits have on both gender’s knowledge of mourning and the impact on the people around them. Moreover, everyone whether male or female experience the death of a loved one sometime in their life which proves that males and females are equal. This means that gender does not influence mourning because everyone mourns. Instead, gender influences how individuals mourn and react to the death of loved ones. The force of mourning can be extremely powerful as males and females perform, ponder, express themselves and feel in a different way with minimal knowledge of what the other gender requires (Huang 4-29). The influence that gender has on the way an individual mourns brings to light the nurture versus nature debate, which is always examined when gender is of concern. Most times females are associated with more nurturing roles, whereas males are associated with toughness. These associations play some part in an individual’s outlook and knowledge regarding mourning. It has also been distinguished that all individuals are naturally destined to mourn differently because we are all unique and these association do not impact individual’s mourning. There have not been any real studies proving that nature versus nurture plays a predominant role in the way in which males and females mourn during the loss of a loved one (Schwab 258-265).
The authors explain that gender has an impact on how individuals mourn the loss of a baby due to pregnancy loss. They reject the notion that “Following the death of a baby, women are more likely to express their grief openly, while men tend to be much less expressive, frequently coping with their grief in a more stoical manner (Goldbach 461 – 467).” Nonetheless, it can be assumed when faced with mourning males are more strong and impassive unlike females who are more sensitive and nurturing during mourning. I feel that being able to appreciate the natural stimuli, historic stimuli and social stimuli behind how different genders mourns provides a better understanding of the topic as a whole. It is evident that there are some essential natural dissimilarities between males and females that accompany the way that the genders express and perceive emotions. The structure of male’s and female’s brains vary which can cause the different genders to express themselves differently by using diverse language. Additionally, part of the human brain focuses on dealing with the individual’s thoughts while the other side of the brain focuses on dealing with the individual’s emotions (Kahane 49).
There have been recent findings from studies that have been carried out regarding the MRI scans of males versus females. The scans have provided information showing that multiple males have less neural connectors between the two hemispheres of the brain which indicate that males have a higher chance of struggling with vocally conveying their emotions. On the other hand, scans that have been taken of females show that numerous females have a larger number of connectors between the two hemispheres of the brain which indicated that females are less likely to struggle with the vocal conveying of their emotions. The dissimilarities in the male and female brain structure show that males in general discover and converse about their emotions through reasoning. While, females in general will require some form of communication with others regarding their emotions. After examining the gender’s brain structure and forming a perspective on how they both deal with emotions it is evident that males and female’s brains speak different languages (Kahane 49).
The communication styles of males versus females are not similar and can sometimes be misunderstood by the opposite gender. Males are misjudged for having heartless and solitude communication styles, whereas, females are often misjudged for having over-the-top and unreasonable communications styles (Irina 30-45). Developing a clearer understanding of the natural stimuli of males and females during their mourning period will provide a better indebtedness for the opposite gender’s differences. Natural Stimuli dissimilarities also have an effect on which gender experiences the most crying. Once males commence the puberty stage the hormone that produces tears decreased drastically which results in males crying less than females. Although males do not cry as much as feel females does not mean that they do not feel the same pain when they lose a loved one. Males may instead portray their emotions in a different way other than shedding tears, such as, spending more time alone, engaging in activities to take their mind off the loss or being more irritable than normal.
Males are stereotypically given the role of looking out for other’s well-being and ensuring that their loved ones physical needs are met. This has given males two vital responsibilities when taking care of their families, being the protector of the family and being the provider for the family. Males do not want to feel inadequate or feel as if they have not taken care of their family, so to ensure that their roles are met males will often use the fight or flight mechanism (Irina 30-45). The fight or flight mechanism can be described as “the response of the sympathetic nervous system to a stressful event, preparing the body to fight or flee, associated with the adrenal secretion of epinephrine and characterized by increased heart rate, increased blood flow to the brain and muscles, raised sugar levels, sweaty palms and soles, dilated pupils, and erect hairs (Fight-or-Flight Response).” When males are placed in tough situations their hormones increase rapidly through their body which causes them to either act on the situation at hand or leave the situation. This shows that males are more likely to evaluate the situation before they retaliate. The fight or flight mechanism allows males to sieve through the situation and turn the mechanism off if needs to allow them to better focus on the situation at hand.
Baum discusses how males tend not to express their emotions when faced with a divorce and will instead distance themselves. The author suggests this by stating “Men tend to deny the feelings of loss inherent in divorce and to distance themselves from the feelings of sadness, pain, and sorrow inherent in the dissolution of marriage (Baum 37-50).” I feel that the same divorce, death, being fired and so on are all considered losses as there is something that the individual is losing. Additionally, it is evident that males believe that their main role during the time of mourning is to protect and provide for their loved ones. Consequently, males sometimes will put their own emotions aside to ensure that they are fulfilling their role as a protector.
In contrast, females are stereotypically given the role of taking care of the helpless individuals within the community, such as children, and the elderly who are both reliant on females to care for them when they are sick or unable to do so themselves. This has given females two vital responsibilities which is to nurture and care for their family. As a result, of these responsibilities females have essential biological responses during the mourning period of loved ones. When mourning arises females have a natural instinct to nurture others around them that are mourning. Females often display actions that prove that their openly willing to protect the helpless from any harm. This is shown by females forming, upholding and developing support groups that are focused on particular situations, such as, the loss of a child or domestic abuse. These support groups allow females to befriend other females that have been through the same traumas (Goldbach 461 – 467).
During the period of mourning, the way individuals deliberate, perform and the experience they have regarding death is a reflection of how the individuals were raised and the experiences they have had throughout life. Recent studies have shown that throughout males and females juvenile years the toys that they were given has a child reflects their roles. For instance, girls that played with dolls learned how to role play and nurture and care for their babies. This allowed little girls to reenact the nurturing and caring that their mother provided for them. Whereas, boys toys were focused on action and superheroes which allowed the boys to learn how to protect and look out for others. Furthermore, boys were discouraged from crying as this was considered soft and crying would not allow them to protect others. While, girls were shown comfort and attention when they cried which showed them how to be nurturing and caring (Schwab 258-265).
Many people have particular standards of social behaviors, such as, males showing emotion in a public area. Everyone cries from time to time but it is not considered manly for males to shed tears in public and instead should display those emotions in the privacy of their own home or whilst alone. Once a male experiences this dissatisfaction in public he will ensure that other males do not go through the same experience (Schwab 258-265). Females that share the same type of emotion during mourning as males do is most times considered to be playing hard. This is because it is natural instinct for females to show emotions as their role is to nurture and care.
In my opinion it is rather evident that gender plays a leading role in how an individual mourns the loss of a loved one. Although, it is evident that genders mourn differently it is significant to realize that there is no right or wrong way to mourn the loss of a love one. Moreover, each individual’s emotions during mourning is unique to them and should not be compared to the next person. However, it is clear that within each gender there will be similarities in regards to emotion whilst mourning the loss of a loved one.

Work Cited
Baum, Nehami. "The Male Way of Mourning Divorce: When, What, and How." Clinical Social Work Journal. 31.1 (2003): 37-50. Print.
"Fight-or-Flight Response." The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary. Houghton Mifflin Company. 10 Dec. 2014. .
Goldbach, Kristen R. C, Dana S. Dunn, Lori J. Toedter, and Judith N. Lasker. "The Effects of Gestational Age and Gender on Grief After Pregnancy Loss." American Journal of Orthopsychiatry. 61.3 (1991): 461-467. Print.
Huang, M.W. "Introduction Remembering Female Relatives: Mourning and Gender in Late Imperial China." Nan Nu. 15.1 (2013): 4-29. Print.
Kahane, Claire. "Gender and Patrimony: Mourning the Dead Father." Differences. 9.1 (1997): 49. Print.
Irina, A R. "Concepts of Family, Kin, and Gender Relations Through the Prism of Traditional Family Language Arts." Anthropology & Archeology of Eurasia. 38.4 (2000): 30-45. Print.
Schwab, Reiko. "Parental Mourning and Children's Behavior." Journal of Counseling & Development. 75.4 (1997): 258-265. Print.