I regularly find myself in floods of tears when watching Grey's Anatomy.
This reaction is not restricted to me alone, but to thousands of other female fans. Our boyfriends and husbands think we're daft to cry over something so fictitiously absurd, but what do they know? Emotional involvement is a given - it’s a show created by a woman for a predominantly female audience. We have no choice but to become entangled in the lives and loves of all the characters, regardless of how bizarre the story line.
Baring in mind that the female species is notoriously emotional, I can be found with tears in my eyes at various arbitrary moments: adverts involving three-legged cheetahs or security guards singing lullabies to their kids over the phone. Unfortunately this emotional state translates to blubbing at some very inopportune occasions. Anger too results in tears.
Nevertheless, I find myself incapable to cry when faced with actual stories involving real people. I am unable to cry when watching the horror story that we call the news. I am repulsed, revolted and sick to my stomach; I feel sympathy and empathy for the victims involved, but I cannot cry. I am not cold or desensitized or heartless, I am just terrified.
I’m terrified because I’m real, and if I cry for real people and actual events, it means that it could happen to me, and I don’t want to be the next news story.
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