Stoicism

The word stoicism is a noun that means indifference to pleasure or pain. I stumbled upon this word during my reading on October 10th, 2018. The reading the word is found in is, “If Black Men Want To Heal Racism Wounds, We Can’t Pretend To Be Strong All The Time” by Michael Denzel Smith. On page 99 of the text it states, “While black women are expected to be strong enough to shoulder the emotional needs of the entire community, men inherit a sense of masculinity that teaches stoicism as a virtue”. I was not sure what the word meant when I stumbled upon it on the first paragraph of that page. I thought originally the word dealt with suppressing their emotions, men having to hide their emotions because following that sentence with the word in it discussed how men and boys walk around with rage inside built up. I assumed the word was dealing with built up emotion. I see now that the word means indifference to pleasure or pain because black boys and men lack a distinction from their masculinity causing them to behave a certain way towards pleasure or pain. Boys have internalized the pain they feel and are indifferent to it around them, sometimes not knowing the difference. I understand the word better after looking up the definition on Merriam-Webster because it explains more why boys are gravitated towards stoicism as a virtue in regards to their masculinity.