http://the-talks.com/interview/alicia-keys/

A lot of times when people talk about empowering women, they often use male-associated attributes, whereas crying is typically seen as a sign of weakness. Right. Our boys and our young men can never be expressive. If they cry they hear, “Why you acting soft?” Once you express yourself, you’re in that vulnerable state, you’re growing. You’re learning, and you’re able to become stronger because you’re saying, “Okay, here’s who I am, here’s what I feel, here’s who I want to be, here’s what I want to let go of.” But if you never get a change to express it or feel it, or go through it, you can never get to the next place! So I personally feel that I’ve learned that. And it’s so empowering; it really is! I’ve kept myself down in the past, I’ve kept myself from growing by not allowing myself to just be vulnerable. When you entered the music industry you were only a teen, so I can imagine you’ve learned a lot since then. It was a natural progression for me, and I think it’s a natural progression for all of us, but when I first started in the world of music it was such a shock and such a different world. In a lot of ways I started to think that I had to be perfect and look perfect and sound perfect and say the perfect phrase.