I don’t understand the question

OP literally asked “what emotions are appropriate to show come about? How far back in western history does this idea of limiting men’s ability to emote honestly go”

That sounds a lot like stoicism to me.

Man, you need a full on historian for this, but I’ll try.

Iirc, the whole stoicism thing started in Ancient Greece, but there’s probably earlier instances of it. It waned and waxed throughout the centuries, growing stronger sometimes and growing weaker others. The current way of it is basically from the protestant way of thinking combined with various wars, like WW1. I seriously hope you go reading stuff outside of Lemmy, I haven’t studied this stuff in over a decade.

Now, for a non-western perspective, the east has a similar concept in Bhuddism, and it’s just as old as western stoicism.

Iirc, there was also some Indian tribe (Cherokee?) that also made a big deal of it. I can’t speak much on it.

For the record, stoicism is not about being a robot, it’s about being emotional stable. There’s a massive difference.

I dunno, sjw is a lot shorter than shit just works