There's definitely a bit of a double standard here. I overhear comments like this fairly regularly. It's just normal and accepted behavior. (I wouldn't go as far as to say society generally has "deference to women's feelings", though.)
If you're a man go into public with a woman and get her to cry. Measure how long it takes until someone angrily asks you "what did you do".
[0] adult men also cry, but when they do so in public it is usually interpreted in radically different fashion...