Men's Mental Health: A Continuing Taboo
In today’s society the ever changing concept of masculinity is beginning to expose men’s individual struggles with their masculinity and how even they themselves are unsure what they should be doing to “please society”. I recently watched the film Tough Guise 2 and read two Op-Eds, “The Boys are Not All Right” by Michael Ian Black and “Not Your Father’s Masculinity” by Matt Labash. Each discusses the toxicity that comes with masculinity and how society never seems to be pleased with male efforts to break masculine tradition. This feeling of confusion often leads to serious mental health struggles. And as the domino effect continues, men often act out in violence as a coping mechanism instead of getting the professional help they need.
This idea of men not being able to seek help for mental health issues and properly discuss their feelings is one that stuck with me much after watching the film and reading the articles. Each piece discusses how men avoid talking about pressing issues because that comes with the risk of being emasculated or being seen as weak. We see men continuing to break out of the textbook definition of masculinity and the phenomenon has even been described by traditionalists as the “Wussification of America”. However one thing I feel as though hasn’t changed is resources and encouragement provided to men so they can process any changes in their identity or any pressing issues facing them. In “The Boys are Not All Right”, Michael Ian Black discusses how women are better equipped to overcome obstacles especially with their mental health because they’ve had societal movements backing them for years. Men have never been given the societal support needed to deal with pressing mental health issues. They have simply been told that they were already strong, mentally and physically, and if they weren’t they weren’t a “manly man”.
If men continue to bottle up their emotions and their feelings about the societal pressures placed upon them, many will continue to act out in violent ways because they don’t know any other option to cope. Tough Guise 2 discusses how the vast majority of mass shootings are committed by men and oftentimes the shooters reasoning behind their actions is a build up of mental burdens and threats to their masculinity that they could not handle anymore.
In today’s society we have the power to break tradition more than ever before and with that I believe not only should gender roles, fashion and other forms of gender expression be more fluid, but also men’s ability to express themselves. In his article Black leaves us with a profound thought, “language that exists to discuss the full range of human emotion is still viewed as sensitive and feminine.” As a society we need to provide men with not only the resources but the encouragement and support they need as societal pressures fall on them. We need to promote that the act of expressing one’s feelings is not to be equated with weakness. We can save our beloved fathers, brothers, peers and more from a deterioration that nobody deserves to undergo.
Great ideas Anna! This piece is very telling and really sad our society is like this today.
ReplyDeleteI really liked hearing your ideas and opinions on this topic and I totally agree with all of them. I think society needs to change when it comes to masculinity. I loved your title too, it really caught my eye!
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