The Stigma Around Male Mental Health
In 2018, males were 3.5 times more likely to take their own lives than women were. In 2020, not much has changed. Men are more likely to commit suicide however women are more likely to attempt suicide.
From the upbringing stage, males are conditioned to believe that any display of vulnerability is not a good sign. This continues into a toxic belief that is instilled through generations, which creates the cycle of producing patriarchal masculinity. The expression of vulnerable emotions is looked at as a gender specific role, the same way the expression of aggressive emotions is assigned to males. Being vulnerable is considered to be a part of the female genetic make-up hence why males are taught to repress softer emotions from a very young age.
Toxic and damaging phrases like ‘man up’ and many others contribute to escalating the traditional masculinity standards put into place by patriarchy, asking a male to ‘be a man’ or ‘man up’ when they consider it safe to be opening up about something or becoming vocal about certain things they feel need to be talked about is equivalent to not acknowledging the issue at hand and taking away what they assumed to be a potential safe space.
In the current media landscape, we observe more men take on roles that are considered to be assigned to females. There is a larger amount of male make-up artists and chefs nowadays in comparison to the population of males in such professions in the past. There’s progress made with improved mindsets and efforts to condition the younger and future generations to get rid of traditional masculinity however to fully eradicate it is a different matter on its own.
Teaching boys to repress their emotions creates men who find other ways to relieve themselves of everything they are basically told not to speak of, some may put that energy into positive activities like certain sports while others may take this up violently. Abusive fathers stem from being abused as children, whether that’s physical, emotional or verbal. While unlearning or re-evaluating one’s upbringing is a personal responsibility, recognizing trauma is too; however this is much more difficult when the acceptance of the fact that the trauma came from a caregiver or guardian and has therefore been masked as love which then develops as a way the individual shows affection in their future relationships and families.
While the repression of male vulnerability is evident in all cultures and forms of upbringing, change takes place individually depending on how open a family or individual may be to embrace it. The media plays an active role in pushing and demolishing stereotypes; as mentioned earlier, with male public figures in fields considered to be dominated by females it helps for young minds to witness these strides being made.
With much more attention to mental health in general, the world is slowly getting rid of the stigma around mental health. There is more recognition towards male mental health in the media, people are more likely to call out the material that tends to push the ‘tough male figure’ stereotype more than ever. However, even though there’s more than ever being done it can’t be considered anything close to enough in terms of de-stigmatizing years and years of normalized stereotyping.
