Credit: iStock
On its own, masculinity is not a barrier to men’s mental health. Parameters culturally defined in what a man can be with orthodox masculinity portraying men to not show weakness, suffering, or pain however can be damaging and cause barriers for help.
Christian Ylagan is an instructor in the department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at Western University and provides an insight about the critical issues with hegemonic masculinity.
“These orthodox notions of masculinity prevent the ways that men are allowed to engage with their emotions, with their feelings, with their experiences with pain or weaknesses and these kinds of things. Men who internalize this kind of masculinity see depression and anxiety and these kinds of issues as somehow emasculating, and orthodox notions of masculinity prevent men from acknowledging the fact that these feelings, experiences, and emotions are part of a healthy human condition.”
Ylagan notes many men who do internalize and create an effort to align themselves with the narrow orthodox notion of masculinity end up creating additional barriers for Queer and BIPOC men in feeling invalid to ask for help.
“There is a very narrow notion of what is considered hegemonic masculinity, in the prime form of masculinity, and we already know that that’s the kind of masculinity that is white, cis-gender, heterosexual, middle/upper class. That kind of form of masculinity that has colonial roots is predominant or a hegemonic form of masculinity, where certain notions of orthodox masculinity are derived from. Given this hegemonic or orthodox masculinity in media and culture, a lot of people, including Queer and BIPOC men, internalize these notions and then find it difficult to broaden their conception of masculinity.”
An arrangement of multi-layer obstacles with intersectional racial, social, cultural aspects intertwined with masculinity intertwine factors against accessing help for mental health and further creates a stigma against accessing resources.
Credit: Prostock-studio
The problem of orthodox masculinity is not just a male problem. Collectively, everyone in a societal stance have perpetuated the stigma or conditions of orthodox masculinity.
“We have to examine our own prejudices about mental health among men. Do we also perpetuate some of these notions that men are invincible, that men don’t feel emotion, that men don’t feel depressed? When was the last time we asked our friends how they’re doing, or where are they at mentally during this difficult time?” expresses Ylagan in identifying help in the erasure of the stigma is to allow men to accept the fact they are not doing well, especially in pandemic times.
“A lot of the things that perhaps define masculinity in an orthodox way, like having employment and having money, those things are crumbling during the pandemic time. People might have lost their job or broken up with somebody, so awareness is one way we can erase the stigma and offering men a space without judgment to experience these particular emotions or experiences.”
With the pandemic creating an impact of things becoming less accessible, people have lost their feeling of stability or success and have only perpetuated how men acknowledge and work with their mental health.
“It’s a multi-layer problem in that sense, we’re not just looking at mental health in a vacuum, but there’s a societal aspect as well. Of which we are all part of. Everyone has implicated in some way in propagating certain ideas or notions or concepts about masculinity, and that feeds into the way that men engage with their own mental health issues. It’s not just a problem for or among men; it’s a problem for everyone that feels with men.”
Comments