Male Stereotypes that Need to End with Our Generation

In honor of the end of suicide prevention month I thought we would talk a bit about toxic masculinity and the harm it has in men throughout their lives. First I wanted to talk about some statistics when it comes to men and suicide. The rate of suicide is highest in the middle aged white men. In 2019, men died by suicide 3.63 times as often as women. White males accounted for 69.38% of suicide deaths in 2019. Here are some gender stereotypes related to men that we need to say goodbye to.

-A man or boy being seen as weak or “less of a man” when he cries

   It is 2021 and this is still a problem! The more men feel good and comfortable about their feelings the more likely they will open up. Society has made it hard for men to feel like they can seek help, cry, or show their true emotions and sadly this leads to depression and a lot of times suicide. This needs to end with our generation. 

-Telling a man or boy to man up or toughen up

   This kind of ties into the first one, but this needs to go! This is the reason a lot of times men don’t think they can or should speak out about their feelings. A lot of times men think there is something wrong with them when they have certain emotions which is not true. Man or woman, boy or girl, we are all humans who have emotions.

-Expecting more from men and boys physically and mentally 

   From a young age a lot of men feel societal pressure to be strong both physically and mentally and to be a shoulder to lean on. The ones who keep going forward no matter what they are going through in life. 

-Expecting them to be the breadwinner winner or the main worker in the home

   From a young age society labels boys and men this way, which is not fair to them or the woman in the house. Although the times are different and we are seeing more dads out with their kids alone, or more stay at home dads than we did just a decade ago it is still seen as “different”. I hope that when our kids are older that they see these types of things they don’t stick out to them as much as they do today. 

-All men are sexist

   Although it might seem easy to put all men in this category, they aren’t all sexist. There are so many men out there fighting this battle of equality with us. I do believe there are men out there standing up for us outside of social media and in the real world