Potential Causes for Toxic Masculinity Harming Mental Health
- “Boys don’t cry.” -- Men are not taught how to identify, describe, or seek help for mental health issues.
- Cause: men are taught that expressing emotions (particularly sadness, sensitivity, anxiety, etc.) is a feminine behavior, since men are expected to sort out their issues by themselves
- Effect: Men seek psychiatric help at lower rates than women do (source).
- Cause: Many symptoms of mental illnesses (lacking energy, feeling weak, hopelessness, etc.) do not align with the strong, invincible male stereotype.
- Effect: Men who experience these symptoms might not recognize them as signs of mental illness.
- Effect: Men worsen symptoms by denying their feelings, withdrawing from social interactions, or turning to alcohol or substance abuse, instead of seeking help from others or their doctor (source).
- Cause: men are taught that expressing emotions (particularly sadness, sensitivity, anxiety, etc.) is a feminine behavior, since men are expected to sort out their issues by themselves
- Although women attempt suicide more often, men are more successful.
- Cause: There is a prevalent stereotype that links manhood to the use of guns and other weapons, which could lead men to gravitate towards more fatal methods of suicide (source).
- Cause: Suicidal men might feel pressure to “make sure” they die by using lethal methods, out of fear that failing to successfully commit suicide would make them feel even more humiliated and emasculated (source).
- Effect: Men are more likely to use lethal methods of suicide (like firearms or hanging) than women are (source).
- Even compared to suicidal women who also use firearms, men are more likely to shoot themselves in the head, therefore decreasing the chance they survive (source).
- Middle age often comes with changes, such as divorce or job loss.
- Cause: Men feel pressure to be a “real man” by being successful, providing for their family, etc., so anything that jeopardizes this (such as losing a job or going bankrupt) threatens their masculine pride and mental health.
- Effect: Following divorce, unemployment, or a decrease in socioeconomic status, men are more likely than women to kill themselves (source).
- Becoming divorced or widowed leads to a higher risk of suicide in men than women because men lack a social support system outside of their partner and have no one to discuss their new feelings with (source).
- Becoming divorced or widowed leads to a higher risk of suicide in men than women because men lack a social support system outside of their partner and have no one to discuss their new feelings with (source).
- The job market no longer favors manual-labor, “masculine” jobs.
- Technology and machines have rendered many manual labor jobs obsolete.
- Cause: Manual labor jobs used to be a very common way for men to use physical strength in order to provide for their family. This established the expectation that men are strong and men are the breadwinner. Nowadays, men, especially men without college degrees, have fewer job prospects, which can make them feel like society does not value them.
- Effect: Men feel unable to prove their masculinity by providing for their family by having a job = poor mental health or substance use (source).
- Service-oriented jobs and human relations jobs are becoming more common.
- Cause: Men are not expected to talk about feelings or be emotional, so the skills required for these jobs (such as empathy, good listening skills, etc.) are primarily taught to women (source).
- Effect: Men, especially men of lower socioeconomic groups, feel devalued and unable to be successful in these jobs = pride and mental health suffer (source).
- Women are becoming more educated, so their roles in the family are changing.
- Cause: Since women used to not be able to work, own property, attend college, etc., men were expected to financially support their families. However, nowadays, women are actually more likely to earn a college degree than men are, and are getting many jobs that they previously couldn't (source).
- Effect: Men’s mental health could be negatively impacted by them feeling threatened or emasculated by their wives or other women succeeding (source).
- Racial demographics are changing.
- Technology and machines have rendered many manual labor jobs obsolete.
- Masculinity is changing, and middle-aged men do not know how to adapt.
- Cause: Middle-aged men today were raised to think that men must be silent, strong, and stoic. However, masculinity culture is slowly becoming more progressive and open (source).
- Effect: The most common age range for a victim is suicide is between 45 and 54 (source), since middle-aged men feel caught between two kinds of masculinity and are more susceptible to mental health issues and suicide (source).