Masculinity is a hot topic these days, but it is also difficult to adequately define, leaving many people wondering — what is healthy masculinity?
Why Healthy Masculinity?
Understanding what healthy masculinitycanbe is important on both individual and societal levels. Men, across backgrounds, die more prematurely than women. Men, more so than women, also tend to struggle with maintaining meaningful friendships throughout their lives.
When youcombine life stress with less support, as well as less health-seeking behaviors (another trait more prevalent in males) you get a large portion of men who are less healthy than they ought to be. Toxic masculinity is the main culprit ensuring that men do not make the necessary adjustments to live healthier lives, often for fear of being perceived as feminine or weak.
What is Toxic Masculinity?
There are a lot ofdefinitions of toxic masculinityfloating around. This contributes to the confusion around the term — a concept that is in and of itself is complicated — and about how best to meaningfully confront it. In its simplest of terms, toxic masculinity is a system that reinforces male superiority and often uses intimidation, violence, and abuse to maintain that sense of power.
For example, women make up a little bit more than half of the world’s population, but in many countries (developedanddeveloping) women make less money than men while doing similar jobs. Sexism and toxic masculinity are what keep this wage gap in place despite evidence that, in similar positions, men and women achieve similar results.
Toxic masculinity keeps men in emotional prison, leaving them without the ability to gain deep knowledge of themselves or forge intimate relationships with others. It allows men to place less value on the “other,” to the point of dehumanization, treating those who are different as if they have less personal worth if they don’t fit into these inflexible models of accepted masculinity.
What Healthy Masculinity Looks Like
By contrast, healthy masculinity allows men to experience a fuller range of emotions and share their feelings with others. Itallows men to cry without shameand to experience deep love and affection, both socially and romantically.
Healthy masculinity also allows men to:
Healthy masculinity meansbeing honest with oneself about your own feelings, needs and desires. It also means treating all others with the kindness and respect that you deserve. Healthy masculinity means not using your size, strength, or power to get what you want from others.
No men are exempt from the insidious nature of toxic masculinity. In order to learn what healthy masculinity is and truly put it into daily practice, we must engage in a process of intentional self-growth and commitment to change. With that kind of focus, healthy masculinity is definitely possible. Healthy masculinity is better for men and the cultures they inhabit.
Our goal at Talkspace is to provide the most up-to-date, valuable, and objective information on mental health-related topics in order to help readers make informed decisions.
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