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Male mental health campaigns: Empowerment or emasculation?

Giving voice to male suicideThis campaign continues the awareness-raising of a taboo topic by adapting the iconic Eighties song 'Boys Don't Cry' by The Cure.Their re-work includes specific new lyrics delivered by a mixed male choir and the title 'Boys Do Cry'.

Boys Do Cry, an Australian initiative for men's mental health, says that "in the last 12 months in Australia 2,384 men have taken their own lives. That's an average of seven men every day, making suicide the leading cause of death in Australian males aged 15-49."It's not just in Australia that there's a prevailing sense that men do not have access to the emotional support they need.

Male-targeted brands have been tackling the taboos of men's mental health and male suicide for some time now, with campaigns like Lynx's ongoing Men In Progress - which also questions the deep-rooted 'boys don't cry' concept.
Earlier this year, heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury (pictured), who has previously spoken out about his own battle with depression and suicidal thoughts, featured in this one-minute campaign for English charity CALM - Campaign Against Living Miserably.
Silent tollCALM says that 125 people in the UK commit suicide every week, 75% of them male. The footage is from a real fight Fury had against Deontay Wilder, with his opponent digitally removed.
Online therapy platform BetterHelp brought a touch of humour to the issue with this 2021 campaign, but the twist in the one-minute tale only goes to highlight the perceived lack of listening prevalent among men. 
What is at the root of men's mental distress? Does it exist as it is being portrayed?
Straw poll thoughts:

"I think that Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson has got a good point - men have lost their sense of purpose"

 

 "When The Cure wrote 'Boys Don't Cry', they were challenging the status quo at the time and how boys / men should express their feelings. Thus, being associated with this new campaign makes perfect sense" "It's not that men don't know how to express their feelings - they don't know how to feel their feelings""I don't recall being told not to cry as a kid, it's just that boys have different behaviour patterns; nothing wrong with that"

Do some men, of whatever age, still take pride in 'not crying'?Can campaigns aiming to break the taboo come across as emasculating, for individuals and societies?


ENDS



Posted by Tree Elven on 29/12/2021

Keywords: Men's mental health, male suicide, CALM Tyson Fury, Boys Do Cry Australia, BetterHelp, support for depressed men

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