The Australian Government’s Department of Health released its National Men’s Health Strategy 2020-2030, yet little evidence supports the strategy is effective in reducing men’s experience of stigma due to widespread hegemonic masculinity, writes Dr Anna Kiaos.
The Australian Government has recognised that men’s experience of stigma is a serious problem and very damaging to men’s mental health.
Evidence to support this view reflects the development of the National Men’s Health Strategy 2020-2030. The Strategy stipulated the introduction of three grant programs to reduce men’s experience of stigma, yet none of the programs specifically focus on challenging public perceptions about the stigma men face or are set to experience when they are unable to faithfully conform to their socialised gender role, combined with the negative impacts on them resulting from having internalised hegemonic masculine traits.
Hegemonic masculinity seems to be enacted by many men in Australian society. When cultural scripts are internalised during boy's formative years, scripts such as 'boys are tough', you know bigger problems are just around the corner when it comes to the state of their mental health.
Boys, of course, grow up to be men and when they internalise these cultural scripts for fear of missing out on the so-called utopian future of manhood, they may concurrently shut off various thoughts and emotions because they don't reflect alignment with the dominant role played by men in Australian society. Expression of thought or emotion that reflects vulnerability may represent gendered weakness.
While previous research suggests that expectations to conform to male socialised gender role norms decrease with age, and that peer tactility and a softening of gender codes is occurring in some parts of the world, new findings in Australia suggest urgent work is necessary to alleviate the symptoms of mental illness that accompany the experience of stigma because public perceptions pressure men to opt for the safe route of emotional inexpression.
For instance, vulnerable emotions experienced by men, such as grief, may be suppressed because Australian socio-cultural norms pressure men to keep their manhood intact. For some men, it isn’t considered safe to express their vulnerable thoughts and emotions, particularly publicly. Arguably, when men suppress the expression of their true felt emotions, that is, by internalising hegemonic masculine traits, some men often mistakenly make heavy claims against their true self. More problematically, for some men, this can leave their true self in an unconscious state.
In a recent study, I found that people’s perceptions about men’s experience of grief were at times unsympathetic, particularly by other men, however, surprisingly women also expressed similar views. I asked people to reflect upon a relatively common scenario in real life, whereby participants could identify with a character who represented a White professional male, who had lost his wife and was displaying signs of Complicated Grief, such as speaking with a flat tone as well as being abrupt, socially withdrawn, forgetful and struggling to meet deadlines.
Largely, the findings showed that both men and women expected Australian men to avoid stigma by fixing their grief. People expressed that when men ‘fix’ their grief, Australian society won’t express stigmatised views toward them.
Another finding showed that men should also ‘get over’ their grief ‘quickly’. Any delay in getting over grief would result in a lack of being perceived as ‘manly’. If men can’t action the above, they should suppress the expression of their grief. When men manage their vulnerable emotions by way of emotional inexpression, it concurrently alleviates discomfort in family members, friends and colleagues which is likely another reason why men opt for the safer route of inexpression.
Problematically, research has also showed that men may avoid or underuse mental health services because it is perceived as conflicting with the masculine socialised gender role. Socio-cultural dynamics in Australia obliges men to be strong, in control of their emotions, their problems and show they are capable of handling life stresses, particularly when at work to protect their careers and their view of themselves as successful men.
This is why the Australian Government must seriously address the experience of stigma for men resulting from Australia’s widespread hegemonic view of masculinity to help men engage with their vulnerable emotions in a way that is both healthy and suitable to them.
Public funds by way of Government grant programs should therefore focus on altering public perceptions of masculinity and the socialised male gender role in Australia, a role that men feel they have to play in order to avoid the experience of stigma.
This effort should also be extended to marginal or intersectional groups who might adopt masculine norms as a way to secure more power and privilege in Australian society. Because marginal cohorts increasingly reflect an upward trajectory on the power continuum, largely by way of increasing levels of education and professional status, mental health clinicians must be aware they may also observe similar patterns of emotional inexpressivity in these particular cohorts.
This is a significant challenge for the Australian Government, since masculine ideologies are implicit within institutionalised, hegemonic social structures that pervade every level of Australian society. Certainly, more research is urgently needed to explore optimal ways to encourage men to embark upon the emotional work of healing when in crisis. The goal is clear – government led initiatives must strive to a point in the future where masculine ideologies do not overpower the individual thoughts and actions of citizens in promoting positive mental health for young boys and men by way of healthy emotional expression.
In short, Australians place high expectations on men to adhere faithfully to their socialised gender role, even during experiences of grief. To avoid stigma, it seems at least for now that many Australian men would be best to follow society’s prescriptive means for managing their vulnerable emotions, but at what cost to men’s mental health?
Related resources available at www.unsw.edu.au/staff/anna-kiaos
Dr Anna Kiaos is the Discipline Manager for Psychiatry and Mental Health at the University of New South Wales.