The good news is that the strict binary between masculinity and femininity appears to be blurring. “There’s nothing wrong with being attracted to masc guys, but the problem comes when you’re completely shutting yourself off to any other possibility,” says John Ersing. “Research shows consistently that men who are more flexible in their gender roles tend to be healthier at nearly every level,” McDermott says. Gay and straight alike, men who are more flexible in their adherence to masculine norms - those who can step in and out of the box - can better handle their environment. It puts boys and men in this box that makes it very hard for them to get the help they need.” “But you cannot exist in a world where you’re always armored. “The important thing to remember is that masculinity is plural and situational - there’s more than one way men and boys enact masculinities in their daily lives,” says Powell, whose research focuses on the impact of gender norms and racism on black men. Stoicism, for instance, can serve service-members well on the battlefield, but creates a barrier in overcoming PTSD. But Wizdom Powell, director of the Health Disparities Institute and associate professor of psychiatry at The University of Connecticut, stresses that even traits associated with traditional masculinity can be beneficial depending on the social context. It may be tempting to dismiss all masculinities as bad. What conservative commentators failed to appreciate was that it was rigid and extreme forms of masculinity - rather than masculinity wholesale - that the APA had cautioned against. National Review’s David French called it a “full-frontal attack” on conservative values.īut Ryon McDermott, a professor of psychology at the University of South Alabama who helped draft the guidelines, says such criticisms missed the point, which was to help psychologists better treat men and boys. “Traditional masculinity seems to be, in this report at least, conflated with being a pig, or a creep, or a Harvey Weinstein kind of person,” intoned Fox News commentator Laura Ingraham. The guidelines prompted a fierce backlash from the right-wing media, which accused the APA of demonizing men.
In August of last year, the American Psychological Association released a document titled “ Guidelines for Psychological Practice with Men and Boys.” While the APA acknowledged that gender roles are largely socially constructed - science still knows very little about how biology affects gender - and masculine norms vary across cultures, “there is a particular constellation of standards that have held sway over large segments of the population, including: anti-femininity, achievement, eschewal of the appearance of weakness, and adventure, risk, and violence.” Thirteen years in the works, the document noted that rigid adherence to this traditional masculine ideology harms men’s mental and physical health, in part by discouraging them from expressing emotion and seeking treatment when they need it. The pressure to conform to male stereotypes doesn’t just harm gay men it’s bad for all men.
"It puts boys and men in this box that makes it very hard for them to get the help they need.”
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