Isn’t a male-friendly perspective the best approach to improving men’s mental health? Some thoughts on World Mental Health Day, 2023

Oct 10

World Mental Health Day was celebrated for the first time in 1992, by the World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH), a global mental health NGO. It was founded in 1948, around the same time as the UN and WHO, and from the outset made formal recommendations that the UN develop “adequate mental health programmes” and the WHO pay “adequate attention to mental health principles in their health programmes”? So how much do the UN and WHO paid adequate attention to mental health these days? In this article I will focus on a recent summit related to the UN.

One of the branches of the UN, UN Women, describe themselves as “the global champion for gender equality”. Some readers will remember the launch of their #HeForShe campaign in 2014 by UN Women Global Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson. This year’s HeForShe summit included a section called ‘Disrupting the narrative on men and boys’, on the topic of masculinity and culture, where men’s wellbeing and mental health came up several times.

The panel included Michelle Terry, CEO of mental health charity Movembe r, author Richard Reeves and three others. As would be expected from a feminist organisation like UN Women, men’s issues were framed from a feminist perspective. For example, Richard Reeves stated that: “As a lifelong ardent feminist, I have decided to create an institute focused on the problems of boys and men… we have to make boys and men feel that gender equality, gender equity and feminism are also things that are for them”. Michelle Terry noted near the end of the panel discussion: “I hope if there is one thing that you take away from this discussion, is that – I think all of us [gestures to audience] are feminists, all of us want a better world – it’s the importance of recognising and rethinking and investing in the importance of men’s health, because we know that healthier men lead to healthier societies and ultimately a better world, and ultimately a world that will support equality for women”.

“it is very possible to say a lot of the right words, and even get most of what you do correct, but if you include toxic ideas about masculinity in your intervention, then you are giving thirsty men a poisoned chalice."

Some of what was said made a lot of sense. For example, Michelle Terry suggested “we have to think about [suicide] in a gendered way in order to address the problem”. This is a good suggestion, because most suicides are male, and the experiences that lead to a male suicide may well be different to those of female suicides. So far so good, but she continues “…we need to think about how we can affect behaviours, systems and norms”. Hmmm. What exactly is meant by ‘norms’? The Movember website gives examples, such as the campaign to “raise awareness about male mental health and suicide, while challenging harmful masculine norms and encouraging help-seeking”. So “norms” in this context refers to the very common idea that masculine norms are harmful to mental health because, for example, norms tell men it is a sign of weakness to seek help.

Let’s think about this for a moment: if you go through life refusing to seek help for any of your problems, you will have a tough time and it might all become too much for you to get through alone. However the idea that masculinity is bad for mental health has been shown to be hugely exaggerated, not only overlooking benefits of masculinity to mental health, but overlooking other factors that are far more obviously related to men’s mental health and suicide. One example is the legal issues related to family breakdown which prevent men from seeing their children, and it is probably not a coincidence that one of the groups most at risk of suicide is recently separated middle-aged men.

It was great to see men’s issues discussed in the UN, but it reminds me of what happened to a UK government inquiry into the mental health of men and boys. The inquiry was led by the Women & Equalities Committee, and taken at face value, the Chair of the Committee’s suggestions looked sensible, for example, having a men’s health strategy, and to make available therapy orientated to males. Indeed four of the five suggestions were great, but the fifth suggestion undermined all of the others: the government should initiate campaigns to “stop negative masculine stereotypes” which prevent men from seeking mental health support. This suggestion reveals the common misconception about masculinity and mental health, and including this toxic idea within a men’s health strategy, or including it within therapy for men, would undermine men’s healthy sense of themselves, even if other elements of the interventions were beneficial. The lesson here is that it is very possible to say a lot of the right words, and even get most of what you do correct, but if you include toxic ideas about masculinity in your intervention, then you are giving thirsty men a poisoned chalice.

But to be fair, anyone who is familiar with the Twitter feed of UN Women, it’s remarkable that they would put on an event to help men and boys in the first place. So what was their motivation? The quiet part was probably said out loud when Christine Emba, the editor of the Washington Post, decried the findings of a recent survey (described by me here). This was a survey of 22,208 adults in 32 countries published by the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership on International Women’s Day, and it was found that on average across all countries and age groups, 48% of participants agreed ‘somewhat’ or ‘strongly’ that ‘We have gone so far in promoting women's equality that we are discriminating against men’. Perhaps the realisation that feminism was perceived by so many people as discriminating against men was the thing that inspired this HeForShe panel discussion. And who could blame them for not wanting to alienate so many people, who might include not only families of men struggling with mental health issues, but funders, sponsors, voters, politicians etc. But this begs the question: is a panel discussion that frames men’s problems in the context of a feminist view of the world the best way to find genuine solutions?

“But this begs the question: is a panel discussion that frames men’s problems in the context of a feminist view of the world the best way to find genuine solutions?”

The summit included other themes, but the overall message of the summit was “it is time to respectfully disrupt the patriarchal structures that impede gender equality”. Respectfully disrupting the patriarchy sounds a lot less violent than ‘smashing the patriarchy’, and maybe The Patriarchy should be thankful for any small signs of mercy. But maybe it’s time for UN Women to disrupt the feminist structures the replicate the stereotypes of women as the eternal victims and men as the eternal oppressors. After all, how do they think these stereotypes impact people’s mental health? As a woman, being told you are a victim and that men are oppressing you could make you unhappy about men, resentful, and poison your relationships with men. As men, being told we are oppressors – which is gaslighting those countless men who feel they are protectors of women - is likely to negatively impact our mental wellbeing too. Indeed my recent research suggests a strong link between men having poor mental wellbeing and having negative views of how masculinity influences their behaviour.

Incidentally, what does ‘respectfully disrupt’ mean? According to HeForShe, it means making “action-oriented commitments” on “several crucial fronts”, including “toxic models of masculinities that oversimplify the image of men”. There is apparently no sense of irony that the image of masculinity often presented by UN Women is a toxic oversimplification (for example this).

But can we blame the UN for taking these negative views of men, masculinity and mental health? After all these views are so common that almost every organisation seems to have adopted them. For example, the WHO take a similar view (which I outline here), and even the World Federation for Mental Health – who are supposed to be helping the UN and WHO – appears to be infected with the same views. Although the World Federation for Mental Health doesn’t mention men’s mental health very much (which might be an issue in itself), regarding the higher suicide rate seen in men, a document from 2019 states this “is often explained by the more frequent help-seeking behaviour in females and the use of more violent methods in males”. Apart from the issue of misunderstanding the role of help-seeking, the use of the term ‘violent’ here seems unsympathetic, even victim-blaming, as if the cause of male suicide is that men are too violent, rather than related to other issues, such as family breakdown.

So if most of the major world organisations who are supposed to support mental health fail to do so – at least for men - is it unreasonable to suggest that we are living through a global pandemic of blindness to the mental health needs of men? Whatever you think the answer is, we can say that the HeForShe panel this year was the first time men’s issues have been discussed at the UN – at least from a somewhat sympathetic perspective – and that is something to be celebrated. However I truly wish organisations and discussion panels were better informed about men’s mental health. For example, if only more people were to read the British Psychological Society guidance on therapy for men, the improvement could be phenomenal. Similarly, I would like to end this article by politely suggesting to the UN: if you are ever discussing this topic again, I would be delighted if you would invite me to speak.

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