Emma Brown’s “To Raise A Boy” is sympathetic to boys who face the pressures of society in becoming a man. This excerpt discusses how we all play a part in making them feel like they should live up to a certain identity, whether or not we realize it.
The term for this is “Man Box”, which represents the behaviors we believe men should exemplify. For instance, they learn to act a specific way based on traditional expectations of what we believe masculinity should look like and it begins in childhood. Should men “man up” or should we be more empathetic to them?
In addition, guys who “live inside this Man Box” versus those who don’t are most likely to:
- Report symptoms of depression (according to a 2017 survey by the international nonprofit Promundo)
- Binge-drink
- Say that they’d thought about killing themselves within the previous two weeks (twice as likely)
- Get into traffic accidents (two or three times as likely)
- say that they had been the victims of physical bullying (four times as likely)
- say they had physically bullied someone else (six times as likely)
Also, Holly Shakya, an associate professor and public health researcher at the University of California, says, “…It’s also really important to talk about masculinity in terms of what it does to limit men and boys.” Next, we often hear more in society about how toxic masculinity negatively affects women than men and what it does to them. When will this change?
However, the “Man Box” also affects boys’ and men’s physical health as much as it affects their mental health. This became very clear during the Covid-19 pandemic. In society, men with sexist beliefs were less likely to wear masks or take precautions against the virus and more likely to report being sick with the virus. Because all of the pressure they are facing pushes them toward negative behavior and further away from seeking help, experts believe the “Man Box” literally puts men’s lives at risk.
Furthermore, compared to women in the United States, men are more likely to:
- Be victims of violent crime
- die from heart disease, cancer, and 10 of the other 13 leading causes of death
- Kill themselves (four times more likely)
- Be killed by someone else (four times more likely)
- Die earlier (their life expectancy is five years shorter)
Furthermore, according to different studies, boys who portrayed more stereotypically “masculine” behaviors as teenagers are more likely to:
- Report depressive symptoms in adulthood
- Smoke
- Drink
- Use drugs
Moreover, those who believe they must be self-reliant are most likely to:
- Struggle with mental health
- Have sex with lots of women
- Exercise power of women
In conclusion, in “To Raise A Boy”, Emma Brown goes into depth about the negative effects of toxic masculinity on boys and men in society. She speaks on the truth that everyone else has been shying away from. Whether or not we are conscious of it, we all help build the “Man Box” that only suffocates the true, healthy characteristics that all boys and men have the potential of living up to in society.
Check out the original article here!
Statistics for boys vs. girls learning difference
Brown, Emma. “The Pressure Men Face to Act like Men Is Literally Toxic.” The Daily Beast, The Daily Beast Company, 4 Apr. 2021