In recent years, there have been numerous news items on toxic masculinity and its negative effect on men's health. Toxic masculinity, or traditional masculinity, involves suppressing emotions, hiding distress, putting on a mask of toughness and bravado, and resorting to violence and aggression as an indicator of leadership and power. Dominance and risk-taking are also central features of traditional masculinity. Yet, as it turn out, being the tough guy has negative consequences, not only for men's health, but for those around them (intimate partners and work colleagues and so on), and this includes a shorter lifespan (compared to women), a greater risk of violent crimes and altercations, and a greater risk of suicide (1).
However, there is value in feminist approaches to counselling with men. Counselling approaches for men trauma survivors, then, must be informed by re-definitions of masculinity and its harmful legacies. Trauma and its legacies must also be confronted. New belief systems about masculinity need to be created. Gender politics also play a powerful role in the psychological and social development of our identities as gendered people. In particular, men are often socialized to “suppress their abilities necessary for coping with trauma” (2); they internalize harmful ideologies, thinking that they must be tough, fearless, and deny vulnerabilities. Men are taught to be strong and cool, and to feel guilt and shame about their feelings. Frosh (3) agrees, that for men “the body is repressed in conventional masculinity.” As well, current notions of masculinity concerned with separateness, self-sufficiency and self- as well as other-control, are no longer sustainable”(3); it is a fantasy that everything can be controlled (3). Consequently, male survivors of trauma are not only a risk to themselves, in the form of self-destructive behaviors, but also to those around them”(2).
With this insight, there is clearly a need for society to redefine masculinity and to work toward instilling hope, resilience, and transcendence; only then can the trauma work with men truly begin. As well, the risk to clients, especially men surviving trauma, will be that they do not get the help they deserve and that they continue to suffer in silence. As that which needs healing somehow rises to the surface, this pain can also erupt within and disrupt relationships with family, friends, and co-workers. Ultimately then, the pain only ripples deeper.

References
1. Emamzadeh, A. (2019, March 19). New findings on toxic masculinity: The relationship between masculine norms, gender roles, and well-being is examined. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/finding-new-home/201903/new-findings-toxic-masculinity
2. Mejía, X. E. (2005). Gender matters: Working with adult male survivors of trauma. Journal of counseling & development, 83(1), 29-40.
3. Frosh, S. (1997). Screaming under the bridge: Masculinity, rationality and psychotherapy. In: J. Ussher (Ed.). Body talk: The material and discursive regulation of sexuality, madness and reproduction. (pp.70-84). London, UK: Routledge.
Image: Stock Photo (Chris Herzog)
Comentarios