Females are often viewed as being expressive of their emotions as opposed to men (Karaffa, 2012; Sanchez, Bocklandt & Vilain, 2013). This belief has been supported by numerous gender studies. According to Nina Vaswani (2011), gender role are behaviours and attitudes that men and women acquire from culture in which they influence how men and women should act. Gender role theorist, posit that male gender socialization affects men’s willingness and/or ability to seek help for problem. Four main components of gender role conflict have been identified by research (Mansfield et al, 2005 as cited by Vaswani, 2011) that describes the barrier to help seeking. The researchers identified: an orientation to success, power and competition, restrictive emotionality …show more content…
Two main theme were identified by the authors as barriers in the literature about men seeking professional psychological help: psychological (cognitive, emotional), or contextual (health-service related and socio-demographic). They identified eight psychological barriers most prevalent among the 41 papers were identified, namely (1) ‘restricted emotional expression’—men’s tendency to guard vulnerability or to hold negative attitudes towards expressing emotion, (2) ‘need for independence and control’ –traits men often see as being central to their masculinity, (3) ‘gender role conflict’—distress caused by behavior contrary to gender roles, (4) ‘embarrassment’—related to seeking help, (5) ‘anxiety, fear and distress’—related to using services for help medically or psychologically, (6) ‘viewing symptoms as minor or insignificant’—belief that symptoms might go away, or that they could be controlled without help, (7) ‘negative attitudes towards psychological help seeking’—the more men ascribed to traditional masculine gender roles, the more they were opposed to seeking help, (8) ‘lack of knowledge about symptoms, treatment, and services’—men were unfamiliar with what would be considered a significant symptom, and which service to attend. They stated that four contextual barriers most prevalent in the 16 literature were identified, as: (1) ‘poor communication with health professionals’, (2) ‘lack of time to monitor one’s health and to arrange for medical appointments’, (3) ‘the cost of medical services’, (4) ‘socio-demographic factors’—such as ‘low educational status’, ‘never married status’ (Yousaf et al., 2013). These findings support the hypothesis that men who strictly follow masculine gender norms, are less likely to seek help for psychological concerns than are those
This type of message reinforces the idea that men should not express vulnerability or seek help when they need it. While it is important to recognize the impact that societal expectations of masculinity can have on men's mental health, it's also important to acknowledge that not all men feel this pressure to conform. Some men may feel comfortable expressing their emotions and seeking help when they need it and may not feel the same societal pressures to conform to traditional norms of masculinity. Still, it is important to recognize that these societal expectations can have a serious impact on men's mental health. By promoting more positive and healthy models of masculinity, we can help break down the barriers that prevent men from seeking the support they need.
In this article, the journalist Julie Scelfo discusses the causes, symptoms and consequences of under-diagnosed male depression. The author starts by assessing that from the millions of Americans who suffer from depression, very few men seek help. Indeed, men tend to not take care of themselves and therefore often fail to recognize depression symptoms. Another important factor is that many men won’t admit their struggle, seeing the illness and its acceptation as weakness. Influenced by social norms or ideals by which successful men should be positive and in control, some even prefer to kill themselves than to admit they need help.
Racism is a prevalent theme in the book "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett. Set in the early 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi, the story follows the lives of black maids working in white households and the relationships they form with the young white privileged women they work for. These women have dedicated their lives to raising white children and caring for their households. Despite their hard work and dedication, they are treated unfairly and with disrespect because of the color of their skin. The maids are paid less than their white counterparts and are not allowed to use the same facilities as them.
In the book “You May Ask Yourself”, they define gender roles as “sets of behavioral norms assumed to accompany one’s status as male or female” (Conley Dalton). Gender roles are a very controversial matter. When people think of males, they automatically think of strong, brave, and the breadwinner. On the other hand, when people think of females they think delicate, housewife, and sensitive. I guarantee that most people in the world have this idea of each gender.
This is socially harmful, damaging an individual's life and pushing a negative attitude towards gender. This verifies the author's main message that gender roles influence a person's view of
Rita M. Gross, an American Buddhist feminist, writes in her article, published in the Cross Currents magazine, “What Went Wrong? Feminism and Freedom from the Gender Roles”, “Instead of freedom from the prison of gender roles, we have gained freedom from both the virtues and the defects of the female gender role while we-both woman and men as well as the entire culture-have become ever more enamored of the male gender role (Gross 9)”. Gross expresses females have leveled their equality by disproving females being associated with weakness, females have revealed they are strong enough to do what men can. These actions then reveal there are faults in the female gender role. However, the same has not been reciprocated on the male side, so both men and women are redirected into following the masculine role.
More often than not, society compels us to behave like genders we are not. For instance, when faced with challenges like finance, family issues and education, women are expected to be exceptionally strong. Likewise, when men are confronted with sensitive issues they are not expected to openly show their emotions like women. Some jobs description requires female
Debra Tannen wrote, “When a girl told a friend about a problem, the friend responded by asking probing question and expressing agreement and understanding” (404). Women have a support group when talking amongst themselves, but men have the exact opposite disposition. “Boys dismissed each other’s problems,” wrote Debra Tannen (404). Men downplay the severity of other people’s problems when communicating. A woman talking to an inexperienced man may get rather mad because the woman expects support from the man, who much to his chagrin, may dismiss the woman’s problems.
Summary Researchers found that discussions of masculinity impact men’s ability to seek, give, and receive emotional support. The men that the information was gathered from concluded that they found it difficult to seek help. In other words they believe they cannot or should not go to others for help. Young men from the ages of 21 to 36 are affected most by this accusation because they are actually aware of the role that society perceives on men. Masculinity is a barrier that affected peer, romantic, and family relationships.
“When the men saw a doctor, they minimized their symptoms--when their doctor was male. The men were more honest with a female doctor, most likely because they felt less pressure to appear tough.” (Morin par. 3). Many men in today 's society may not have the skills to talk to someone about their emotions Researchers believe that this traditional stereotype may be one of the reasons men tend to die five years earlier than women.
Masculinity is slowing killing men; with all the pressure and expectations that man have to be a certain image, this can cause many negative effects which can lead to many dangerous and serious situations. Due to all these expectations many bad habits can form such as alcoholism, violence and workaholism. This peer pressure can cause men to have depression or engage in many risky activities that will effect there life in many negative ways, such as injuring themselves. In the article it states that “little boys are, in fact, slightly more sensitive and expressive than little girls” (Kali Holloway). Even though
Dustiny Cyr (Belaski) Mrs. Merrick AP Language and Composition; Period 3 9 May 2016 AP Final: Essay Directions: TYPE OR PASTE YOUR ESSAY HERE Chosen Essay Prompt: Examine a popular movie in terms of gender roles, and write about it. In what ways do the characters reflect conventional roles, and in what ways do they step out of those roles?
Children and young adults are identifying with gender roles at a young age due to mass media. Children develop within a society that is gender-specific when it comes to social and behavioral norms. These come from the family’s structure, how they play with others and by themselves, and school. Girls were expected to be more passive while boys were to be more aggressive and expressive with masculine behaviors. “Before the age of three, children can differentiate toys typically used by boys or girls and begin to play with children of their own gender in activities identified with that gender.
Gender roles are a social construct that cultures depend on in order to differentiate between males and females in society. Females are more obviously negatively affected by these gender roles. Susan Bordo examines how these roles have an effect on notions of control as well as mental disorders such as Hysteria, Agoraphobia, and Anorexia. Bordo states that a person’s body works as a ‘medium of culture’ in that “the bodies of disordered women offer themselves as an aggressively graphic text for the interpreter” (Bordo 2017: 80). These women show with their bodies, sometimes unconsciously, what words cannot.
This article, “Gender Development Research in Sex Roles: Historical Trends and Future Directions” was written in a 2011 on NCBI, which points towards how the gender roles are different and how the society views them. This text includes the study of gender development, sex roles and trends over the past 35 years. Today gender roles, especially in the United States, are different from what they were in the past. But there are still many differences in roles of sex in many places around the world where women are considered less than men. They are not allowed to go out without a man going along.