The problem with addressing men's mental health is that many who claim to advocate for it fail to realize that they perpetuate and reinforce the very culture th

The problem with addressing men's mental health is that many who claim to advocate for it fail to realize that they perpetuate and reinforce the very culture that causes men's mental health issues. They claim to care about the plight of men who are body shamed, but make small dick jokes, worship traditionally attractive male archetypes, and think it's funny when a pathetic, evil male character is either short, bald, or has a high-pitched voice. They claim to care about men lagging in education, but pay much more attention to the academic/professional fields that are "boy's clubs" and never talk about "girl's clubs" in the same way, even though nowadays women outnumber male college graduates 3 to 2. They claim to be all for sex positivity, but continually vilify male sexuality, to the point that men feel scared to express their desires and urges without being labeled a predator/sex pest/-cel adjacent. The reason men's mental health is so messed up nowadays is that people on all sides of the spectrum seem to implicitly reinforce a traditionally masculine winner takes all culture, where the confident, attractive and aggressive men reap all the rewards. Any reasonable heterosexual male isn't gonna look at this reality of modern culture and think "well, at least I know how to share my emotions properly", when they see the positive romantic attention lauded much more often on those embodying the more stoic, traditional male stereotypes. They'd much rather do whatever it takes to fit into that stereotype so they don't miss out when they're still young. And further, if they feel that no amount of effort will get them there, and they express that concern, they are offered no sympathy. I think this addresses a large part of the issue well: https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/08/31/radicalizing-the-romanceless/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/08/31/radicalizing-the-roman...