Friday 14 March 2014

Is macho culture causing young men to take their own lives?

Honestly, I always believe in Gender-differences. Even though I'm not sexist. In my point of view, the actual meaning of gender-differences refers to the view that men and women have the right to express their feelings, in  a different way. However, our society seems to discriminate against gender roles differ widely between different cultures. When I was reading this article, I tried to compare this situation with Thai culture. I still get the question-Is it true for calling a man who never cry as a strong man?

According to the article, our society seems to be suggesting how a man should act as a man., a man are normally expected to make a lot of money for family, moreover in dictionaries define masculinity with phrases like toughness or robustness. This situation happened with Jonny Benjamin who couldn't find the words to communicated his state of mind for asking for help, in 2008, Jonny Benjamin-considered killing himself, because he had just been diagnosed with schizophrenia and felt he had been dealt a life sentence, so he decided to take his own life, he was on the ledge of the bridge until a stranger stopped him and talked to him, six years later he works as a  mental health campaigner and decided to try to track down the man who saved his life and finally he found him.

Personally, as a person who love psychology, and actually enjoy listening to other people. I found out that sometimes it's not easy to find the right words to talk about our feelings, not only you are supposed to deeply understand yourself , your feelings, your desires, who exactly you are but also you have to built your courage and take action and describe your feelings out loud, which actually help your fears and anxieties. Regarding life experience, I have different types of relationship with guys who love sharing their feelings with me. I totally admire their strength for talking about all of their states of mind which sometimes embarrassing and frequently secretly.

A gender role is a theoretical construct in the social sciences and humanities that refers to a set of behavioral norms. Socially accepted a male gender roles as a spearhead, that means they are not expected to express their emotions. Therefore, crying in public or talking about their fears are completely unacceptable in some cultures, including Thai culture, but you actually think crying is a symbol of weakness? How many men in this world are going to take their own lives when they are struggling in despair and feel ashamed of other people might think they're weak. I think this world has changed, especially gender inequality, I'm positive that a man is strong when they can express their feelings and it's necessary to have someone who can truly listen to them without judging.



Reference

Viewpoint: Is macho culture causing young men to take their own lives?. (2014, March 13). BBC News Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26543095

6 comments:

  1. I agree with you. Crying is not show people weakness, it is show how brave that people can be, brave to show their feeling. For example, crying in public in front of many people surround, that people must strong enough to cry out. Men who never show their feeling, I think this is pretty bad, we can not know what is that person thinks about. Expressing your feeling out can help you relax. I also agree that man need someone listen to him when he is worry or has something hard in his mind. Communicate with other might help him be better and more comfortable, but keep in your mind, secret is secret, man does not like when his secret go everywhere by mouth to mouth. As I meet in daily life, most of men are too shy! But if you disagree with this, I have support idea. Like one of my friend, he can do crazy things in public, like do something that cause attention to him ( normally my friends who do like this are handsome enough), but could you believe that he is very shy! He talk to me privately about his secrets, though I can not trust what I just heard! It very contrast with what I always see! Thus, do not judge man because what he do, sometime he has feeling in different ways.

    Thai culture must changed. Men do not have to be strong anymore, or be head of family. Thai culture should give a chance for men to be what they want. As one of my friend has said that "woman has hand has foot, why I can't insult in turn?"


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  2. I agree with you and Get that man can also express their feelings. Anyone can have a sensitive moment. I think most of man not showing their emotion because they care about what others will think. However, I think when you have unsolved problems, you shouldn't keep them inside. It is better to express or tell your feeling to someone because after you have express your feeling, you will feel better or more relief. Also, you may pop up with the solution of your problems. For me, crying is not a symbol of weakness, but it is a way to release the pain. Therefore, you don't have to be ashamed to cry.

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  3. You've probably already noticed, but Yao's post, especially her fourth paragraph, contains ideas relevant to the opening pages of Law's "Carving the Roast Beast".

    It also includes ideas very relevant to the academic reading in Quest that we will be working with today.

    You might like to read Yao's post again, and if you haven't already, perhaps add a short comment, or a long comment, to report your responses.

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    Replies
    1. So, when Hartmann includes Hofstede's cultural dimension called Masculinity in the discussion and table on page 20 (2007), is their definition of masculinity the same as the definition in Yao's chosen article and discussion?

      Reference
      Hartmann, P. (2007). Quest 2 Reading and Writing (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

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  4. And in the first paragraph, doesn't "Even though I'm not sexist" remind you of Mrs. Wilson?

    But Yao's following supporting ideas might be a bit stronger than the ones that Gemma responds to at Christmas dinner.

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  5. I agree with you that it is not a bad thing for man to cry. The patriarchy society is socially constructed. In Japan, most women have culturally been forced to work at home as maids and they have little opportunities to work and get higher positions in their career paths. Perhaps we may not see this generally happened in other western countries?

    According to Peter's comment, I think this blog post is relevant to Law's chapter 13; the Christian norm to eat turkey in the X'mas day and the vegetarian norm that avoid all meats in order to eat. But if this statement is true (?), is it can be simply concluded that eating meat or not are just the norm? or it has some elements of virtue value in there, which this still makes me very confuse.

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