#.017 › briefing . memes

[fearlessandchaotic]

LIKE THIS POST IF YOU WANT TO KEEP THE MUTUAL!      i’m gonna go through my followers and unfollow people I’m not interacting with~ (that counts as ooc too, if we aren’t ic interacting but talk ooc, don’t worry imma keep you)

[boyswithfeelingspodcast]

Men & Masculinities: “Awareness”

Preface: If you were to scroll through this blog, you would notice that the above image (or meme, as I would usually say) is the first image posted to this blog, with the caption “welcome.” This meme, shown to me by a close friend, I feel like encapsulates a lot of what I am interested in as well as my close friend Nicolás Cruz, who is the co-creator of this blog, along with myself (can I say that? I’ve never said that. Yeah! We are co-creators! Woo!). It speaks to the name of this blog/podcast/project, “Boys with Feelings,” and our personal and deep interests in emotion and masculinity (and how that impacts ourselves, our relationships with women, with men, with family, etc.). If you know all this already and are familiar with the blog, first off, thank you for being here and caring about our work! <3 <3 If you are a classmate in my Men & Masculinities course, for which I am writing this blog entry, thank you so much for being here as well and I hope this little preface is helpful when navigating the blog ☺ <3 If you have any questions, feel free to let me know in class, or leave a comment.

~

The purpose of this entry, to my understanding, is to bring you, the reader, some awareness as to what subject I am deeply passionate about in regard to men and masculinity. For myself, that is masculinity and emotion. I hope to do that here in an informative, fun, and accessible way. I will probably share stories along the way, as that does inform why this subject is important and relevant to me. Enjoy!

The topic of emotion and masculinity is important to me in a number of ways, but to start off, I want to focus specifically on why I think it matters when it comes to boys’ and men’s health and relationships. As someone considering to be a counselor or therapist for boys and men in the future, this is especially close to my heart. I do understand, however, that this focus is a little selfish, and I will say more about that after I go through the main pieces.

To me, there are three core concepts when considering emotion and masculinity: experiences, awareness, and expression. Everyone, regardless of gender identity, experiences emotions. However, because of the ways boys and men are socialized in our (Western) society, they learn to be aware and acknowledge limited emotions – primarily anger. Thus, men and boys’ expressions of emotions are limited as well: often verbal or nonverbal forms of aggression, which can escalate to violence; or a projected absence of emotion.

And though many boys and men might like to think otherwise, the ways we are aware of and express emotion do take a toll on our own personal health and relationships. They contribute to an increase in stress and anxiety, increased risk of the common cold and other illnesses (due to that increased stress), isolation from others, increased risk of depression, less help-seeking behaviors (especially for mental health concerns), higher alcohol consumption, and higher rates of suicide. To keep this whole entry brief, I will just list those out here for now, but there are articles at the end of this blog entry from which I gathered this information, so check those out if you like seeking information that way!

I am going to stop here for now, but I hope this wee bit of information helped in sparking some interest in this topic and shows you why I care about it so much and plan to continue exploring it! Thanks!

P.S. For transparency, a lot of the inspiration and language for my writing here comes from work I did last spring in a class called Psychology of Gender, which I highly recommend!

Word count: 433 (not including “Preface,” which is 208 words)

Works Cited:

Bazinet, C. G. (2015). Masculinities, gendered expression, and the social, emotional, and academic well-being of high school boys (Ph.D.). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I. (1688327278). Retrieved from http://login.proxy.seattleu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.seattleu.edu/docview/1688327278?accountid=28598

Kaplan, M. S., Huguet, N., Caetano, R., Giesbrecht, N., Kerr, W. C., & McFarland, B. H. (2016). Heavy alcohol use among suicide decedents relative to a nonsuicide comparison group: Gender-specific effects of economic contraction. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 40(7), 1501-1506. 10.1111/acer.13100 Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.seattleu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=psyh&AN=2016-32715-017&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Wasylkiw, L., & Clairo, J. (2018). Help seeking in men: When masculinity and self-compassion collide. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 19(2), 234-242. 10.1037/men0000086 Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.seattleu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=psyh&AN=2016-56902-001&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Way, N. (2013). Deep secrets: Boys' friendships and the crisis of connection Harvard University Press.

[fearlessandchaotic]

tags dump to fix the tags !

[fearlessandchaotic]

🤍

[fearlessandchaotic]

hana and i smooched you all. I’ve been taking a lil break and it’s been so.... nice?? im still reachable through di.sc.ord and i’m more inclined to make quick rps there, just hmu and i set up a server with a ridiculous name and we good to go babeh~ i’ll tackle my 20 something draft one day, don’t worry!

[fearlessandchaotic]

Like for a quick one-liner !

[fearlessandchaotic]

Send 👗 to find out what my muse would wear for yours on a date

[fearlessandchaotic]

tags dump !