Thank you PBS. On September 8th, The culture of masculinity and its negative impacts on men made its way into my feed. I watched it eagerly, and while not new to me, it was music to my ears. We must keep talking about how the rigid definition of masculinity is hurting men and taking lives. “In 2016, the last year global data is available from the World Health Organization (WHO), there were an estimated 793,000 suicide deaths worldwide. Most were men.” (Taken from Why more men than women die by suicide).

The September PBS piece is described as:

“The American Psychological Association in 2018 published its first-ever psychological practice guidelines for boys and men. The guidelines look at how concepts of masculinity and the socialization of men may be contributing to higher rates of suicide, depression, health issues and violence in male populations. Christopher Booker reports on efforts to disrupt this culture in some unexpected places.”

The line in the piece which spoke the loudest to me was, “learning to be in touch with ones emotions can save lives.”

I searched past Whatsaboymom blog posts, planning to link a few selected pieces, but there were too many posts. That’s why I write, our boys and men are hurting and there’s a grave collective toll on us all.