International Men’s Day
The Gender Equality Network (GEN) believe that all issues to do with any gender are important and this year we worked alongside the Mental Health Network (MHN) to celebrate International Men ’ s Day on November 19 th . We explored what ‘ toxic masculinity ’ is, compared to positive examples of masculinity, and how expectations of gender roles can negatively affect everyone. One example being the stigma around men expressing emotions due to the perceived association of weakness being stereotypically feminine and/ or weak. Alongside the MHN Network, we worked to promote the importance of mental health
and expressing emotions. We found it interesting how gender stereotypes
could create cultures of isolation, homophobia and misogyny. We worked to raise awareness through placing posters around the school, advertising useful research and websites. Our work was influenced by a survey of male students, asking questions based on International Men ’ s Day. Here are some of the responses we received:
"Expectations of [some] gender roles hurt both men and women. For example, men being always 'stoic' and 'strong' puts pressure on men and stops us talking about our emotions, which affects mental health"
We look forward to creating a campaign next M
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