Is It Okay for Men to Feel? Rethinking Masculinity and Mental Health

Macey Malone
Change Becomes You
Published in
4 min readJun 28, 2024

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Men can’t cry. Men are tough. Men don’t show weakness.

If you have heard the above at least once in your life then you are part of the same society that pushes men to the verge of masculinity that they cannot accept themselves. June was Men’s Mental Health Month, and I thought maybe it was time to shine a light on men's mental health struggles.

For far too long, society has labeled men as strong, stoic, and invulnerable. They are expected to be providers and protectors, ready to face challenges without flinching or showing disadvantages ever. Crying, expressing emotions, or showing vulnerability is often seen as a weakness for men. These men grow up thinking that showing emotions would be deemed too ‘feminine’. This harmful stereotype has deeper roots in a lot of cultures around the world and somehow it’s prevalent. But ask yourself — have we done justice to men’s mental health? Have we realized how we might be giving rise to ‘toxic masculinity’? It’s a question that demands our attention.

The reality is, that men feel. They feel a lot. They also cry and they care a lot. They get stressed, anxious, and depressed just like anyone else. They feel vulnerable pressure to “man up” and hide their feelings, which doesn’t make these emotions disappear; it buries them deep inside, where…

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Macey Malone
Change Becomes You

Traveler. Thinker. Writer — Seeking knowledge in the world of writing