Young Men and Suicide: A Contemporary Lens On An Age-Old Problem

In this course, Dr. Zac Seidler (Global Director for Men’s Health Research, Movember; Senior Research Fellow, Orygen) challenges the “unassailable standards” of traditional masculinity as exhausting and harmful to men. The cultural zeitgeist which induces men to suppress different aspects of their masculinity has led to modern men losing out on intimacy and emotional friendships and feeling lonely, deficient, and like they don’t know who they are. Certain social media influencers and sites such as Manosphere have tried to “plug the hole” by promulgating alternative versions of “masculinity”, which have helped but also harmed men, providing a tribal sense of cohesion and reducing shame but also eating away at their sense of self and engendering suicidal behaviours. Seidler suggests alternative ways of undoing stigmatising stereotypes which undermine men.