This is from a government report published last year from a consensus of 9 of the world's leading mental health experts, as well as several non-academic "on the ground" mental health organizations (this includes recognized male psychology experts from the British Psychological Society).
These All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs) are informal cross-party groups that seek out experts on topics deemed important by Members of the Commons and Lords. They have no official status within Parliament, but are used to help inform the general public and influence policy decisions.
Toxic masculinity is mentioned 7 times, including in the forward of the publication. The message is clear and resolute: toxic masculinity is a harmful idea that needs to be dropped from conversations about men and male mental health.
A key underlying issue that has been raised both in this inquiry and also in the APPG’s previous two reports, is the pervasive male-victim blaming narrative. It is clear that the phrase ‘toxic masculinity’ is damaging and adds additional stigma and barriers to male help-seeking.
This damaging narrative suggests that masculinity itself is at fault and that, if men would only talk more, this would solve their problem.
The previous two APPG reports eschewed this deficit-model and this report continues with this same approach. The key is that whilst there is a need for men to talk, and this is increasingly the case, the responsibility should not primarily rest on their shoulders. It should primarily rest on society, employers and professionals to understand better the ways men communicate, and then to listen, ask and act.
All-Party Parliamentary Group on Issues Affecting Men and Boys. (2022). Tackling Male Suicide: A New ‘Whole System’ Approach.
https://equi-law.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/APPG-MB-Male-Suicide-Report-9-22.pdf
There are also official guidelines from the British Psychological Society that criticises toxic masculinity, and the related social construct hypothesis of multiple "masculinities".
Terminology that puts masculinity in a negative light, such as toxic masculinity, hegemonic masculinity, should be discouraged. Even if these terms are intended to describe specific behaviours, they almost inevitably imply that all men are dysfunctional in some way. The term 'masculinities’ can also be problematic because it implies that masculinity is socially fluid without any core biological contribution. It is more helpful to understand masculinity as the result of interactions between social, biological and evolutionary forces (Barry & Owens, 2019). Traits associated with masculinity tend to be observable globally and cross-culturally (Ellis, 2011). Masculinity is thus unlikely to be readily amenable to change, any more than sexuality is readily amenable to change.
British Psychological Society. (2022). Psychological interventions to help male adults.
https://cms.bps.org.uk/sites/default/files/2022-11/Practice%20Briefing%20-%20psychological%20interventions%20to%20help%20male%20adults.pdf
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