You can’t denote the irony that in a political climate where gender, race, sexuality, and economic inequality are one sides biggest issues, many people who are not part of those groups feel like they can’t talk about it. Because of narrow-minded and bigoted hate groups, professionals like myself find it difficult to discuss these issues out of fear of being labeled a sexist, racist, etc. I couldn’t even make a comment about a female candidate on my Twitter without being told my implicit racial and gender bias disqualified me from making any opinion that mattered. While maybe not their intention, it makes you feel like your opinion doesn’t matter.
Now this podcast episode is not about complaining about gender but more to draw attention to a huge problem we are seeing with men in this country. It seems to be a popular punch line among feminist groups but why is nobody talking about the causes of why men are commiting the most mass shootings, murder suicides of spouses and their own children, suicide rates, addiction, depression, and failure to launch? Why is this problem getting worse when awareness for mental illness is at its highest? Why are the rates getting much worse for men and at a lower rate for women?
The most important question…when looking at the data why is it most of these issues started getting worse at the same time toxic masculinity started becoming a big topic? Why did failure to launch overwhelmingly affect men and at the same time the self-esteem movement started in the 80s and 90s?
The truth is men are lost and have no identity. Countless middle-aged, 20 something, and teen boys in my office say time and time again they feel scared of everything, paralyzed by the fear of failure, scared of judgement, and weaker at dealing with normal life stress than ever before. Ever piece of research all says the same thing. Women, rightfully so, are more bad asses, empowered, and tough than ever before and I love it. Equality is still not where it should be and the proud father of a little girl and a strong bad ass wife I want it to be further along and none of this is about taking away women empowerment. What we are wanting to talk about it the problem that the current environment is making it tough to have discussions and out of the dynamic problems are not being addressed. Our men are not doing well and the problem is only getting worse and my fear is that while we empowered women, the same tactics to help our boys with toxic masculinity has actually stripped away some of the things that they needed to survive and be more resilient. Women are emotionally tougher then men thanks to 1000s of years of oppression and a 15% larger limbic system. I think that is where it went wrong and out of a good thing we may have helped one gender but hurt another. Then out of fear of being labeled a sexist, no men dare talk about it…but we have to.
So that’s our episode folks! Please listen to the whole thing because just reading the title and making a comment helps no one…we need to have this discussion. I am not saying I am right with my hypothesis by we need to have a discussion as to what’s going on with men in this country. How we can we further gender and racial equality if a large part of the population who isn’t female or a person of color feels like they can talk or ask questions?
Joining us in the studio to discuss this hot button topic is our good friend author and high school teacher Matthew Bryant who is going to serve as a biopsy area per se of this issue from the perspective of a teacher and author. Matthew is the author of the World in Between Trilogy with his latest release Vessel available on Amazon and e-readers everywhere.
Instead of being part of the problem and spreading fake news, tune in to the one place you know isn’t fake….Gray Matters Radio! As always I am joined by my co-host, the Armchair QB Bill Reed to help keep me in line and firmly in the Gray. Gray Matters Radio is a proud member of the 6One4 Radio Network family of podcasts. Find this as well as all our episodes on every major podcasting platform
