Thinking Complexly About Men, Gender Role Conflict, and Counseling Psychology

The influential nature of this Major Contribution makes commenting a daunting task. However, after reviewing some of the likely consequences of this article, the author offers his sense of areas in which the research on male gender role conflict needs to grow. O’Neil (2008 [this issue]) defines male gender role conflict (GRC) as a psychological state in which the socialized male gender role has negative consequences for the person or others. Building on this, many now realize that the mechanisms through which these negative consequences occur, rather than being global, are instead contextual. That is, different men engaging in the exact same traditional male gender role behavior will expe-rience different levels of GRC and accordingly different consequences, depending on the context of their lives. Therefore, while society does teach boys the culturally embedded standards of masculinity (Levant, 1995, 2001), any consequences of those standards—many of which are well artic-ulated in the body of work reviewed by O’Neil—are potentially moderate