Men's Health

Why men’s health? Research in psychology, health and medicine has traditionally focused on men, to the neglect of women, but in the process men have tended to be treated as if they were ‘standard human beings’, and the effects of the gendered nature of society on men’s health have been ignored. This chapter takes the view that a social perspective on men’s health needs to focus on gender: what, other than biology, does it mean to be a man in contemporary society, and how might social and cultural expectations of masculinity affect men’s behaviour, their relationships and their physical and emotional health? Systemic gender inequities in income, social responsibilities, social power and access to resources are as influential on men’s lives and health as they are on women’s (see also ‘Gender issues and women’s health’). Contemporary men are, to varying degrees, caught between the demands of two sets of social expectations, neither of which is readily compatible with contemporary reality (e.g. Copenhaver & Eisler, 1996). Theorists of masculinity argue for the existence of multiple ‘masculinities’ reflecting the lives of men from varied ethnic backgrounds, social classes and sexual orientations (e.g. Connell, 1995; Mac an Ghaill, 1996). In this chapter, we concentrate on two main social constructions of how men should behave. We contrast the traditionally dominant model of ‘hegemonic masculinity’ – that model of masculinity which society privileges as ‘true’ maleness – with modern, egalitarian perspectives on men’s ‘new’ gender roles