Mens Mental Health

[Applause]

a lot of you are probably thinking right

now

why is he wearing this toy you shouldn’t

be wearing that

well what if i told you that i’ve been

dancing for eight years

ballet borrow jazz

modern but i’m also the captain of the

varsity rugby team

men today are expected to be tough

strong and show no fear

no emotion but why is that

for eight years i’ve been dancing great

news

for eight years people have been telling

me i’m a little girl or a

because when i dance my hips don’t lie

so how does that make you feel

well hi my name is jordan emias

and today i’ll be talking to you about

how our toxic masculine stereotypes

are affecting men’s mental health more

than you would think

for centuries men have grown in a toxic

masculine society

where boys are born and told to go play

catch outside while the girls are told

to go into ballet classes or go and

paint

and that’s where the problem begins you

see

when i was younger i used to play a ton

of sports i was on the swim team

play baseball i was even on the u11

basketball team

just an ordinary kid hanging out and

enjoying life

however i was also dancing at that time

and whenever i danced

i never got to do it in peace it started

off in israel

where kids would wash me through the

windows and make fun of me and laugh at

me

for dancing then here in middle school

people tell me i’m a little girl or a

for doing something that i love

all i got was judgment and hate

in fact i still remember my first

in fact i still remember being all alone

in my own dance classes

because the other girls would think that

it’s weird dancing next to a boy

in fact i still remember even some of my

coaches making fun of me

when i told them that to leave practice

early to go to my dance performance

in fact i still remember my first modern

dance performance

i was on stage terrified of what the

other kids would think of me

i was filled with anxiety can you

imagine that

a 13 year old boy filled with anxiety

it’s not like he had an ib exam soon or

had to hand in a project that he hasn’t

done yet

it was for doing something that he loved

and that’s the problem

having a fixed perception of what men

should and should not do

little boys taught that boys shouldn’t

dance boys should be playing football

outside

and being tough not being little sissies

in israel it is expected that every

israeli citizen joins the military

but due to our toxic masculine norms of

where men have to be tough

and show no fear the majority of combat

units are now men

in fact according to ncbi 98

of military casualties are men meaning

that people think that it’s okay the men

get hurt

screamed at and pushed to their absolute

mental limits

without having any side effects and if a

man can’t take this

or gives up or quits in the middle he is

considered weak

unstable or even gets called a little

girl

but moving on according to apolitical

men today are suppressing their emotions

due to their stereotypes

men scared of not being a man and how

other people will portray them for

showing their emotions

but what does this mean what does it

mean when a man has to smile but suffer

in silence

well 78 of suicides today

are men and one in every eight men in

the uk suffer from a mental disease such

as

depression anxiety

panic disorder and ocd

but why is no one talking about this our

perception of how men should be

act and do as a man should is the exact

reason why men today are killing

themselves

due to not reaching that ideal man

perception

when i was a 13 year old boy it was

never a good feeling to have people make

fun of you and laugh at you

especially when it’s something that you

love there are millions of men

all around the world going through the

same or even worse things that i have

men suffering from depression and not

knowing who to talk to

or what to do because they know that

society won’t accept them

for being weak according to the guardian

61 of men in the united states state

that they feel a lot of pressure to be

emotionally tough

and the factor of women and men to

taking antidepressants is two to one

meaning that even for the small

percentage of men who are out there

seeking for help are scared of taking

the medicine they’ll make them feel

better

because they know that society won’t

accept them for being weak

so how can we change this how can we

change the way that men are perceived

today

well first off let them talk let them

share their emotions

the main reason why men today are not

expressing their emotions is because

that they know that they won’t be

accepted

they’re going to be seen as weak and not

tough like they’re supposed to

so let them talk and next

check up on them check up on them

regularly i’m not saying the men should

talk about their emotions

every single second of their lives but

it’s okay to let them out every once in

a while

and stop judging them because when you

tell

a man who’s down on the ground to just

get up and walk it off they won’t be

able to do that

you have to help them up you have to

help them get better

so if you know anybody who’s going

through anything and i mean

anything at all check up on them

shoot him a text saying hey how are you

or how are you doing

because even if they respond with oh i’m

fine or don’t worry about it i’m doing

all right

they now know that there’s someone out

there for them someone they can talk to

when things are getting tough

someone they can talk to who they can

trust

so next time you see someone who’s just

like me it doesn’t mean he’s any less of

a man than anybody else

thank you