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