A study on how men define masculinity, maleness and the intrinsic value of being a man

Abstract

This study is concerned with men's health and health-related behaviours. It examines statistical evidence from a wide variety of resources relating to men's mortality and morbidity and to men's health-related behaviours such as domestic violence, drug abuse and risk-taking. The study shows that there are gender-related deleterious effects on men's health and health-related behaviours which are sufficiently serious to warrant attention. With men as the central focus, the study looks at socialisation practices employed by society to condition men to behave in ways expected of them. It then shows, through a study of the literature, how these socialisation practices lead to deleterious effects on men's health and health-related behaviours. Evidence is presented to indicate that this long standing form of conditioning is under challenge in the 1990s. The study presents results of interviews with five individual men. The respondents were asked for their definitions of masculinity and maleness and their views on the value of men to society. What it found was an expressed desire for closer relationships with partners, more time with children, of sensitivity and growing emotional maturity and legitimisation. There still remained a legacy of a different time with a different role for men but there was definite evidence of changing attitudes and perceptions.