You are all busy people; jobs to do, chores to honour, children to care for, friends to see, and classes to attend. For so many, the world is an endless bewilderment of responsibility, an incessant barrage of things to get done, and a to-do-list whose end you will likely never reach. You’ve not eaten yet, or responded to that text message, and the bins need taking out. Meanwhile the toast is burning, the kids pour paint onto the carpet, and the dog needs to take another sh*t. It’s a lot. My point is – to encourage people to find compassion and understanding for boys and men, in a world where so few can even find time for themselves, is a challenge I have faced for years. And this is only made harder by the nature of social media itself; which is shallow, limited, and disposable. I have just ten slides, or 280 characters, to give a comprehensive and contextual understanding to impossibly complex issues; meanwhile invites to ‘the next big thing’ are sliding into your DMs, and sponsored ads crowbar their way onto your feed. How can such an overstimulating environment ever provide a platform for detailed, good faith, and meaningful discussion? How much info before I lose you? Or how little before you get bored? What are you comfortable sharing? How can we have a conversation about men and boys, without diminishing the experiences of women and girls? And why must I always caveat everything I say with a platitude of small print apologia, disclaimers and penance paying? Dammit, and how can I do any of this, when there’s a meme of a dog riding a lawn mower, that we’d all rather be watching. So you tell me, how do we have a conversation that is deserving of men and boys… how do we discuss these issues better? What do you think? ~ Randolf Neese  Images by Serious Low Carb, Lucas George Wen, Ioann Mark Kurzneitsov, and Bruce Mars #fyp #mensmentalhealth #genderequality

2024-02-20