‘What it is to be a man’ is so often defined by impossibly beautiful man bunned celebrities, multi-millionaire Bugatti owners, and by… well… women. They wring their hands, or stomp their feet, they spit sass; pine over, or flagellate themselves over how much they care, or claim to understand men, but they simply don’t. Privileged, powerful and self centred celebrity men share their troubles, and seek to normalise men ‘talking’ about problems, but fail to realise how utterly unrelatable their problems are to virtually every men out there. None of these celebrity influencers really know what the average male experience is, as none of them have truly lived it. And neither do women. The man stood quietly in line at the supermarket. The uneasy dad at the playground. The bullied boy whose head swirls, spins and swims with bombastic rhetoric, and absurd contortions of TikTok masculinity. The lonely man, invisible, forgotten and touch starved by society. Who truly speaks for them I wonder? The words, stories, feelings, and experiences of normal men, leading normal lives, are often gate kept by those with a political agenda, or exorbitant brand deals, or by women, who really ought to be listening, and not speaking. I have learnt to sit down when it comes to women talking about their lived experiences. And so too there is an empty spot right next to me, which too few take for themselves. So to the men, what is it like to be you? ~ Images by My Mind, Fruit Basket and Mathias Reding #mantalk #masculinity #mensmentalhealth #mentalhealthawareness

2023-05-21