The Honey Badgers hosted a podcast discussion about men’s health several days ago. The show stemmed from an email the Badgers received from a man who feels disconnected because he has trouble making friends. He is a “straight-acting” gay man, and found that other gay men want little to do with him because he doesn’t share their interests and straight men want little to do with him once they find out he is gay.
Allison asked the listeners if any would be interested in supporting him. The outpouring was high, and the Men’s Mental Health show features some of those emails as well as other men sharing their stories of isolation.
It is a heavy, emotional show. Many of the emails are simply people pouring out their pain and frustration. It can be difficult to listen to account after account of this amount of pain, however, I think this episode is worth a listen.
We often avoid men’s pain. If you listen to most feminists, men do not really experience any pain or isolation or hurt because men run everything. The people who wrote to the Badgers show that is not the case.
Many men suffer in silence. They often do not have anyone to turn to because our society does not want to help men in pain. We expect men to help themselves. As one of the Badgers said during the podcast, we turn away from men in need, but once that man achieves anything or has what he wants we offer him the world. Essentially, we only reach out to men when they do not need us.
The podcast does not provide any solutions to this, however, I do not think that is the point. I think the point is that we need to hear what men actually feel. This podcast does that in raw detail.
Toy Soldiers 