"Real Men"

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Wake-up Call for "Real Men"

It is time for "real men" to wake up and help themselves solve a national health crisis.

According to a recent issue of PA Today, there is a silent health crisis among males in the United States. This crisis is not simply about prostrate cancer or heart disease. It incorporates the generally poor health status of men in general and "real men" in particular.

Morality statistics reveal the following problems:

• Men lead in almost all of the top 15 causes of premature death.
• Men have an average life expectancy that is seven years shorter than that of women.

Men top the charts in such health hazards as smoking, drinking, dangerous jobs, sports injuries, drunk driving, and victims of violent crimes.

Joe Zoske, a health care consultant specializing in men's health and wellness opines, "Studies show this due not to biology, but rather gender conditioning. In striving to be 'real men,' they live higher-risk lifestyles, driven by internalized messages of competition, invulnerability, control, emotional suppression, and independence. So when symptoms occur, they have learned to not acknowledge them and tough-it-out alone, leaving them isolated from information, interventions, and support.

"This waste of men and gender mind-set can no longer by justified by survival needs. Men are no longer hunters in our society."

Yet boys are still taught to be tough, not cry, suppress emotions, and be strong at all costs. In fact, we teach our boy children that all of this is necessary to become a man.

Relating, nurturing, caring, listening, fostering, allowing emotions, seeking medical aid and the like are for women. "Real men" are only allowed three emotions:

• Humor
• Anger
• Sexual feelings.

According to Zoske, this male "code of masculinity" is internalized and becomes a script for a life of "stress, needless injury and illness, and an early grave."

Although changing male psychology is hard, and grows even harder as a man ages, our society must engage our husbands, sons, brothers, and partners in learning about their bodies, allowing health assessments, and generally improving lifestyles habits to give men the vitality and longevity we think they deserve.