For my second story I was inspired by Huffington post’s Building Modern Men, “a month-long focus around men to highlight the pressures they face around identity and to raise awareness of the epidemic of suicide” (HuffPost 2016). Huffington Post released a video during this time to acknowledge and reduce the stigma that surrounds men and boys crying, where they asked men when the last time they cried was.
http://projects.huffingtonpost.co.uk/building-modern-men/
I decided to sit down with two local students, James and Jordan, to discuss with them, as young men, the ways in which masculinity has influenced their lives and how they feel towards the social norms expected of men within our society. We discussed how they feel towards the often stigmatised topic of men and boys opening up and honestly expressing their emotions.
Click below to listen to the interview.
Tweets featured within the #boysdocry hashtag on twitter:
Down with “man up”. #BoysDoCry pic.twitter.com/GE74pOrlg6
— Zinc (@This_Is_Zinc) December 30, 2016
Emotions have no gender, don’t lock yours in the dark❤ #boysdocry pic.twitter.com/Ju6vuVsCrZ
— Katie (@katiemarley96) January 5, 2017
STOP TEACHING BOYS THAT THEY’RE NOT ALLOWED TO SHOW EMOTION #boysdocry
— #1 shakira fan (@annievspid) December 26, 2016