Toxic Masculinity - Growing up, what did you think it meant to be a man?

In 2018, Chatelaine set out to spark a conversation about the state of masculinity by asking men to speak anonymously about things they’d never say in public. Here, they discuss parenting, being ‘tough,’ and other things their younger selves thought manhood involved.

The men are talking about what they believe it is to be a man, and where they believe it has come from. The influences, majority of the men say, came from the direction of their fathers. They discuss about male role models and the example that is set by that; even though most of the people that have answered within this video are older generations than myself, it makes you realise the way that todays current male role models put across their lifestyle. Through social media platforms younger males are still taught the core values that in order to be masculine and successful you must be 'strong, tough etc.'

But it also talks about the way in which some people do not conform to the ideals of masculinity and the way in which it is changing, talking about how some peoples opinions have been changed because 'their fathers wernt particularly manly'. But that doesnt particuarly take away from their gender identification or feeling of being accepted in societies view of their gender, rather they are living by what they believes makes them a good person; not just "a good man".

The audience were asked how their views of being man have changed, each person had a completly different point of view, as they all had a different perception of masculinity and its influences to begin with. Within the younger generations people discus the way in which they believe the ideals around masculinity to be 'Total Bullshit' and 'A lot of the ideals surrounded by being a man to be toxic'; showing the way in which the image of masculinity is changing, 'it should be said that you should be a decent human being'.