My project will focus on the stigma behind men’s mental health and the stereotypes that deter men from reaching out for help. The reason I want to research this issue is because throughout this class, I have mainly focused on how sexism affects women because it is something I can relate to, but I want to research men’s mental health and show that it is also very important too and a topic that needs to be talked about more. This issue is commonly ignored due to stereotypes such as men don’t cry, need to ask for help, or show emotions is incredibly harmful and untrue. It creates a more toxic scenario in which the person struggling refuses to ask for help resulting in the problems festering and getting worse. There is a reason why almost two-thirds of all suicides are by men. This is the first time throughout this class that I am looking into this problem so I currently do not have any sources, but I am sure that the Syracuse Library Database has many promising articles, and I plan on looking for informative TEDtalks that go further in depth on men’s mental health because I am sure some exist. Through this research, I want to show people that they are not alone in their struggles and that there is no shame in asking for help. No one deserves to struggle alone. I think my intended audience would be men in their late teens and early twenties who might not have had the courage to ask for help and still believe that there is something wrong with needing help.
Sounds like a promising direction. Give some thought to how you’d like to target this particular group–what do you think would be an effective medium and rhetorical situation to reach them??
Let me know if you’d like to talk some more about this.