One of the aspects from the documentary that stood out to me is how men are 7x more likely to commit suicide than women. It is senseless how we have these statistics that prove our society is not raising boys to be well-rounded adults yet nothing changes. Outdated ideas of masculinity should not be more important than the wellbeing and safety of our children. Another thing that I noticed was how the boys would be kicked out of their friend groups if they were to break the rules. Kids should be allowed to play how they want and with who they want. Enforcing the idea that femininity is a bad thing encourages rape culture and pressures boys to repress their emotions and change ignore the things they enjoy. This puts far too much pressure on young men and forces them to bottle up things they should be letting out.
Something that stood out to me from Carlos Andres Gomez‘s book was how he reacted to men showing each other affection in Zambia. The fact that men holding hands as friends was weird and uncomfortable to him demonstrates how being caring and emotional are not values that our society encourages for men. The story and documentary have shown me that men are encouraged to rid themselves of what makes them human, but in doing so they are repressing feelings that need to be let out which is leading to an excess of violence and mental illness in our society.
Lovers and Fighters | Section 22 