Men, Suicide and Society- a report by the samaritans.

‘…the fact remains that it is men who die far more by suicide than women’(Samaritans,(2012),p1)   .A report issued by The Samaritans investigates the causes into a rise in the amount of middle aged male’s committing suicide. One of the causes the report covers is Masculinities. It states that the way men are brought up , told how to behave and roles that are expected from them in society.  Men end up comparing themselves against ‘ a masculine ‘gold standard’ which prizes power, control and invincibility.’ (Samaritans,(2012),p1)  When men have the belief that they are not meeting this societal standard then there self esteem drops and they feel defeat. Having the job of being the house provider and head of the family is essentical to ‘being a man’ (Samaritans,(2012),p1)  , and this is a trait noticed particularly with working class men.  So when a man looses this control this brings him to suicidal behaviour , through drugs and alcohol as a way of gaining back control. The report explains that’ Masculinity and femininity are sociological concepts which can be defined through a collection of roles, behaviours , activities, expressions and practises…constructed ideas about ‘being a man’ or ‘being a women’  (Samaritans,(2012),p1)   Hegemonic masculinity  is a theory set out by Raewyn Connell .’ …it is an ideal to which most men aspire and / or against which they measure themselves.’ (Samaritans,(2012),p10)  It is characterised through several attributes for example power hungry, aggressiveness, independency, success, activity and control. And as a result men are discouraged to show any forms of anxiety, burdens and difficulties. He or She which is a feminist campain also campain for men rights too, they want to give men more support in to open up about their emotions and not to feel weak by doing so, instead of bottling up. However from this report it looks like society could easily be said to be a fault.  It needs to update it values but this is a hard thing to as it seems that the ideal of masculinity is too deeply embedded. So by adding more women into powerful places like parliament would mean that some male MPs would lose their jobs and could be said to be at risk of feeling defeated and without purpose. However could this be an impactful way of changing society values, but sacking male MPs and adding in female ones?