Challenges Facing Men in Today’s Society

I believe that it’s crucial for men to start defining their own issues and to find their own voice. Many may not believe that men face some serious challenges in today’s society. However, men face many dangerous obstacles that society throws and them each and every day. Whether these problems are viewed as being big or small in the eyes of others, every challenge a man faces constantly adds more pressure and heartache on his life. Therefore I would like to take the time out to inform you about several of the challenges men face in today’s society. The male gender role is one of the many challenges that men face in today’s society. As men, we are generally only valued when we perform. There’s nothing that society despises more than a man who doesn’t provide for his family, or a homeless man. The male gender role is also very constricted when it comes to everyday life. Men have a stricter dress code than women, and men are also expected to adhere to a more narrow range of behaviors than women (for example: being stiffer, not touching other men, etc).

The role of the father in the household is another challenge men face. The traditional father was a provider, and family courts still treat fathers in that way. How can we upgrade the role of the father to mean more than just simply providing? The father can be an important male role model, as well as give the children a sense of direction in life. And if we dare to think really big, then we may go as far as starting to care about the father’s emotional life. Just like we care about a mother’s right to be close to her children, we can start caring about a father’s right to be involved in his children’s lives, even after a divorce. Another challenge men face is romantic relationships. Many men still feel that they have to prove themselves to women, and that they should somehow feel lucky if a woman wants them.

In my opinion, such a stance can only lead to bitterness and resentment in a man, since you are basically putting a low value on yourself and handing over all power to the woman. As men, we need to let go of the cultural programming that tells us that women are more pure and therefore better than us. Emotional literacy is another challenged faced by men. How can this be developed in men? Biologically speaking we may have a somewhat harder time to become emotionally literate, and culturally speaking we are certainly not encouraged to pursue emotional development. Nevertheless, we will never be masters of our own lives unless we become emotionally literate and able to hold our own in a relationship with a woman.

Therefore we can see that many challenges face men in society, even though I only listed a short amount. Men today face more challenges than ever before. These challenges range from relationship problems, problems with the view of fatherhood and can also include others such as violence and diseases. Though men go through these challenges they must always persevere and overcome these challenges.