“Man up.” “Boys don’t cry.” “Be a real man.” When you’re a Black man in America these phrases aren’t just burdened by the weight of traditional gender expectations. They’re full of centuries of racial trauma and oppression.
And the stats tell the story. Black men are dying younger and getting sicker earlier than their white peers, especially from preventable conditions like heart disease and cancer. But while some may blame toxic masculinity, experts say the real villain is hiding in plain sight: racism.
“I know many people see masculinity and manhood as the biggest barrier to Black men’s physical and mental health,” says Derek Griffith, a health equity professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. “But I really see the biggest harm to Black men’s mental health is not these ideals of masculinity but the chronic stressors they experience because of structural racism.”
The way Black men experience the effects of racism is more of a predictor of their health outcomes than the way they think about manhood and masculinity. In general, Black folks have long had higher than average rates of chronic disease, for reasons that include disparities in income and education, less access to health insurance, and the weathering of racism-related stress.
But for Black men, it’s impossible to negate how the notions of masculinity have played a role in their perceptions and experiences of physical and mental health.
A new report by Pew Research Center sheds light on how Americans view men and masculinity. Researchers surveyed more than 6,000 U.S. adults about masculinity, acceptable and unacceptable behaviors, gender roles, and how Americans rate their own masculinity or femininity. Here’s what the data shows:
Young men between the ages of 18-29 are less likely to rate themselves as highly masculine, yet more than 50% of men 50 and older rate themselves as highly masculine. Add race into the equation, and things become even more challenging.
A 2022 study found that young Black males were “more likely than white male youths to feel greater pressure to be physically and emotionally strong, play sports, and to dominate or control others.”
That all contributes to men being generally less likely to use preventative health services, more likely to wait longer to seek care for symptoms, and make less use of health care services, according to a report published in the National Library of Medicine. Although research can’t definitively say there is a causation between masculinity and poor health and mental health outcomes for Black men, there’s certainly a correlation.
In most parts of the world, expressing emotions is often seen as a feminine trait. But the opposite—overly self-reliant and unemotional behavior—is linked to men being less likely to seek help for mental health issues, having higher rates of death by suicide, and more frequently being the victims of homicide, according to the American Psychological Association.
Research shows boys and men are constantly bombarded with messages to be tough, don’t cry or do anything remotely “feminine.” Ideas around gender roles and masculinity often develop in grade school.
For years, entertainment, media, and cultural spaces have contributed to the narrative of the angry or dangerous Black man. Those images have generally shaped how some people think about and interact with Black men.
We can’t talk about masculinity without talking about toxic masculinity, which includes violence, sexual entitlement, homophobia and emotional illiteracy. Sexual violence against women and femicide are two of the most egregious aspects of toxic masculinity. In 2022, according to the Violence Policy Center, men killed more than 2,400 women, and roughly 9 in 10 of those victims knew their killer.
Three-quarters of U.S. adults think it’s unacceptable for men to join in when other men are talking about women in a sexual way. And nearly 70% think it’s unacceptable for men to have many different sexual partners.
“If you talk to Black men and ask them what ways they want to be seen, toxic masculinity does not usually factor into that,” Griffith says.
The Black men he’s centered his research on tend to aspire to form better relationships and achieve success. “I think the disconnect and flattening of the ways men experience the world, see themselves, and define the ideals of who they’re trying to be, is a barrier to how we see men.”
Anissa Durham is a health data journalist who writes on health care inequities and mental health in the Black community.