{"id":878,"date":"2025-03-20T15:18:09","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T15:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wsa-creativetechnologies.uk\/kb4n24\/?p=878"},"modified":"2025-05-13T21:45:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T21:45:08","slug":"read-book-masculinities-and-mental-health-in-young-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wsa-creativetechnologies.uk\/kb4n24\/read-book-masculinities-and-mental-health-in-young-men\/","title":{"rendered":"Read &#8211; Book &#8211; Masculinities and Mental Health in Young Men"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>What I found interesting  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list has-medium-font-size\">\n<li>The book encourages an evidence based approach to create an &#8220;aspirational agenda rather than an alarmist one&#8221; (pg. 4) and I like this idea &#8211; trying to foster hope rather than fear or anger <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It also wants young men to be thought of as subjects rather than objects in an &#8220;optimistic and expansive fashion&#8221; (pg. 5). This seems common sense but actually feels radical given (in my opinion) the flat and sensationalised conversations about young men&#8217;s mental health that I have seen <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It emphasises the idea that much of masculinity is underpinned by fear: &#8220;the fear of femininity or homosexuality, the fear of being outed as a fraud by peers and the fear of not playing the part effectively&#8221; (pg. 5) and this rings true with my lived experience. It is also the main impetus for the game I want to make -to highlight this sense of fear. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li> Alcohol and young men\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>complex but driven by masculine norms as a way to &#8220;assert their masculinity&#8221; by drinking large amounts of alcohol =&gt; signifying &#8220;endurance and toughness, especially when accompanied by physical violence against other young men&#8221;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>drinking is a way to socialise with friends <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>alcohol also can be a way for men to &#8220;circumvent traditional masculine norms&#8221; through disinhibition and &#8220;displays of emotional vulnerability and support&#8221; (pg. 18) <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Young men and gaming <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"437\" height=\"370\" src=\"https:\/\/wsa-creativetechnologies.uk\/kb4n24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/03\/image-3.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-879\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wsa-creativetechnologies.uk\/kb4n24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/03\/image-3.png 437w, https:\/\/wsa-creativetechnologies.uk\/kb4n24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/03\/image-3-300x254.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 437px) 100vw, 437px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">pg. 94 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list has-medium-font-size\">\n<li>the chapter suggests that gaming has both positive and negative aspects and the research is probably not yet good enough to draw good quality conclusions <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"406\" height=\"437\" src=\"https:\/\/wsa-creativetechnologies.uk\/kb4n24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/03\/image-4.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-880\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wsa-creativetechnologies.uk\/kb4n24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/03\/image-4.png 406w, https:\/\/wsa-creativetechnologies.uk\/kb4n24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/03\/image-4-279x300.png 279w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 406px) 100vw, 406px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list has-medium-font-size\">\n<li>Interesting chapter on social media, incl. a breakdown of &#8220;pathways into the Manosphere&#8221; (pg. 193) \n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Suggests that more research is needed to address the complexities of the situation <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Overall the book recommends more curiosity when it comes to researching and theorising about the lives and needs of young men. Moving away from the &#8220;hermeneutic of suspicion&#8221; (pg. 314) that wants to manage rather than understand this group. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>I hope that I can take this point of view into the design of the game &#8211; to try to name rather than blame. I think this is going to be most challenging when I am describing and interacting with the louts on the train &#8211; trying to make them realistic by recognising the stereotypic behaviour they were displaying, but also allowing some space for them to be subjects rather than objects. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>I&#8217;ll look to test the successfulness of this in my game testing. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Reference<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Seidler, Z. (no date)&nbsp;<em>Masculinities and Mental Health in Young Men<\/em>. Springer Nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">\u200c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What I found interesting pg. 94 Reference Seidler, Z. (no date)&nbsp;Masculinities and Mental Health in Young Men. Springer Nature. \u200c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1190,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-learningjourneys","category-reading"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/wsa-creativetechnologies.uk\/kb4n24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/03\/min.jpg",589,827,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/wsa-creativetechnologies.uk\/kb4n24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/03\/min-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/wsa-creativetechnologies.uk\/kb4n24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/03\/min-214x300.jpg",214,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/wsa-creativetechnologies.uk\/kb4n24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/03\/min.jpg",589,827,false],"large":["https:\/\/wsa-creativetechnologies.uk\/kb4n24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/03\/min.jpg",589,827,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/wsa-creativetechnologies.uk\/kb4n24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/03\/min.jpg",589,827,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/wsa-creativetechnologies.uk\/kb4n24\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/03\/min.jpg",589,827,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"kb4n24","author_link":"https:\/\/wsa-creativetechnologies.uk\/kb4n24\/author\/kb4n24\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"What I found interesting pg. 94 Reference Seidler, Z. (no date)&nbsp;Masculinities and Mental Health in Young Men. Springer Nature. \u200c","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsa-creativetechnologies.uk\/kb4n24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsa-creativetechnologies.uk\/kb4n24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsa-creativetechnologies.uk\/kb4n24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsa-creativetechnologies.uk\/kb4n24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsa-creativetechnologies.uk\/kb4n24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=878"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wsa-creativetechnologies.uk\/kb4n24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1553,"href":"https:\/\/wsa-creativetechnologies.uk\/kb4n24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878\/revisions\/1553"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsa-creativetechnologies.uk\/kb4n24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wsa-creativetechnologies.uk\/kb4n24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsa-creativetechnologies.uk\/kb4n24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wsa-creativetechnologies.uk\/kb4n24\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}