“Strong, Silent, and Suffering”: The Emotional Education Men Never Got

Most men aren’t taught how to care for their mental health. They’re taught how to perform masculinity.

From early childhood, boys are conditioned to embody a narrow version of manhood: be tough, don’t cry, stay in control. Vulnerability is treated as a liability, and tenderness as a threat. The result? A dangerous emotional straightjacket — one that leaves men silently suffering under the weight of feelings they were never allowed to name.