About:

In 2018, Oxford Dictionaries selected “toxic” as the international word of the year, reflecting the contemporary use of toxic masculinity in political discourse, the #MeToo movement, even Gillette and Axe ad campaigns. How are the norms of traditional Western masculinity - be strong, independent, non-emotional – poisonous for men, their communities and the people they love? The current crisis of masculinity is a health crisis in our communities and around the world.  As men struggle to “man up” to unattainable expectations, they overcompensate with anxiety, anger, and violence that disrupts the health and well-being of women, children, and other men in their lives.  Perhaps most telling, fragile masculinity has been linked to “deaths of despair” for men with the highest levels of aggrieved entitlement in the face of a destructive cocktail of unemployment, divorce, and depression. However, some men consciously become traitors to traditional masculinity by searching for engaged and nurturing relationships, as partners and parents - challenging the restrictive ways that men are permitted to express masculinity. 

Speaker:

KEVIN ROY

Kevin Roy is an Associate Professor of Family Science in the University of Maryland College Park School of Public Health.  His research focuses on the life course of young men on the margins of families and work. Roy explores the intersection of health disparities (specifically trauma), masculinities, and policy, such as welfare reform, immigration and incarceration. Roy has published over 60 articles and chapters, as well as the book Nurturing dads:  Social initiatives for contemporary fathering (2012) with co-author Bill Marsiglio in the ASA Rose Series at Russell Sage Foundation Press. He received a Ph.D. in Human Development & Social Policy at Northwestern University in 1999