# data[].attributes.body
This article describes what it's like as a man from a man's point of view. It dives into stereotypes on guys and how men are told to act a certain way in order to be considered "manly enough".

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
I can recall the first time that I asked the question, "What does it mean to be a man?" to a group of young men I was doing healing work with. In this particular situation, the young men were sharing their feelings about an exercise that each of them had just experienced, focused on the misogyny, sexism, and patriarchy that women often face in society.

Many of the young men shared that they immediately wanted to cry after the experience. Upon asking them why it seemed that they were emotionless during the exercise, they shared that they didn't allow themselves to exhibit such emotions because they needed to be strong for the other men in the group. The phrasing of "needing to man up" was used over 50 times, so much that I was not only exhausted, but perplexed.

It wasn't the first time I had heard the term "man-up" being used to describe the need that young men have to hide their emotions. I had been told to "man-up" by a family member after I said I didn't want to play football (or any sport really). I was also told that I needed to "man-up" after I found out my best friend died in the 9th grade and again after I experienced my first rejection letter to college.

I hear the phrase "man-up" used so frequently, I often wonder in what context the word "man" is being used and what it really says about how society views masculinity as a whole.

For years, I have grappled with this idea of maleness and masculinity from both a social and political lens. Society rarely provides space for men to be whole. Consider the "idea" of what it means to be a man in our society. When we define maleness, or masculinity, we are quick to assume that to be a man means being aggressive, loud, violent, and dominant. Even more, maleness and masculinity is often defined by one's gender, their gender presentation, and how they perform maleness and masculinity. Something that I have always found to be disturbing is how much of maleness and masculinity depends on one's genitals and what cis-gender men choose to do with said parts (and who they choose to do it with).

A common notion that is often not discussed when examining men and masculinity is how much emphasis is put on the performative aspect of being a man.

Very rarely are cis-men given space to interrogate and create a their own definition of masculinity that includes being emotionally/mentally sound and whole. Men often have to look outside of themselves for their first definition of what it means to be a man, so much so that it often leaves men in a dark and sad state of existence.

From sports to the playground, masculinity is coded with phrases like "boys will be boys" or my personal favorite, "that's just how boys/men are." The emotionally damaging "masculinization" of young men starts even before young men have a keen sense of self; often before they even have the developmental capacity to fully understand the binary (gender vs. performance of gender.) These gender roles and expectations of gender performance are often given out like candy, without a child being able to fully comprehend what they're ingesting.

This notion that to be a man means being angry or emotionally unavailable has always been something that intrigued me. As both a queer and Black man, I often question where these ideas began and why people continue to hold them in such high regard. As I continue to battle with the true definition of what it means to be a "man" and how heteronormative (and homonegative) the definition continues to be, I recognize that the toxic notion of masculinity is forced on young cis-men before they even know how to properly tie their shoes.

I can remember hearing conversations between my mother and my uncles about how fearful they were for me because I didn't exhibit the behaviors of masculinity. I was emotionally available, somewhat shy, and enjoyed connecting with people on a deeper level. Somehow, that was seen as effeminate and the men in my family worked tirelessly to "make me harder," common rhetoric used in the Black cis-male community.

It behooves me to say that the root definition of what it means to be a man or to perform masculinity here in America continues to be grounded in oppression, marginalization, and white supremacy. As I have done my own work to unlearn the toxic nature of masculinity, I now comprehend that the harm being done to many young cisgender men, specifically young white cisgender men, is often connected to noxious ideals of power, positionality, and the want/need for cisgender men to be seen as a dominant gender. I am even more certain of this with the reports of gun violence transfixing us here in the U.S.

In challenging masculinity as a harmful and sometimes deadly social construction, we have to acknowledge that being viewed in society as masculine is reputed as a gift, while being viewed as feminine is a curse. Even with all of the negative ideologies of maleness and masculinity that cisgender men (and society) consume, being seen as a "man" means being free from critique and the need to unlearn elements of sexism and patriarchy, even in moments when you are the reason for someone else's struggle and pain.

Films like The Mask You Live In and Tough Guise 2 examine the concept of performative masculinity and shine light on the lack of accountability that comes with maleness. They examine how young men are wired to "wage war" from a young age and encouraged to lean into concepts related to social dominance hierarchies. Cis-men, specifically cis-heterosexual men, are encouraged to take up any and all space, without questioning whether they are fully deserving of it.

A struggle that I have had as a queer cis-man of color is comprehending what maleness and masculinity means for me. I have never presented myself as a masculine. My voice is soft, I have always been called "pretty," and I am highly emotional - all things associated with femininity.

Though I have every right to be an aggressively violent person because of the things I have experienced as a queer Black man, I have chosen to unlearn maleness and masculinity as something ferocious. In my quest to redefine maleness and masculinity, I have started to understand that being a man means doing a great deal of self work.

My definition of "being a man" challenges me to speak openly and honestly about my thoughts and feelings. It's relearning how to speak from a truly genuine and unapologetic place. It's seeking out regular psychological therapy - something that many cis-men, specifically cis-Black men are taught not to do. But most important, it's knowing how to be honest with myself about about where my pain and trauma begin and working through it to heal.

Before challenging others to learn what it means to "man-up," I would challenge everyone to unlearn what it means to be a man in our society and find a definition that allows cis-men to be happy, whole people. We must teach men not to see maleness and masculinity as superior to femininity, but dangerous without it. We must engage men to stop seeing their maleness and masculinity as being something that they should fear, while encouraging them to embrace their full authentic truth.

It is only then that we can truly create a healthier definition of what it truly means to be a man.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What Does it Mean to Be a Man? | The On Being Project

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
I can recall the first time that I asked the question, "What does it mean to be a man?" to a group of young men I was doing healing work with. In this particular situation, the young men were sharing their feelings about an exercise that each of them had just experienced, focused on the misogyny, sexism, and patriarchy that women often face in society.

# data[].attributes.body
Justin Baldoni explains how he has been hiding behind a mask to please others. He explains that he was always told how to act as a man or he'd face rejection. He focuses on some of the stereotypes and says that it's time for these to end.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Why I'm done trying to be "man enough" | Justin Baldoni

# data[].attributes.body
Adam Dosray elxplains in this Ted Talk how men are trained to put on a mask emotion wise. Often times men don't deal with their emotions because society tells them that they shouldn't even be having them. He explains how the emotions should be dealt with rather than be ignored.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Emotions: The Data Men Miss | Adam Dorsay | TEDxSantaClaraUniversity

# data[].attributes.body
Boys and girls are all asked the question "What does it mean to be a boy?" The basic answer was that boys should be tough, play sports, not cry, be what people say you should be. The images that society set for us.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Web-based app for making ebooks in the classroom. Teachers can get started for free and invite students to join their library. Add text, images, audio and video and easily publish your books online.

# data[].attributes.body
This project explains some of media's negative impacts on men and teenagers. It also goes into some of the stereotypes placed on men and what media is expecting society to believe about them.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Stereotype

Search

Man with great abs

Stereotype

Men and Emotions

Search Instead: Men and Emotions

Images

Back

No Results For: Man with great abs

Stereotype

Men and Emotions

Results for:Men and Emotions

All

Back

Men and Media Misrepresentation: Maybe women aren't the only ones harmed by media's gender stereotypes.

Is Media Influencing Men's Actions?: Stereotypes seem to be impacting impressionable teenage boys.

Are Media's Stereotypes Shaping Modern Men?:The way media displays men is setting impossibly high standards for men.

Media and Misrepresentation

Women aren't the only ones affected by objectification and stereotypes in media. Everyday men can see hundreds of images and videos on the internet and on TV. All of which display mostly male supermodels, setting high standards for the average guy. Or, they display male workaholics, men being abusive toward women and/or children, or emotionless guys. Not every guy is going to be anything like some of the stereotypes listed above and media is leading people to believe otherwise.

Is Media Influencing Men's Actions?

Everyday impressionable teenage boys are seeing popular movies and viewing popular posts on social media. A lot of those movies and posts involve an abusive man causes mental and/or physical harm to women and children. Eventually, some boys might start seeing that as the right way to act because it's shown so often. Then, those boys start acting violently and eventually their children might get that impression that violence is acceptable. It causes a sort of chain reaction and media is to blame.

Are Media's Stereotypes Shaping Modern Men?

If men are constantly falling victim to viewing the many stereotypes and impossibly high standards set by media then it could be harming them. Some men might feel like they need to meet the quota set by media and it could harm them mentally and physically. If they don't accept themselves the way they are and are hiding behind a mask their whole lives then they could develop depression or self-image issues. If men attempt to become what they see they could harm themselves by developing eating disorders or taking steroids. All that to fit in with what media tells society to expect from men.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Men and Masculinity by Leah Nadeau on Genially

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Stereotype Search Man with great abs Stereotype Men and Emotions Search Instead: Men and Emotions Images Back No Results For: Man with great abs Stereotype Men and Emotions Results for:Men and Emotions All Back Men and Media Misrepresentation: Maybe women aren't the only ones harmed by media's gender stereotypes.

# data[].attributes.body
In this Project what I did was a Interactive Image and I have facts and also videos. What the

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
What Does It Mean To Be A Man?

Most fathers think/say that their sons should away be the "the man of the house", "always man up", "take it like a man always", And "big boys never cry"things like this make young men think this is really how a man should be and then they grown up.

Men think they need to be described as Masculine, strong, hard-working, tough, athletic, the one that works, the one that has the money, the one that anger, a hero and many more words. If your not any of "those words"then people don't see you as a man. because others think you should always be like that.

Some men at a young age have the wrong thought of being a man and when you get around the age 18 you kinda get the idea but you don't show it and when you get older you know it but there are still men out there that don't.

men sometimes have suicidal thoughts because they felt so lonely and they didn't have anyone to help them.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Interactive image by kmacias on Genially

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
What Does It Mean To Be A Man? Most fathers think/say that their sons should away be the "the man of the house", "always man up", "take it like a man always", And "big boys never cry"things like this make young men think this is really how a man should be and then they grown up.

# data[].attributes.body
This article talks about how the world sees masculinity. He talks about several studies that shows that what happens when men have masculinity. He also talks about his experience of masculinity.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Something has happened to our academic culture-the culture that teaches educators how to teach, therapists how to counsel, and parents how to parent-and it is both very satisfying and somewhat frightening. Satisfying is that our academic culture is waking up to the fact that boys and men in America need our love and support. Child advocates like myself who are parents of daughters have been saying for years, "We can't do much more for our daughters if we don't help their future husbands-our nation's sons-too." Many people like you have been asking representatives of national organizations such as the National Education Association, American Psychological Association, and American Medical Association to see what is going on with boys and men.

As I pointed out in Saving Our Sons (2017), despite that there are many powerful men at the top of society, there is also no American demographic group in which males in that group are doing better than females in the aggregate. While subsections of females are doing worse than males, there are equal or more subsections of males doing worse than females. Even the World Health Organization made this point in 2015. White females, for instance, have better health than white males and more access to health resources; they have better aggregate grades, test scores, college graduation rates, post-secondary education; they are safer at home and in school than white males. The list is very long, and the same holds true for comparisons of African American, Native American, Latino American, and Asian American males and females.

When the American Psychological Association put out its Guidelines for Practice with Boys and Men in January 2019, I was delighted to see its clarity in pointing out male privation-from high suicide rates to depression, anxiety, addiction, and violence. These are diseases that need treatment, and the APA acknowledged it. But from the first sentences of the Guidelines, the APA did what so many other organizations do: fall back on the soft science of "masculinity is the cause of men's problems" and "removing masculinity is the solution." This last couple weeks, I've been asked to publicly respond to the APA report. What follows here is introductory analysis and then one of my responses. My basic point is this: even by the APA's definition, "masculinity," which they suggest therapists help us remove from males, is actually a good thing.

Masculinity is characterized, according to the APA, by strength, stoicism, aggression, and power. Like our academic institutions in general today, the APA presents these aspects of masculinity as our nation's largest male problem. In reality, however, if boys are to survive and thrive in a complex world, they must work to be strong ( resilient, empowered, able to perform, and at appropriate times, stoic in the face of enemies and hardship), aggressive ( assertive, motivated, and able to battle against bullies, as well as help us fight our wars both abroad and at home), powerful (successful in work, in life, in leadership, and, when needed, in follower-ship to leaders who are morally sound). These qualities are intertwined with tenderness, kindness, compassion, spiritual vitality, empathy, fortitude, character, and fatherhood. We are able to have compassion because we are strong; we are able to live from a position of kindness because we have the power to do so.

As profiles of school shooters have shown us, the most dangerous male is not one who is strong, aggressive, and successful; the most dangerous male is one who is depressed, unable to partner or raise children successfully, unable to earn a living, unable to care for his children. The most dangerous man is not one with power but one who feels powerless. Our culture has focused its media on the million or so males who have a lot of power at the top but, for the most part, forgotten the millions who don't; these millions live in inner cities and rural farms, gentrified suburbs and city lofts, corner bars and cardboard boxes, gang crash pads and parents' basements. They are in constant fight or flight mode in a culture that has abandoned them, and every decade we see their withdrawal from and violence against society, and themselves, increase.

In The Wonder of Boys (1996), I argued that masculinity is, at its heart, a "husbanding" vision of strength, purpose, honor, power, and compassion that culminates in the art of building a strong enough male self to be able to give that self to others in love and marriage, in parenting and mentoring, in work and life. Few people were more masculine than Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Thurgood Marshall-you name it, the men who help us most are each in their own way quite masculine. If we are going to solve issues faced by everyone today-boys, girls, women, men, and everyone on the gender spectrum-we must challenge academic culture to go deeper into who boys are, and what most people in America see very clearly: boys need more masculinity, not less; more fathering, not less; more healthy manhood, not less.

And we must respond when people exploit narrow definitions of masculinity for their own ends. Gillette did this recently in their now famous 2 minute add (check on You Tube for "The Best a Man Can Get"). The ad presented men and masculinity in a basically negative light, and presented normal masculine rough housing as part of toxic masculinity when, in fact, rough housing is a crucial tool in brain development. Interestingly, when Dove and similar companies have created commercials that approach girls' and women's lives from a clearly political lens, they have done so by seeking to find the beauty in girls and women, rather than leading with and ending with basically negative portrayals of girls and women. In taking the opposite course, Gillette asked men to be accountable for bad behavior: that part of the ad is admirable, and useful; but, like the APA, Gillette does not understand how important masculine development is to human development and survival. They especially do not understand that above all else, males who seek to be masculine will not countenance violence against women or children. Masculinity is a protective force against violence, not an invitation to commit violence.

Masculinity and "masculine norms" can handle academic and social dialogue. As social forces, they can handle very useful calls for expansion beyond some stereotype of self. But masculinity is fragile, too, as millions of failing males prove. It is too fragile to be accused by our nation's smartest people of crimes it has not committed. And our sons are too fragile to survive and thrive if those who ostensibly care for them-from academics to businesses to schools to communities-suggest our sons' biggest crime is their very existence. As McGill University researcher and co-author of Replacing Misandry Paul Nathanson has pointed out: This will lead to self-hatred in boys and men, which is very dangerous, indeed.

Bad men do bad things and some men never grow beyond a small self. To pretend masculinity has caused these social and personal conditions is to distract ourselves from huge areas of real pain all around us. Let's stop treating masculinity as our enemy: let's start helping boys to grow into the good men their own personal character and drive want them to be.
Response to the American Psychological Association Guidelines on Practice with Boys and Men
Tony was a 14-year-old boy who walked into my counseling office with a lot of issues. Short for his age and not yet visibly pubescent, he had been diagnosed with ADHD and his parents felt he might be depressed. He was like hundreds of boys and men I've seen in my clinical practice: if the counselor knew how to work with him as a young male, Tony would work with me; if the counselor didn't, he wouldn't.

After normal intake, the first thing we did together was walk outside, talking shoulder-to-shoulder. Because the male brain is often cerebellum dependent (it often needs physical movement) in order to connect words to feelings and memories, we sat down only after our walk finished. By then, a great deal had happened for Tony.

Once in our chairs, we talked with a ball in hand, tossing it back and forth, like fathers often do with children. This cerebellum and spatial involvement help the male brain move neuro-transmission between limbic system and frontal lobe (where word centers are). We also used visual images, including video games, to trigger emotion centers, and we discussed manhood and masculinity a great deal, since Tony and every boy yearns for mentoring in the human ontology of how to be a man.

I've seen hundreds of girls and women in my therapy practice. Few of them needed walking, physical movement, and visual-spatial stimulation to help access memories, emotions, and feelings because most girls are better able to access words-for-feelings than boys and men while sitting still: girls and women have language centers on both sides of the brain connected to memory, emotion, and sensorial centers while the male brain mainly has these word centers in the left.

Without our realizing it over the last fifty years, we've set up counseling and psychological services for girls and women. "Come into my office," we say kindly. "Sit down. Tell me how you feel/felt." Boys and men fail out of counseling and therapy because we have not taught our psychologists and therapists about the male and female brain. Only 15% of new counselors are male, leaving 85% female. Clients in therapy skew almost 80% female-males are dragged in by moms or spouses, but generally leave an environment unequipped for the nature of males.

Male nature, the male brain, the need to contextualize boyhood into an important masculine journey to manhood are missing from the new American Psychological Association's Guidelines for Practice with Boys and Men ( www.apa.org/about/policy/boys-men-practice-guidelines.pdf.) While the document calls attention to male developmental needs and crises in our culture, which I celebrate as a researcher and practitioner in the field, it then falls into an ideological swamp.

Males, we are told, are born with dominion created by their inherent privilege; females (and males) are victims of this male privilege. The authors go further to discuss what they see as the main problem facing males-too much masculinity; they call it the root of all or most male issues from suicide to early death to depression to substance abuse to reason for family break ups to school failure to violence. They claim that fewer males than females seek out therapy or stay in therapy and health services because of "masculinity." Never is the skewed female-friendly mental health environment discussed. The assumption that all systems skew in favor of males, not females, is so deeply entrenched in our culture today, the APA never has to prove it.

Perhaps most worrisome: the APA should be a science-based organization, but its guidelines lack hard science. Ruben and Raquel Gur, Tracey Shors, Louanne Brizendine, Sandra Witelson, Daniel Amen, and the hundreds of scientists worldwide who use brain scan technology to understand male/female brain difference do not appear in the Guidelines. Practitioners like myself and Leonard Sax, M.D., Ph.D., who have conducted multiple studies in science-based practical application of neuroscience to male nurturance in schools, homes, and communities are not included.

Included are mainly socio-psychologists who push the idea that maleness is basically socialized into "masculinities" that destroy male development. Stephanie Pappas on the APA website sums up the APA's enemy: "Traditional masculinity - marked by stoicism, competitiveness, dominance, and aggression - is, on the whole, harmful." Our job as therapists is, the authors teach, to remove all but the ideologically sound "masculinities" from boys and men, and specifically remove masculinities that involve competition, aggression, strength, and power.

How much longer can our society and its professionals pretend we are developing a saner society by condemning the very parts of males that help them succeed, heal, and grow? In the same way that it is misogynistic to claim femininity is inherently flawed, it is misandrist to claim that masculinity is also thus.

I am an example: I was a sexual abuse victim in my boyhood, and a very sensitive boy. My ten years of healing from the abuse came as much from tapping into masculine strength as it did by expanding my sense of self in the 1970s toward the feminine. Both are good; neither is zero-sum, but I could not have healed without masculinity.

Part of the problem with the APA guidelines is that, from a neuro-science point of view, masculinity is not as limited as Pappas' assessment. Masculinity is an amalgam of nature, nurture, and culture. Masculinity-including traditional masculinity-is an ontology in which a male of any race, creed, ethnicity, or kind commits to developing and exercising strength, perseverance, hard work, love, compassion, responsibility for others, service to the disadvantaged, and self-sacrifice.

What professional in the psychology field would not want to embolden these characteristics? Most fathers and mothers would want counselors to embolden them because, despite the APA authors' lip-service to fathering in the document, fathering and mentoring boys in masculine development has been proven one of the most important determinants in child safety, school success, and emotional and physical health.

Not the erasure of masculinity but the accomplishment of it is required-including inside the counseling office and while walking along the street-if we are to save our sons from the crises outlined in the APA guidelines. Without counselors and parents understanding how to raise and protect masculine development and the male brain, boys like Tony drift in and out of video games, depression, substances, half-love, and, often, violence.

The masculine journey is not perfect and expanding what "masculine" and "man" mean to a given family and self is a point well made by the APA authors and an important one. But trying to hook mental health professionals into the ideological trinity of ideas--

*masculinity is the problem

*males do not need nurturing in male-specific ways because men have it all in our society anyway; and

*manhood is not an ontology, a way of healthy being, but a form of oppression,

--ignores one of the primary reasons for the existence of our psychology profession-not just to help girls, women, and everyone on the gender spectrum be empowered and find themselves, but also to help boys and men find their strength, their purpose, and their success in what will be, for them, a complex male journey through an increasing difficult lifespan.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Something has happened to our academic culture-the culture that teaches educators how to teach, therapists how to counsel, and parents how to parent-and it is both very satisfying and somewhat frightening. Satisfying is that our academic culture is waking up to the fact that boys and men in America need our love and support.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Make music online together by recording and using loops.Invite friends to collaborate. It's free and no download is required. Works on Mac, Windows, Chromebooks, iPhone, Android and Linux.

# data[].attributes.body
This article talks about how society places "rules" of being a man into everyone's heads. Eventually those so called rules start to drive men over a cliff because of the need to fit in. It talks about how men are defined a certain way but our society has the ability to expand those definitions.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
During an intimate panel discussion, six men addressed that complicated question.

scroll

When Harry's co-founders and chief executive officers Andy Katz-Mayfield and Jeff Raider began developing their company, they faced a timely challenge: how to market products for men-in this case, razors and grooming products-when cultural views on what it means to be a man were shifting.

They opted against the chiseled jawlines and buff torsos seen in many razor ads for their short film "A Man Like You," which debuted online Feb. 26. Produced in conjunction with The Representation Project, the three-minute video is a poignant tale about a mysterious visitor who discovers through the help of a young boy how to be a man. The visitor's journey to manhood prompts an epiphany for the boy: "There's no one way to be a man."

Both Katz-Mayfield and Raider were on hand to mark the release of "A Man Like You" with a March 7 screening and panel discussion in New York, hosted by Harry's and WP BrandStudio. Katz-Mayfield told attendees he and Raider hope the film will facilitate a conversation around the "complicated, relevant and timely" topic of masculinity-as well as encourage consumers to think about manhood outside of a stereotypical "man box."
"When we talk about the rules of being a real man, those rules aren't just handed to us on a sheet of paper. They're pounded into us daily." - MARK GREENE, SENIOR EDITOR, THE GOOD MEN PROJECT
After "A Man Like You" was shown, Katz-Mayfield joined former professional football player and activist Wade Davis, The Good Men Project's senior editor Mark Greene, A CALL TO MEN chief executive officer Tony Porter and Everyday Girl Dad writer Mike Reynolds for an engaging, hour-long discussion. Moderated by comedian Pete Lee, the panel-called "The Changing Face of Masculinity" -found participants sharing their thoughts on breaking down gender roles, pushing back against stereotypes and the impact of masculine identity in advertising, as well as in popular culture at large.

"When we talk about the rules of being a real man, those rules aren't just handed to us on a sheet of paper. They're pounded into us daily," said Greene. "Until we open up our definition of manhood much broader to include as many versions of manhood as there are men, men are going to continue to confront this question of 'Am I man enough?'"

Davis believes the anxiety many men experience over their masculinity has a tragic adverse effect.

"Seven out of 10 suicides in America are men," he said. "Trying to define what it is to be a man is killing men. We all have a responsibility to push back to expand these definitions, to not be afraid to be vulnerable."

The panelists acknowledged their discussion was taking place at a time when masculinity has come under particular scrutiny in the wake of the #MeToo and Time's Up movements. While those cultural milestones have made "good man" and "toxic masculinity" buzzwords, Porter said he wasn't a fan of either term, as such language divides men instead of encouraging shared responsibility.
"We all have a responsibility to push back to expand these definitions, to not be afraid to be vulnerable." - Wade Davis, former nfl player and activist
"It sets the stage for 'good' guys and 'bad' guys," he said. "It sets the stage for men to be able to say, 'I'm not that.' The truth of the matter is...we're all in this together. None of us will really get a pass."

A number of panelists suggested men could challenge expectations of themselves in small, attainable ways. Reynolds said it starts at home, and he feels it's important to show his daughters that certain interests (like his cross-stitching hobby, for example) aren't inherently male or female. "If boys like robots and math and science, great, but they have to be equally accepting of boys who like princesses," he said. "It's just a constant discussion with my kids about what being a boy or what being a girl means, and also what it doesn't mean."

Katz-Mayfield admits he still has a lot to learn and that his personal journey is far from over. He believes a key first step is for men to allow themselves to experience emotions not typically associated with masculinity.

"The next time you're feeling the tears coming, cry. The next time you're with a group of buddies and you're feeling scared, tell them you're scared," he said. "The more men who feel comfortable modeling the types of non-traditionally masculine behavior...we'll start to make a little bit of progress."
"The next time you're feeling the tears coming, cry. The next time you're with a group of buddies and you're feeling scared, tell them you're scared." - ANDY KATZ-MAYFIELD, HARRY'S CO-FOUNDER
Though "A Man Like You" breaks fresh ground where campaigns for men's grooming brands are concerned, Raider believes it fits in perfectly with the overall mission at Harry's.

"When we started Harry's, we felt like there was a really interesting opportunity to change the way brands in shaving and in men's grooming treated their customers," he said at the conclusion of the panel. "Some of those brands were, frankly, speaking down to us as guys-perpetuating a version of men in the world that just didn't apply to us."

Raider hopes Harry's customers will share the company's view of men as "confident, open, strong and vulnerable."

"Those are important traits we aspire to embody ourselves," he said.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
During an intimate panel discussion, six men addressed that complicated question. scroll When Harry's co-founders and chief executive officers Andy Katz-Mayfield and Jeff Raider began developing their company, they faced a timely challenge: how to market products for men-in this case, razors and grooming products-when cultural views on what it means to be a man were shifting.