World We Imagine Part 3

 Men’s Mental Health (MMH) Foundation for those with troubled backgrounds

Have you ever heard of Andrew Tate? For those that don’t know, Andrew Tate is one of many influencers and online gurus who have created a community of men that promotes an “Alpha Male Lifestyle”, encouraging men who feel lost, alone, and unsure of themselves to strive for a lifestyle of pre-defined, shallow “success” and ultimately lessons in misogyny that exist to supposedly empower men. While the way described here seems rather unattractive, it is a practice that has worked and ultimately create a community of toxic men that feed into each other’s negativity and pessimistic view on the world, ultimately pushing them away from being people who can have empathy for others, especially women. The rise of the "male loneliness epidemic" is a topic of conversation relevant to this movement and something deeply misunderstood. The topics and approaches mentioned is something I’d like to counteract.

Focusing on an area such as this may seem strange in a time where misogyny is continuing to be a prevalent issue in which women are continuing to be oppressed despite change being made to circumvent the idea of sexism in the modern world. Many would argue that it is pointless to focus on such an area regarding men's mental health which has its arguments and points to be made for sure. Now what if I told you that a movement or organization such as this would be something that helps battle misogyny and create safe spaces for developing minds or troubled individuals to seek transformation and redemption when it comes to how they view the world and interact with it. With that in mind, I feel this is an organization worth pushing for to improve the lives of not just men, but the women and other people in society at large.

What the organization is and what makes it unique

The Men’s Mental Health Foundation is an institute I prose to exist as a place for men with troubled upbringings and warped perspectives on life and themselves to come and seek guidance, resources for therapy, and be involved in a community that helps men reconnect with the world. Often, men will lean towards joining communities like the one described above run by people like Andrew Tate. We aim to stray away from communities with ideas and lessons such as that, bringing in men with troubled pasts or situations (lack of a father/mother figure, mistreatment that has turned to resentment, male loneliness, insecurities around being a man overall) into a safe space that can look to take proper measures at helping them out. Leading them down a more intentional path with desire not for profit like Andrew Tate, but a hope for making the world a better place by improving the lives of those within communities.

One of the ways I feel would be a great way to operate an organization like this is to have it run by both men and women equally. While it is an organization aimed to help men with problems unique to them, it is important for there to be female perspective heavily involved in the proves of guiding men towards a better place in life in which they can learn things that may have not been taught to them growing up, whether its due to their family situation or upbringing that made it difficult. Furthermore, it would help with internal discussion for how to handle various situations with experts from both gendered perspectives aiming to come up with solutions that are more well rounded with the intention of helping people. We want to stray as far away as possible from people like Tate encouraging an echo chamber of toxic masculinity that ultimately shapes impressionable men who struggle with mental health down a path that has anything but the intention to help people, rather to profit and encourage viewpoints that are unproductive go backwards in growth for men of our society.

Why does this matter?

As a man growing up like many other men in the current world that is ever evolving in how society operates and how we treat each other, it can be confusing to navigate. Social media has exacerbated the issue in showing us people at their worst and many with view points that clearly demonstrate a lack of empathy and misguidance within their lives. This is an issue not only for men within that toxic masculinity space but one that is demonstrated in many social issues discussed to this day.

The reason I want to focus on men’s mental health is due to the misunderstanding I feel there is for the idea of “Male Loneliness” and what masculinity means as it is constantly redefined, reconstructed, devolved, and confused for many ideologies on what it means to be a man. Furthermore, many movements aiming to reshape sexism within society by holding men accountable for the greatly troubled history that sexism has had can confuse men as well. Those that grow up in underprivileged backgrounds or the lack of an authority figure that can help guide these men to think more critically about ideas and societal problems can be warped into a sense of low self-esteem.

This is a niche that I feel is overlooked and often misunderstood and is an area of psychological health and societal conflict I wish to confront. Societal issues of the such that pin men as the “bad guys” in a black and white sense (as opposed to seeing such issues with greys and undertones) causes great insecurity, leading to anguish, malice, hatred, and violence.

To make things clear, this is not to say women do not undergo just as bad, if not worse, societal issues continuously to this day. These struggles in sexism are not mutually exclusive and that is an important point to all of this. As alluded to before, I feel as though tackling this issue will be crucial for improving the ongoing issue of sexism in order to educate men on such societal problems properly.

We aim to not tell men how to act, or what to be, but to reframe their thinking in a productive manner that with a foundation of empathy and respect for one another (including themselves).

Often these lessons and ongoing problems are not conveyed in a way that everyone can understand and formulate healthy takeaways from such subjects, even when worded in the most digestible way possible by a scholar or professional writer. Social media discussions are even worse for this as they are fueled by an agenda of pride and winning arguments as opposed to a space to understand one another through empathy and reason. Understanding that and witnessing these things for myself, I feel it is important to curate spaces that allow for a well-constructed discussion with intention to help men who are lost, unsure of how to feel about such issues, those who become insecure due to such issues and backlash for trouble navigating the space, so on and so forth.

Why should Anima Mundi Development Partners Support this Organization?

Support for such a movement and organization would be extremely beneficial for the foundation’s ability to bring in qualified individuals to operate the organization as properly as possible. As highlighted consistently in previous points, how the issue is approached and who it is run by is at the core for what would make this work as intended. Bringing in qualified professionals (male, female, and other genders) would be at the core for its success.

Being able to provide temporary resources and treatment options for these men to go to would also be paramount for providing that long term care that many needs in the form of therapy, medication, counseling, and a community that they might not have access to. Being able to fund the operations and infrastructure to allow for such an organization to function would serve it greatly to allow it to focus on what matters for the MMH Foundation in the first place: a place for troubled men to come together in a community supporting each other with respect, empathy, and reform.

Doing so through organized events like charities, volunteering, workshops, community bonding, and more would be at the core of cultivating such an environment that is important for promoting the things we wish to teach. At its core, creating a community that help remind men that they are not alone, remind them that they do not need to be cold or distant or hateful in order to thrive in the world would be one of many things to encourage when it comes to helping take on issues that go so deep societally at a macro scale as well as within each person and their struggles at a micro scale.

Takeaway

The MMH Foundation aims to cultivate a community of empathy for men to approach life with more well rounded perspective than they once had before. Teaching people ways of thinking and approaching life that is often not taught well, if at all, to help circumvent societal issues and discourse surrounding sexism at its core. Often when taught about sexual assault, it is emphasized that men need to be taught to be better, not for women to “dress less inappropriately” or putting blame on women in general for something they are victims of in such scenarios. Let’s go a step further. Let’s teach men from a fundamental standpoint how to practice kindness, empathy, understanding, respect, and love for one another and oneself in a manner that helps make the world a better place.