Johnson County in Wyoming (Google map) |
Hawley knows that men overall and rural men in particular face intense pressure to be stoic, that stigma of needing mental-health care often prevents them from seeking it. But men accounted for 79% of suicide deaths in the U.S. in 2020, and 70% were white men. Most of those suicides involved firearms, and often involved alcohol or drugs, Del Real reports. The phenomenon is particularly bad in Wyoming, which has the highest suicide rate per capita in the nation.
Sociologists believe toxic masculinity may be to blame, and that rural stigma can make things even worse. Hawley, "who is 59 years old and White, is working out his own theory. It has to do with the gap between the expectations men have for their lives and the reality of their individual experiences, worsened by cultural norms that discourage them from expressing any emotions besides anger," Del Real reports. "Toxic masculinity often turns outward. But it also turns inward."
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