University of California professor, Tristan Bridges held a lecture on the negative effects of masculinity at the University of Denver’s Grand Forum Monday night. The talk entitled “Healthy for whom? Why redefining masculinity might not be enough” highlighted masculinity’s role in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bridges spoke to a predominantly female audience about his ongoing study of what masculinity is. He postulated that it is usually easier to describe what masculinity isn’t. Both Bridges and DU professor Dr. Amie Levesque – who introduced him – warned the audience that they would be discussing some uncomfortable topics.
Bridges began by stating simply, “I started studying masculinity because I recognized it as this kind of vague idea that I felt like I had been hurt by.”
The evening included the lecture from Bridges, an audience participation survey, and a Q&A portion with a panel of DU students and faculty. Bridges is the co-editor of the journal Men and Masculinity which studies the effects masculinity has on identity, politics, and social issues.
Bridges explained that masculinity was not the cause of the pandemic, but it had a causal role in the poor handling of it. Men were significantly less likely to wear a mask in the US during the pandemic and were also more likely to die from severe Covid.
A journalist asked Bridges at the height of the pandemic, “Do you think wearing a mask involves men admitting to be afraid? And are they simply unwilling to admit this in public?”
The unwillingness to admit weakness was the point that Bridges alluded to most often when assigning blame to masculinity. Dr. Amie Levesque also commented that she has had over 700 students since the pandemic began and has never had to tell a female-identifying student to mask up, only male students.
Bridges also cited macho political leadership as being dangerous to public health during the pandemic. The pandemic was not something that we needed to win, but rather withstand, we did not need weapons but tools.
“We were told by our president that he was too tough for a virus,” Bridges criticized.
Bridges then discussed what healthy masculinity looks like, stating that to some health experts, healthy masculinity is an oxymoron.
A series of ‘good man’ campaigns rolled across the screen at DU’s community commons. Each showing images of classically strong men with taglines like “My strength is not for hurting”, “Real men don’t rape”, and “Are you man enough to be a nurse?”
Despite the success of these campaigns, Bridges speculated whether or not masculinity could be the solution if it was also the cause of the very problems these campaigns aimed to solve.
The silver lining Bridges offered was, “This is not men, this is masculinity.”
Bridges argued that masculinity should be viewed as a weakness and not just strength. We should start “manning down” to solve problems because as the pandemic has shown us, a masculine approach does not always yield positive results.
The evening concluded with a panel of DU students who spoke about what masculinity means to them. They shared experiences of toxic masculinity at play at DU.
The concluding point of Bridge’s lecture was, “Masculinity is simply unhealthy.”
MFJS Reporter Spring 2022 