It's that time of year that every junior dreads. The time of year where everyone is stressed out about junior theme. Before I could even start worrying about writing the paper I had to pick a topic that I would be able to research thoroughly and not get bored. At first there seemed to be a surplus of various topics and I did not think I'd ever be able to chose. But as I walked around the library looking at books, I found one called Guyland that seemed interesting. It was a book that described the difficulties men face growing up in todays society. This started to get me thinking about masculinity and the various social pressures that men face. My mom always said that I should try to remember that it's not easy being a teenage boy. My brothers had just as hard of a time growing up as I have had.
So I had a general topic: masculinity. I thought it would be something a little different since there is a lot of research and understanding about feminism and problems women have faced in society, but there is not as much emphasis on the struggles men face. A poster I found hanging on the wall in the library echoed this idea. It started with, "For every girl who is tired of acting weak when she is strong, there is a boy tired of appearing strong when he feels vulnerable." It calls to attention the flip-side of gender stereotypes. Most people just think about women being discriminated against, but men face a lot of difficulties too. However, masculinity is quiet a large topic still and I need a why question to focus my research. As I looked online for general research, I kept coming across the statistic that men were three time more likely to commit suicide than women. I figured there must be some reason behind this shocking fact. This intrigued me so much that I realized I finally had my why question. Why are men three times more likely to commit suicide than women?
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