Aussie Men Are Being Encouraged To Open Up About Their Feelings And Cry More

Australian blokes are being called on to dive into their emotions more.

Men are stereotyped as people who can be guarded with their feelings and some view opening up as feminine or unmanly.

However, The University of Melbourne's Centre for Mental Health believes this couldn't be further from the truth.

"We know that 75% of all suicides are by males, and that one of the things that may be influencing this is the pressure society places on boys and men to be self-reliant and solve problems by themselves," The Uni of Melbourne's Professor Jane Pirkis said.

"Our work is challenging some of these traditional masculine norms and looking at whether this may help to bring down the male suicide rate."

Men experience all the same emotions as women, however some choose to bottle it up deep inside them, which can have pretty rough consequences.

The university is hoping their new initiative, Boys Do Cry, will encourage blokes to drop their guard every now and then and actually deal with their emotions when they're not feeling their best.

They have teamed up with mental fitness foundation Gotcha4Life, and Heiress Films, the team behind the Gus Worland-hosted ABC TV series Man Up for the project and they have a catchy tune to go with it.

Gus said about the project: "Men generally wanted to deal with stuff themselves.

"'She'll be right mate, give it to me, I'll deal with it'. It's a difficult thing to unlearn that.

"But that's why we've got this problem. My goal is to get Aussie men more mentally fit and keep it as simple as possible."

The team has reimagined The Cure's iconic song 'Boys Don't Cry' to suit the name of their project and they hope it will help with their goal of getting men to express themselves.

The song 'Boys Do Cry' has been created by a choir of 30 men 'from all walks of life and backgrounds, and from diverse communities'.

The project is the brainchild of The Hallway's Simon Lee, who revealed there is nothing more freeing than being transparent about how you feel.

"Going and telling my GP that I was suffering from anxiety was more nerve-racking than any pitch presentation I have ever had to make. But admitting my vulnerability and reaching out for help is one of the best things I have ever done," he said.

If you want to find out more information about Boys Do Cry, head here.

Featured Image Credit: Supplied

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie