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US men are dying much earlier than women, as death 'gender gap' widens: Study
(medicalxpress.com)
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this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2023
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It's less acceptable for men to open up, it's one of the toxic masculinity traits that harms men the most.
I think as men get older, we also tend to have less close friends than women. Or at least it sure seems to be that way for many. Saw it with my dad before we lost him last year. I see it with my brother and myself. It has brought me and my brother somewhat closer in that we text and talk more than we used to despite not living close and being pretty different personalizes.
I have a few close friends, but not male ones. I had to stop working at a young age and I feel that is when I stopped having a connection to any sort of male bonding.
But I agree, that it still seems unacceptable to open up, share feelings, and be vulnerable as a man. Probably why I have mostly had women as close friends most of my adult life.
I have to wonder about the generalized differences between men and women not helping here either.
Men can bond over problem solving or following a sport /passion. Work often helps create an environment for plenty of problem solving and sharing of sports.
Women typically share about most things and want to just be heard with their gf's and that is a wider bandwidth to contribute to a relationship with. A listening partner to vet their feelings with often.
Men typically are either figuring out their hierarchy subconsciously and couldn't afford to share their losses as easily. Plus most men don't really want to hear it. Older men often don't know how to deal with it. There's a reason a lot of our happy places are places where we don't seem to think like fishing, watching sports, etc
I discovered after my father passed unexpectedly from a heart attack the majority of his male friends were those with health issues that he was helping out with from rides to doctors, to money for things like medicine. He didn't follow sports and outside of gambling didn't really have hobbies.
I didn't really put that together until years later when I looked back with this problem solving mindset. All those men that came up to me at his funeral were men he helped in one way or another. Some of them were going to lose some of the freedom he provided with his ability to still drive and shuttle them around. I'm not sure what friends he had outside of this dynamic during his short lived retirement. When I called his old co-workers that I knew of when I was younger to inform them of his passing often they had not seen or heard from him since they last worked together.
It's something my lonewolf personality is going to need to address as I get older too.