Masculine Identity Norms
Strict adherence to masculine norms can feed our pride and relatedness to other men. Contributing to strong feelings of belongingness & value by overall social acceptance. But what is deemed manly often lies in conflict with our natural humanity, seemingly aligned on the extreme end of a hyper fixation on physical strength, emotional restrictiveness, and mental toughness. While this can foster traits of resiliency, it often results in maladaptive stress-coping strategies and lack of community feeling.
Our socialization of what is masculine poorly prepares us to connect and build relationships with the ones we love. We internalize the goal of being needed and meeting these needs via sacrifice, feeling value, purpose, and a sense of worth when we are able to do so. But when it comes to our individual needs, we often associate them with being "needy" or becoming a burden to those whom we sworn to provide for. Under the guise of duty we disconnect in order to re-connect, but find ourselves feeling isolated and misunderstood instead.
At OCC we believe that by gaining an understanding of our emotions, developing the ability to asses our needs, and widening our concept of masculinity will allow us to create improved relationships with those who care about us most.