A REPORT FROM the UK this week has launched a word into the public consciousness that wasn’t really there before.
And that word is “manxiety.”
According to a male clothing retailer in the UK, half of British males suffer from it and it can be summed up as guys having “a dissatisfaction with their body image” – essentially a male form of anxiety.
Suddenly, manxiety was all over the headlines
And everyone agreed that is indeed a serious issue for men everywhere
But some people didn’t think that adding the “man” on to the start was in any way productive
Writing for Metro, Ellen Scott does not want the term to become a thing, and explained why:
When I saw ‘manxiety’ all over Twitter, I felt pretty angry. Because I am so, so tired of people taking a serious issue and making it man-friendly.
And that the name takes away from the serious issue at hand:
There’s no reason men suffering from anxiety – an overwhelming, near constant feeling of unease – need a special term for it. There’s no reason for anxiety to be gendered. It makes men’s anxiety sound separate and, thanks to the wordplay-ishname, a bit silly.
It’s a word that has caught the eye of plenty of people on Twitter this week
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Blogger Jem Bloomfield also penned a passionate blog post about the topic, speaking of the damage this new portmanteau word could cause:
The real problem with the word “manxiety” is that it perpetuates exactly the kinds of problems men face in dealing with mental health. It asserts that these problems are separate from the essence of being a man, that somehow “man” and “anxiety” are ideas which don’t go together. This is precisely the attitude which keeps men from seeking professional help when they need it, or from being open about their emotional lives in ways which could reduce the mental pressure. When we tell men that they have “manxiety”, we fuel the machismo which insists that feelings are for the weak, and that men must never admit “weakness”.
While everyone who has spoken out about the term agrees that anxiety and mental health should be a priority – but it’s just ‘manxiety’ that they have a slight problem with.
