There are always stories about girls who starve themselves to be prettier, girls who self harm because they’re depressed, girls who have anxiety, girls who have been abused, and girls who have taken their own life. But what about the boys? Why is female the default we think of when we hear about all of these things?

Boys who are ‘supposed’ to be manly, strong, and tough feel too. Their emotions and feelings are often glossed over because of the common day standards of masculinity.

Males make up 77.9% of all suicides in the United States, that’s nearly four times the number that females do. One man kills himself every twenty minutes in the US. The female rate of attempted suicide is higher, but the actual successful suicide rate is higher for men.

Males are just as likely as women to get addicted to a substance or have a mental disorder, but they are also least likely to come forward and seek help with their disorder or substance abuse. Over six million men suffer from depression each year, and it often goes unnoticed. In 2015 over five million men abused prescription medicine. Studies show that most people with ADHD are males. 298,000 young men, aged from twelve to seventeen suffer from alcohol use disorder.

Rape and abuse are generally thought of as crimes against women and children, but they happen to guys too. Since the year 1998, 2.78 million men have been victims of rape, and one in every ten rape victims are male. 20.8% heterosexual men, 47.4% bisexual men, and 40.2% gay men have reported to the National Sexual Violence Research Center sexual violence that was not rape. 13% of documented contractors to the National Domestic Violence Hotline are male. More than 830,000 men are victims to domestic abuse each year.

Masculinity and pride are the main argumental factors from the other side of this argument. Wit masculinity, its the problem of being stronger than women and not being able to defend themselves against their (female) abuser in fear of facing jail time. Pride comes into play with men supposing to want sex and not being able to say no to it.

Gender stereotypes are the main problem here, it shouldn’t be expected for them to stop overnight but they can stop. If people set their minds to it, we can eliminate gender stereotypes in the future, making the world safer for men and women.

Male or female, we’re all people, so why should some of us be overlooked just because of our gender? Men have the right to speak up and feel just as much as women do.