This book is an attempt to understand suicide from the perspective of a group of men who decided to take their own lives. Their stories imply that male suicide is not, as frequently portrayed, an impulsive action arising from particular, sex-specific, causes but relates to a cluster of interlinked issues which accumulate over time. These issues were not distinctively male concerns but were connected to gender in that the men’s difficulties were exacerbated by the existence of an emotional culture which inhibited males from expressing specific feelings. The prevailing form of masculinity impeded them in developing knowledge of, and speaking about, their emotional needs and from accessing help and this prolonged their suffering and made suicide a possibility. These men produced compelling accounts of their emotional pain which belied notions of male inexpressiveness but the findings point to a link between emotionally constraining cultures and suicidal behaviour for some groups of men.

Drawing on diverse theoretical and textual sources, The Gender of Suicide presents a critical study of the ways in which contemporary society understands suicide, exploring suicide across a range of key expert bodies of knowledge. With attention to Durkheim's founding study of suicide, as well as discourses within sociology, law, medicine, psy-knowledge and newsprint media, this book demonstrates that suicide cannot be understood without understanding how gender shapes it, and without giving explicit attention to the manner in which prevailing claims privilege some interpretations and experiences of suicide above others. Revealing the masculine and masculinist terms in which our current knowledge of suicide is constructed, The Gender of Suicide, explores the relationship between our grasp of suicide and problematic ideas connected to the body, agency, violence, race and sexuality. As such, it will appeal to sociologists and social theorists, as well as scholars of cultural studies, philosophy, law and psychology.

This book shows how interpretations of suicidal motives were guided by gendered expectations of behaviour, and that these expectations were constructed to create meaning and understanding for family, friends and witnesses. Providing an insight into how people of this era understood suicidal behaviour and motives, it challenges the assertion that suicide was seen as a distinctly feminine act, and that men who took their own lives were feminized as a result. Instead, it shows that masculinity was understood in a more nuanced way than gender binaries allow, and that a man's masculinity was measured against other men. Focusing on four common narrative types; the love-suicide, the unemployed suicide, the suicide of the fraudster or speculator, and the suicide of the dishonoured solider, it provides historical context to modern discussions about the crisis of masculinity and rising male suicide rates. It reveals that narratives around male suicides are not so different today as they were then, and that our modern model of masculinity can be traced back to the 19th century.

This book aims to expand and enrich understandings of violences by focusing on gendered continuities, interconnections and intersections across multiple forms and manifestations of men’s violence. In actively countering, both, the compartmentalisation of studies of violence by ‘type’ and form, and the tendency to conceptualise violence narrowly, it aims to flesh out – not delimit – understandings of violence. Bringing together cross-disciplinary, indeed transdisciplinary, perspectives, this book addresses how –what are often seen as – specific and separate violences connect closely and intricately with wider understandings of violence, how there are gendered continuities between violences and how gendered violences take many forms and manifestations and are themselves intersectional. Grounded by the recognition that violence is, itself, a form of inequality, the contributors to this volume traverse the intersectional complexities across, both, experiences of violent inequality, and what is seen to ‘count’ as violence. The international scope of this book will be of interest to students and academics across many fields, including sociology, criminology, psychology, social work, politics, gender studies, child and youth studies, military and peace studies, environmental studies and colonial studies, as well as practitioners, activists and policymakers engaged in violence prevention.

A rare study that transforms our understanding of why youth die by suicide, why youth suicide clusters happen, and how to stop them Youth suicide clusters have deeply unsettled communities in recent years. While clusters have been widely documented in the media, too little is known about why youth die by suicide, why youth suicide clusters happen, and how to stop them both. In Life under Pressure, Anna S. Mueller and Seth Abrutyn investigate the social roots of youth suicide and why certain places weather disproportionate incidents of adolescent suicides and suicide clusters. Through close examination of kids' lives in a community repeatedly rocked by youth suicide clusters, Mueller and Abrutyn reveal how the social worlds that youth inhabit and the various messages they learn in those spaces--about who they are supposed to be, mental illness, and help-seeking--shape their feelings about themselves and in turn their risk of suicide. With great empathy, Mueller and Abrutyn also identify the moments when adults unintentionally fail kids by not talking to them about suicide, teaching them how to seek help, or helping them grieve. Through stories of survival, resilience, and even rebellion, Mueller and Abrutyn show how social environments can cause suicide and how they can be changed to help kids discover a life worth living. By revealing what it is like to live and die in one community, Life under Pressure offers tangible solutions to one of the twenty-first century's most tragic public health problems.

Are 'Dear John' letters lethal weapons in the hands of men at war? Many US officers, servicemen, veterans, and civilians would say yes. Drawing on personal letters, oral histories, and psychiatric reports, as well as popular music and movies, Susan L. Carruthers shows how the armed forces and civilian society have attempted to weaponize romantic love in pursuit of martial ends, from World War II to today. Yet efforts to discipline feeling have frequently failed. And women have often borne the blame. This sweeping history of emotional life in wartime explores the interplay between letter-writing and storytelling, breakups and breakdowns, and between imploded intimacy and boosted camaraderie. Incorporating vivid personal experiences in lively and engaging prose – variously tragic, comic, and everything in between – this compelling study will change the way we think about wartime relationships.

While there has been an increase in scholarship on men, ageing and masculinities, little attention has been paid to the social relations of men in later life. This collection fills this gap by foregrounding older men’s experiences, providing new perspectives across the intersections of old age, ethnicities, class and sexual and gender identity.