Japanese Men Seek Help for Western Over-Kill…

Chan, R.K.H., & Hayashi, K. (2010). Gender Roles and Help-Seeking Behaviour: Promoting Professional Help among Japanese Men Journal of Social Work, 10 (3), 243-262

[Click on this link, for abstract...]

There are many normative assumptions wrapped up in the idea that when we are in trouble, we seek help (Chan & Hayashi, 2010, p.243). Similarly, we assume that Western conceptualisations of gender, masculinity, and so forth transfer easily onto other cultures (2010, p.243). I doubt that either of the aforementioned propositions would hold up to much scrutiny. Ditto, I am not a great fan of O’Neil’s ‘Gender Role Conflict Scale’ (GRCS), so when I saw it being utilised in this article (2010, p.244), I immediately thought ‘Connell’ (2005) and how much closer her theory of hegemonic masculinity comes to really understanding the complexity of how men ‘do’ gender.

You know what really irks me about GRCS? Maybe I’m being a total deadshite, but it has that same narky ring of homeostasis as does systems theory (family therapy) and crisis intervention theory (suicide prevention), the latter two basically being dead ducks in the world of therapeutic interventions. Of course, apologies to those turkey family relationship and suicide prevention services that still slavishly model their clinical practice on something that long ago was reduced to a bowl of feathers. Men seeking or not seeking help cannot and should not be pared back to men being in or out of balance, not unlike a front loading washing machine in that regard.

We are told that Japanese men are big on masculinity, progressed through their socialisation from little kiddies to corporate executives (2010, p 245). There is an overbearing sense of ruthless heteronormativity in operation here, with the societal expectation that men not only climb the career but the cooch ladder as well (2010, p.245). Of particular interest to me is the revelation by the authors that Japanese men, as a rule, do not like to express their emotions (2010, p.246). They consider it to indicate a ‘lack…of refinement’ (2010, p.246). They could have a point. Western culture has rapidly become the cult of selfish me: chest beating, tree hugging, howling men who over-act every nuanced emotion. Perhaps restraint by Japanese men might be blissful respite?

The serious side of the coin is that Japanese men have been infamous for years for their propensity to fly from buildings without wings (2010, p.247). Chan and Hayashi (2010, p.247) seem to think that all we need to do is get those men and others to instead rock up to their local health and well-being professional, and carefully unburden their historically challenged but still quite substantial, emotional baggage. That should initiate a massive paradigm shift, in masculinity if not also, in forensic pavement cleaning. I wonder. For one, Japanese men are rightfully sceptical of that Rogerian head nodding, ‘mmm-mmm-ing’ counselling (2010, p.249), which is so beloved in the West. In brief, they can spot a stinker without actually hearing it coming.

The good news is that Japanese men, apparently, are not as caught up in GRCS (2010, p.255) as one might have originally feared. Moreover, the authors stridently advocate for ‘[p]rofessional help’ (2010, p.255) as the panacea for everything, including cleaning up nasty gender roles. Men must ‘adapt to the new social conditions’ (2010, p.258). That the authors (2010, p.258) also lay down the carpet mat that Japanese men have much work to do to get their masculinity in shape, seems to commodify this ideology against a backdrop that is, ironically, cynical of consumer culture. I love, I really do love big-ticket solutions that lionise and entrench professional, in this case counselling practice (2010, p.258)…