Saunders Margo, Peerson Anita
Freemasons Foundation Centre for Men's Health, University of Adelaide, South Australia.
Health Promot J Austr. 2009 Aug;20(2):92-7. doi: 10.1071/he09092.
The development of Australia's first national men's health policy provides an important opportunity for informed discussions of health and gender. It is therefore a concern that the stated policy appears to deliberately exclude hegemonic masculinity and other masculinities, despite evidence of their major influence on men's health-related values, beliefs, perspectives, attitudes, motivations and behaviour.
We provide an evidence-based critique of the proposed approach to a national men's health policy which raises important questions about whether the new policy can achieve its aims if it fails to acknowledge 'masculinity' as a key factor in Australian men's health.
The national men's health policy should be a means to encourage gender analysis in health. This will require recognition of the influence of hegemonic masculinity, and other masculinities, on men's health. Recognising the influence of 'masculinity' on men's health is not about 'blaming' men for 'behaving badly', but is crucial to the development of a robust, meaningful and comprehensive national men's health policy.
澳大利亚首个全国男性健康政策的制定为开展关于健康与性别的明智讨论提供了重要契机。因此，令人担忧的是，尽管有证据表明霸权男性气质及其他男性气质对男性与健康相关的价值观、信念、观点、态度、动机和行为有重大影响，但既定政策似乎有意将其排除在外。
我们对拟议的全国男性健康政策方法进行了基于证据的批判，这引发了一些重要问题，即如果新政策不承认“男性气质”是澳大利亚男性健康的关键因素，它是否能够实现其目标。
全国男性健康政策应成为鼓励在健康领域进行性别分析的一种手段。这将需要认识到霸权男性气质及其他男性气质对男性健康的影响。认识到“男性气质”对男性健康的影响并非是要“指责”男性“行为不良”，而是制定强有力、有意义且全面的全国男性健康政策的关键。
