“Men’s bodies, men’s selves”: men’s health self-help books and the promotion of health care
Categories: Men's HealthThis paper is a critical analysis of men’s health self-help books, focusing on the health care strategies encouraged by this advice literature. It is argued that the genre of men’s health self-help overwhelmingly emphasizes the role of the individual in achieving good health and well-being. In presenting this message, men’s health self-help reproduces a neo-conservative ideological perspective about public health: good health is primarily an individual concern, and that good health outcomes are largely the product of individual behavior. It is suggested that this emphasis on individuality works best for the genre’s target audience of middle-class men, but is of limited use for health-care strategies aimed at achieving better health outcomes for a broader male population.
Throughout the 20th century, there have been many popular Western health movements (Starker, 1989), which have made a difference to people’s health outcomes. For example, in the 1950s, the founding of the La Leche League signaled a turn away from bottle-feeding back to breast-feeding of infants, and subsequently, new forms of women’s empowerment in the face of male medical dominance. Beginning in the 1960s, complementary and alternative medicine gained increased public support, and practices such as naturopathy, homoeopathy, and acupuncture have become an accepted part of many people’s health regimen.
Fueled in part by concerns about men’s higher rates of morbidity and mortality compared to women, the men’s health movement has flourished in recent years in Europe, the United States, and Australia. This movement manifests itself in many ways: conferences have been organized by stakeholders to analyze and discuss men’s health issues, scholarly explanations have been offered to account for men’s poor health outcomes, and dedicated men’s health services have been established by health-care providers. At this point in time, it is not yet clear what impact the men’s health movement has had on men’s health outcomes, especially those men with the poorest health.