On Thursday, Oct. 11, campus fraternity Sigma Lambda Beta hosted Man Up, an open discussion on toxic masculinity. Fraternity president Rumong Yobech, a junior psychology major, wanted to start a dialogue about what it means to be a man.

“We wanted to host this discussion because we wanted to change the toxic parts of what we perceive as masculinity and change it so that we can better learn from it and so our future generations can learn how to be a better man in society,” said Yobech.

While exploring the different ways toxic masculinity affects our lives, the discussion dove into how men tend to not express their emotions in a public way. Students in the discussion agreed that defining masculine as strong, powerful, and dominant can encourage that behavior.

Sophomore chemical engineering major Nick Fronek said that the “stereotypical ideas of men” are the reason why they don’t show their emotions and tend to bottle things up.

“There are some things that we still need to learn today, like people that you can talk to if you have a girlfriend you can talk to and just help each other,” said junior finance and music and sound recording major, Brandon Tennant.

Yobech showed a picture of a man kneeling with the caption ‘If not me, then who?” and asked for opinions on whether men should just continue putting on a strong façade.  Regarding gender roles and societal norms, the students agreed that people often assume that men go to work and bring money into the household and that they cannot necessarily rely on their wives for help. However, according to the U.S Department of Labor, 57 percent of women over 16 were in the labor force in 2010.  

The last topic was mental health, and how it is okay to talk to someone. Yobech urged everyone to take care of themselves and listed campus resources.