Normative Male Alexithymia And What Could Be Next (Possibly)

The “decline of men” is a common narrative that isn’t necessarily true, but we need to have more open discussions about what’s happening.

Because you may not know the term, I’ll start by defining it: “alexithymia” is a reduced ability to display and discuss emotions. As you’d guess, this is more associated with men. The seemingly-seminal paper on this is called “Are men emotional mummies?” and came about 22 years ago. It contains this paragraph, which I think would be logical for a lot of people reading it:

Research on children from infancy through the school years shows how this can happen, he said. Mothers, for instance, expose baby girls to a wider range of emotions than baby boys, and work harder to control their sons’ emotional volatility. Fathers step in to socialize their toddlers along gender lines at around 13 months, verbally rough-housing their sons and talking in more emotional terms with daughters. As kids get older, both parents…