ESSAY by ANNIE DABB
PHOTOGRAPH by N0TF0R$A1E
There is a stereotypical gender binary deeply ingrained into our patriarchal society that cis-gendered, heterosexual men are, or at least should be, less emotional than women in order to meet the required repression levels of respectable manhood. Not only is this stereotype wildly inaccurate, confirmed by regular displays of gut-wrenching devastation performed at football matches, or present in centuries old love ballads, but it forces men to find other, less public ways of expressing how they really feel without sacrificing their masculine reputation.
Couple this with women’s supposedly greater propensity for empathy, as well as the fact that we’re currently living in a technological age and through a cost of living crisis, and perhaps it should come as no surprise that many men are turning to free dating apps instead of expensive therapy platforms to express themselves. Who could have predicted that amongst the damaging effects of patriarchy that we perpetuate, would be men’s philistinic preference for emojis and digitised text as the vessels through which they can, unwittingly I assume, unleash their trauma upon unsuspecting women?