Welcome to this series of articles connected to International Men’s Day (November 19) where men reflect on what it means to be male. Here we see Mischa Badasyan being interviewed.
I think it (that men are more likely to commit suicide) is because of the society rules that we made long time ago: man supposed to be on the top, if he can not he will loose everything and be with nothing. There is nothing inbetween.
Name: Mischa Badasyan
Place of residence: Berlin
Age: 26
Are you glad to be a man? Why (not)?
I am glad to be a man in the most privillged group: white man in the wealth country. I know that I am lucky enough in this situation. So I have to appreicate it.
Men are at the extremes of success, on the one hand they are more likely to be directors, managers and politicians, on the other hand more likely to be homeless, have severe mental illnesses and be in prison. Why do men have such big extremes?
I am not sure if it requires to all men but yeah men could be a boss but at the same time men commite more often suicide then women. I think it is because of the society rules that we made long time ago: man supposed to be on the top, if he can not he will loose everything and be with nothing. There is nothing inbetween. We still keep these rules.
All over the world, men are more likely than women to commit suicide (data). Why is this? What do you think can be done to address this?
Yeah, I just mentioned that too. I think it is because of the great expections of the society. Like my mum, she wanna me being a boss working in the office, with a big car and a huge house. I am sure it will never happen and I am happy that I live far away from my family now. There are in Russia and I live in Berlin, they even dont know about my homosexuality.
When did you have your last check-up for prostrate and testicular cancer? Why don’t men tend to look after their health?
I never did it in my life, I know someone who had this problem and i am just scared of it somehow. But I do care about STIs
What male role models do you have?
Musicians like John Lenon, activits like Gandhi, artists like Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Bas Jan Ader.
How is it possible to address the problems that men and women face without competition between them?
It is a bit tricky, maybe in the art you can find a way to avoid a gender ineuqality, by projects that requires more team working and not competetion between them
What’s your message for men for this year’s International Men’s Day?
Just think about why you are a man and which benefits you have from it. Appreciate it and go towards dialogue between gender, but better to destroy all genders at all, which is going to happen soon in the future, I think
If you wish to sponsor Janick who is taking part with Movember, an initiative to raise money towards combatting prostrate and testicular cancer as well as, in Poland, male depression, please go to this link. Males are invited to be be interview partners by going looking at the questions here and answering them as a comment underneath. The answers will later be published as an article.
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