Mini Blog

Christmas Gifts and the Wellbeing Manifesto

With the start of the new year, I decided to focus on going through the well-meant gifts to see what I connected with. There were several things that took my interest, 2 different packs of affirmation cards (one of which has sweary affirmations) and some journaling books.

I selected one pack of sweary affirmation cards. These made me smile and several were relatable, however to my surprise a significant proportion of the cards were gendered towards females only “You F*cking Got This Girl” and so on. I carried on going through the full pack, and the second pack of affirmations cards and found no specific reference to being male or trans, but lots of references to being female. Whilst on the face of things not a major problem I decided to explore the journaling books that were given to me. All of these referred to being female and not orientated to any other gender.

Feeling a little disgruntled I went through several shops looking at wellbeing kits, literature, and cards, to do a quick snapshot of references to gender, and the way they are marketed. The predominance was for female orientated market. Not only this they seem to perpetuate often stereotypical ideas about what females find appealing.

I bought a few wellbeing books and thought about how these could be made either gender neutral, or more inclusive. I am conscious that statisticalLy men out number females by three to one when looking at death by suicide. However, there are far more females accessing mental health support.

This partialLy reflects the bias in the way males and females are assessed by professionals, but a bigger factor could be the way society is geared towards perpetuating the idea that females need support and males should get on with life, or that well is the domain of the hippies and the female gender. I do not class myself as a hippie or as an Alpha Male. Who I am depends very much on that singular day and the situation I am in. I like bold colours and sometimes muted colours. When will the mass marketing of wellbeing be more inclusive and engage a wider proportion of society. There is more to wellbeing than talking. For my wellbeing this includes periods of reflection and continual learning, but there is little in the mainstream market that engages me as a male. What there is specifically targeted at the male gender, is very grey, beige and very much like a schoolbook, Yuck

The whole marketing of wellbeing needs to reflect the diverse needs of the community, inclusive to everyone, all gender associations.