Is Traditional Masculinity Harming Your Son's Emotional Health?

The Advisor with Stacey Chillemi · Dec 9, 2025 · 47m

You told him to shake it off. To be tough. To not let it bother him. And he did — at least on the outside. What you could not see was what went underground instead. The "man up" message does not make boys stronger. It makes them better at hiding — and the hiding has costs that show up years later in friendships that stay shallow, relationships that break under emotional weight, and a deep disconnection from their own inner life that nobody taught them to tend. Dr. Gloria Vanderhorst has spent nearly 50 years as a psychologist studying exactly how that wiring happens — and what she shares…