Masculinity and men's health disparities: conceptual and theoretical challenges

In the field of men’s health, including the important emerging area of men’s health disparities, conceptual and theoretical assumptions and challenges are omnipresent. These assumptions and challenges come from a range of disciplinary backgrounds. Biological, sociobiological, psychological, and sociological explanations are all found as either implicit or explicit explanations for understanding men’s health practices and outcomes. At the forefront of many of these assumptions and challenges have been discussions around how masculinities—differing ways of being a man—influence men’s practices and subsequent health outcomes. Many of these discussions have also included exchanges on how masculinities interact with other identity issues—including class, ethnicity, sexuality, disability, and age—to influence men’s varied health and social practices.