Male celebrities, masculinities and the promotion of mental health literacy: comparing the Anglophone and Sinophone pop culture landscape

Across many cultures, the dominant masculine norms of stoicism, strength and independence often serve to stigmatize the vulnerabilities associated with mental health struggles, leading to some men more inclined to view help-seeking as a sign of weakness compared to women. In this article we explore one facet of medicalized masculinity–specifically the nexus of masculinities and mental health literacy–and how both are produced in mediated public spheres. Specifically, we focus on how cis-gender male celebrities in the Anglophone and Sinophone worlds promote mental health literacy drawing attention to how cultural and social contexts influence understandings of both masculinity and mental health. The article contributes to the study of medicalized masculinity in three ways: first, it draws attention to how celebrity performances can often serve as way of understanding the (re)production of gender norms; second, in drawing comparisons between different cultural and social contexts we can glimpse how masculinities and mental health literacy are informed by both enduring cultural values (e.g. individualism, Confucianism); third, we highlight significant cultural and social differences reinforcing masculine hegemonies in various ways. The article contributes to a more nuanced understanding of medicalized masculinities and the role mediation plays in informing how we design and implement gender-sensitive mental health programmes in different cultural contexts.