Our prevailing conception of masculinity drives us to stomp out emotion in our boys, who then grow up into emotionally stunted men. The harm from this trauma results in violence for us all: to women, to the men themselves, and to their families. Re-imagining what it means to be a man in our society may be the key that unlocks true equality.

Joshua Ginsberg is a founding director of SeekHealing, an Asheville non-profit offering a free post-detox rehabilitation program for users of heroin and other opiates, a population that is overwhelmingly male. He also has worked in software development for nearly twenty years, an industry that is overwhelmingly male. Between the two, he has grappled with the range of ways in which the emotional underdevelopment of men has been poisonous to themselves and the ones they care about.