Page 23 - Black Velvet Rock Magazine Issue 111

BV111 pg 20-25 Massive Wagons Interview.qxp_BV111 pg 23 09/12/2024 20:48 Page 4
my shoulders, I don’t want to bother anyone with
n older generation thing. I just think we’ve got to
generation of males grow up and they never ex-
agons
BlackVelvetMagazine.Com - 23
ating a comfortable, safe, social environment for fellas to go
and open up to like-minded blokes.”
“I did something for another group in the North East called
The Men’s Pie Club, which I thought was amazing,” Baz con-
tinues. He explains that it’s “where blokes go, of course, under
the guise of ‘all blokes love to eat pies’. And they go and they
make pies and they talk or they don’t talk, and it’s a nice, cool
environment.”
The Men’s Pie Club website, at www.menspieclub.co.uk,
explains that they exist to tackle social isolation and improve
mental health. ‘It’s for guys who live alone, or feel alone, or just
need an excuse to get out more.’ It’s organised by Newcastle-
based social enterprise Food Nation, with funding from Movem-
ber.
But, when men go through turbulent life events, they often
have a hard time opening up to anyone about what they are
going through.
“It’s about breaking down the stigma of it, as well,” Baz
says. “Blokes don’t want to be… there’s a tough thing about it,
a tough element. Blokes like to appear tough. ‘I’ll carry it on my
shoulders, I don’t want to bother anyone with it.’ It’s breaking
that down. And I think it’s an older generation thing. I just think
we’ve got to keep hammering away at it until the younger gen-
eration of males grow up and they never experience that
stigma, they’ve never known it, so it’s just normal to talk about
it, which is, I suppose, what will happen in the next 10, 15, 20
years when the youth become blokes. They feel comfortable
talking about their mental health.”
We ask Baz if he found it hard to talk about certain things
when he was growing up.
“My school report! I found it hard to talk about that, because
that was rubbish!” he jokes, before adding, more seriously, “I
don’t know, really. Yeah, maybe. Maybe. I have amazing par-
ents. Maybe that’s an issue. Maybe some people who come
from broken homes may be struggling with it more, or they
have parents who aren’t around or parents who, there isn’t a
nice environment at home, or whatever. Not just men, kids
struggle from that age. Things in your adult life are often some-
times seeded in your childhood, aren’t they? I think if you’ve
got great parents and they tell you you can talk to them at any
time, and be good parents, I think that will help a lot. I never
really struggled. No, my parents are great and were always
there for me and cared about what I did and where I was. I
could go and speak to them about things. Yeah, I was quite
lucky that way, really.”
hen we type ‘Men’s Mental Health’ into Google, the
Wtop link that comes up mentions that men are more
commonly diagnosed with substance-use disorders and anti-
social behaviours. We ask Baz if he thinks this is because they
find it hard to talk to others, so, instead, drown their sorrows or
take substances to forget problems.
“Yeah, I think so,” he replies. “I think, lads grow up… Just
the very nature of lads is… to say something stupid, they’re
laddy, aren’t they? Lads and the lads, there’s a lot of testos-
terone and a lot of alpha male nonsense going on, isn’t there?
And nobody wants to be the weakling. So, lads, yeah, maybe
they drink and they go out. They want to be the tough guy and
have an image to uphold. Maybe that doesn’t help. Yeah,
maybe that’s got a lot to do with it. And, maybe, that leads to
drinking and whatever, substance abuse. It’s a slippery slope,
isn’t it? Everybody’s different and all have different issues and
different brains.”
The MentalHealthUK.org website states that toxic mas-
culinity also comes in the form of being outwardly violent.
Baz says that he thinks men are the more violent sex. “I
don’t know why that is. I can only speak from my experience.
I’ve never been attacked by a woman or beaten up by a
woman. The only hassle I’ve ever had has been from fellas,
from blokes or lads. I think when you get out of a certain age,
it stops. Nothing like that’s happened to me for a long, long
time, because I don’t drink anymore. I have a family, so I’m not
in that environment anymore. But, certainly, guys in their late
teens and 20s, it’s a rough, tough world. A lot of drinking. A lot
of going out and a lot of images to uphold. And it can lead peo-
ple down dark paths, I suppose, can’t it, if that carries on into
their adult life and they have an attitude, or they come from a
broken home or something. Yeah. I don’t know what makes fel-
las more violent than anyone else.”
MASSIVE WAGONS