Pnewsology

The week’s news with a dash of psychology!

Jane Ogden (Professor in Health Psychology, Emeritus; email janeogden509@gmail.com; based on a conversation with James Cannon at Radio Surrey; 8.40 am 12/06/2026)

Week ending 12/06/2026

All opinions are those of Jane Ogden

So – heads up!  I have a lovely son, a lovely Dad and a lovely boyfriend!  So this is not about man bashing! BUT this week the news has been full of men behaving appallingly! (and not in a cheeky chappy kind of way!).

We have had the West Ham co-owner accused of preying on women for sex.  There was the dreadful knife attack in Belfast followed by the riots and many arrests.  We had a man in North London jailed for murdering his wife and trying to hide it by blowing up their house in a gas explosion and a male teacher found guilty of raping a pupil in Manchester.  Plus – we had arrests (of mostly men) at the Epsom Day races and Stokes was removed as England cricket captain after a punch up. 

In fact, once I started to think about covering masculinity, stories of men being horrible just seemed to be everywhere!  

I know men have more testosterone than women and are probably evolutionary programmed to be more aggressive etc etc but what has gone wrong? Many men are nice and calm and caring and don’t murder or rape people.  It’s therefore not biologically inevitable and has to be nurture to some extent?  And if nurture is bringing out the worst in men then surely it can bring out the best?

Men are physical.  But surely this can be exercise not fighting? And if it has to be fighting then surely this can be in a ring not on the streets? Men are also sexual.  But so are women – so why can’t it just be about consent then everyone is happy? But men also struggle with identity in a world where a lot of the ‘manly’ manual jobs have gone.  And this can lead to problems with mental health if they are told to ‘man up’ and keep it all in.  So we need a new way to help men find a new identity in a changing world whilst also helping them let off steam in appropriate ways and feel safe to talk about how they are feeling.

So some good news! This week we also heard from Gareth Southgate who gave his views on boys, arguing that they do need to be treated differently to girls to help them manage their need to be physical as a means to help with their identity, mental health, employment and educational success. And we also heard Declan Rice talk about how his mum was cross with him about his sunburn at the World cup which made me smile!

Men and women are different.  But this doesn’t mean that men will inevitably behave appallingly.  I have many good men in my life who play loads of sport and talk the talk as good as anyone.  The problem is supposed to complex!  But it seems to me that the solution is actually quite simple! Do sport of every kind and then just chat!