Toxic masculinity contributes to road deaths. The idea that people are instinctively “too familiar” with cars can lead to overconfidence in dangerous situations, leading to overspeeding, dangerous overtaking, or the certainty of “holding the drink” to become signs of male competence. This is the message initiated by a road safety awareness campaign in France.
In 2022, 78% of traffic accident victims in France were men, and 88% of French drivers who died on the road were men aged 18-24. Of those suspected of causing road crashes, 84% were men, and 93% of drunk drivers involved in crashes were men.
In the video of the awareness campaign run by the French government, a young father meets his son in the delivery room. He moved and there are tears in his eyes. Another is holding her baby for the first time. The video reads, “You don’t have to follow what people expect from a man. It’s up to you to write down the man you want to be. A sensitive man, a crying man, a man who knows how to have a heart.” . The short film closes with a tagline: “Be the man you want to be, but be a living man.”
Sociologist Alain Mergier, who participated in the creation of the campaign and co-authored the study “Masculinities and road risks” with Cyrille Dupré, explained that the stereotypes that cars are a symbol of masculinity are passed down from father to son. “Very early, from childhood, the toy car becomes an intimate object, an object passed down through generations. This gives the car the status of a lasting symbol of masculinity,” Mergier told France Inter. “Masculine means being stronger, stronger than the other in a confrontational relationship with the world. These are well-known stereotypes that are perpetuated today by people who have had a difficult life and are perpetuated today by both the young and the much older,” he added.
A recent study by the French Institute for Public Opinion also revealed that a kind of male domination on the street continues. “The steering wheel is still the prerogative of men in the vast majority of couples, perhaps because this object of power and control is still very symbolically charged so that its sharing between the two sexes is not perceived as a challenge to their masculinity,” hence François Kraus, director of the Institute’s Gender, Sexuality and Sexual Health Unit. decrypts the .
The idea behind the campaign is to break down stereotypes about masculinity and condemn risky behavior. Florence Guillaume, the inter-ministerial delegate for road safety in France, said the purpose of the campaign was not to blame men in general, but to get people to study their own behavior. She said society needs to look deeper into behaviors like taking risks or putting pressure on some men to prove they can drive faster or try to dominate the road, She said.
Source: Today IT
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
