Zackary Pang on Toxic Masculinity

Zackary Pang, actor that stars in The Son by Pangdemonium, sheds some light on toxic masculinity, and describes the mental health issues he faced personally with references to the film.

He mentions that things such as divorce and poor communication that one sees in their parents take its toll on their children. Additionally, he also feels that one’s parents also struggle with this and passes it on to their children.

He also speaks about toxic masculinity — having to suppress emotions and appear strong. This is parallelled on screen as Pierre (played by Zackary’s father) is ingrained with this mentality he has learnt from his own father, and passes it on to Nicholas (played by Zack). Both, as per the script, lash out in frustration for different reasons.

Nicholas, who suffers from depression, represents the impact of parents’ failings such as divorce and the mentality of “having your shit together”, who lashes out in frustration and eventually spirals.

Pierre is a little shimmy to the notion of understanding that parents, no matter their failings, also have to deal with their own insecurities such as feeling as though they are a failure to their own parents. Pierre, similar to Nicholas, lashes out as well.

Though toxic masculinity may not be a mental illness, it can accentuate the impact of existing ones. It is extremely volatile as many men have a fragile ego that if poked, a huge spiral may surface.

Cultural shifts now may be turning away from this unrealistic ideal of a man, but it can be very confusing for many men, Zackary admits. His conclusion is to “just be a decent fucking person.”

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