Go Now: A popular film showing the potential for 'masculinity' to facilitate health-promoting behaviours

Abstract

The film Go Now explores three key themes relevant to the way in which many men have been socialized to manage their health, including: 1. men’s access to healthcare services and lack of awareness of their health needs; 2. men’s (seeming) inability to express emotions and communicate their health needs; and 3. men’s lack of social networks. As a story of how masculine identity in the face of Multiple sclerosis can be negotiated and re-negotiated to propel positive help-seeking and helpproviding health behaviours in males, Go Now cultivates awareness of the role of social constructions in men’s health behaviours. Rather than blaming masculinity as mostly a liability for health, the film instead works as a public health education piece showing the potential for positive health behaviours across diverse performances of masculinity within the featured social structures.