International Men’s Day 2024| Sunny Kaushal: Men are also a victim of patriarchy

On International Men’s Day today, the actor admits that he grew up in a society that preached ‘boys don’t cry’, and it took him time to break free of those shackles by understanding it more deeply. “I've gone through that process of deconstructing this narrative in my head and understanding the conditioning with which society comes from. It’s not anyone’s fault.

When men are taught not to cry, it is telling them to suppress deeper emotions, to prepare them to face the world later in life. That's what I also grew up with, but I learned how to use it well as it also teaches you to become more resilient,” he says.

However, suppressing such emotions led to a dismissal of discussion around men’s mental health, and Sunny believes “it's high time” to make it more open and allow men to be more vulnerable. “Generational trauma kitna nikal ke aa raha hai. Now when guys talk, you realise that it's been long time coming. It just doesn't affect you; it affects your next generation and the next.