All Headline News: Speaking before the 118th annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, Dr. Sharon Lamb, distinguished professor of mental health at the University of Massachusetts said that today's aggressive, emotionally unavailable, detached and self-engrossed macho versions of superheroes like "Iron Man", rarely address the virtue of doing good for humanity unlike the superheroes of yesteryear like Superman and Green Lantern.

Dr. Lamb found that marketing managers take advantage of boys' adolescent need to forge their masculinity by promoting/selling a limited definition of masculinity. Here, Dr. Lamb elaborates that the media message being put across is for boys to either be a "player", i.e., engaging in aggressive, sarcastic violence like today's comic book movie superhero, or a "slacker" that is, a person who gives up on the world and never tries. By psychologically limiting a boys' image of masculinity to only two options, his mental health and social life is put at risk.

Carlos Santos, PhD, of Arizona State University, also found that a boys' ability to resist at an early age, the superhero machismo of being emotionally stoic, autonomous, aggressive and physically tough -- stereotyped images of masculinity -- were more emotionally stable, friendly and had better psychological health in middle school.

Unfortunately, Dr. Santos also observed that such resistance usually decline when boys reach adolescence thus placing their mental health at risk. He advised that, "Helping boys resist these behaviors early on seems to be a critical step toward improving their health and the quality of their social relationships."

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