In many ways, it is seen as un-masculine to appear weak or faint-hearted or anything like that. Thus, showing to anyone that you are depressed is a serious social risk because, although many people will be outwardly sympathetic, and in fact many people might truly be, there has always been a majority opinion that the manly thing to do is just power through your problems (you know, the sitcom stereotype of the husband not pulling over to ask for directions? Like that). When you can't do that on your own, it's taken as a character flaw. It's accepted that women can do that - we say they're emotionally weaker, more prone to failure, and need to be coddled and helped along. But for a man to be called emotionally frail is nearly slanderous. It makes you wonder - what is "emotional strength"? Is it being able to work through your own problems by yourself? Or is it the ability to go to other people and admit your problems to a third party? From my own perspective, I really would like to explain my feelings and emotional issues with people more, and not only to my girlfriend. But, even though I am far from consciously trying to act macho or tough, I still find it hard to bring myself to admitting to others that I occasionally feel a miasma coming over everything I do for periods. Not even something as pervasive as depression - just normal shit moods can be hard to talk about. It seems like a result of a disparity in the treatment of "masculine" and "feminine" mindsets, which rewards masculinity and considers femininity weaker or more impoverished in some way. Isn't it interesting how treating traditional ideas of "masculinity" and "femininity" as equals benefits everyone, and not just women? Feminism is good for everyone, in that way.
Feminism has always been about total equality. The name is more or less a misnomer. Whenever I see a godawful argument on reddit about "men's rights" the issues always come back to those that are centrally addressed bty feminism, namely patriarchy. It is a patriarchal society that says that not only are women weak and emotional, but men are strong and emotionless. It is a patriarchal society that tells me to be overly successful and never speak of their problems. It is a patriarchal society that forces men and women into gender roles that are outdated and detrimental to one's health in our modern world. There has been movement in these things over the last few decades, but there seems to be an unwillingness from men to accept that feminism is there to resolve issues on both sides of the coin, and a inexplicable resilience to fixing the issues that affect them. I suppose that's what leads to a confusion that men are oppressed by feminism.
I've never heard these numbers before, but damn are they convincing. I don't think I'm depressed but maybe I'll give CALM a call if I'm feeling particularly downtrodden/hopeless in the future. Good to know that this service is out there, and that by being male I'm at risk! It's interesting how alarmed I feel when someone talks about a potential danger of being male. I'm straight, white, male, cisgendered, and American- by every count I'm extremely privileged. Simply reading about my gender as though there is something that sets us apart is a big change for me. Whenever I read about "Women's Health" I never think to phrase it as "the contrapositive of this symptom for non-women" and make it about myself. And then I read something like this and my first reaction is, "What are we sitting around for?! We have to do something!" But of course, this kind of statistical analysis indicating the risks for being female, black, trans* , gay, or in any way differing from the norm are thrown at or around me all the time! Anyways, I think it's interesting.
There are many more variables that could contribute to these statistics. For example, in more impoverished areas, there is a higher instance of single-mothers. The incentive for women to commit suicide in these areas may be much smaller because they know they need to care for their children. The numbers are astounding and clearly more work needs to be done toward prevention, but it does seem like traditional gender roles are (very) slowly but surely disappearing each generation.
I think the gender issue that is involved is much more difficult to combat than the situation factors that lead to the increased rate. Changing culture is especially difficult and will require a lot of effect on the part of society. While we inching in that direction, we are still a long ways off.