Singaporean men are fighting to be heard. A movement is letting them do just that

Danny Loong did not fully grieve his father’s death until he became a parent himself.
For two decades after his father’s passing, Loong remembered him mostly as a provider and disciplinarian: a man who pushed hard, cared quietly and offered little by way of tenderness.
“He would ask me, ‘How come you’re not this, or that? How come you’re not studying hard enough?’ So when he passed away, I missed him, but I somehow couldn’t really grieve for him,” said Loong, 54.
“It was only after I had my own son that I started to realise that I really missed my father.”
Now, with a four-year-old son of his own, Loong wants to define fatherhood as a relationship where love is expressed and struggles can be shared.
“I want my son to be able to be expressive around me,” he said.
Loong is part of a group of Singaporean men trying to build safe spaces for conversations that have traditionally been kept private – from national service, relationships and fatherhood to finances and the fear of never measuring up.
These conversations, while still relatively under the radar, have gained momentum in recent years.
Through initiatives and men’s groups, fathers have met in bars to talk about how children changed their marriages, sons have discussed difficult relationships with their fathers, and men have sparred in boxing gyms before sitting in circles to talk about what it means to “be a man”.
Earlier this month, the movement became official. Founded by psychological-legal company Amicus, where Loong is a partner, and men’s initiative Bros Before Woes, MenToo was launched before some 80 men at an urban food park in western Singapore.

Loong is quick to clarify that MenToo is not intended as a critique of the #MeToo movement, but as a collective that connects men and gives them room to discuss issues weighing on them.
Toh Zi Kit, co-founder of Bros Before Woes, said: “We love the movement. It’s a dedicated space for men to grow, to get support and chat with one another, and to move through life ups and downs.”
Pressures of a Singaporean male
Content creator Dino Isaac, 30, was never comfortable sharing his problems growing up.
“I always felt like men should be all action and no talk,” he said. He remained silent as he grappled with stress from a broken family, the workplace and the pressure to conform to societal ideals.
His father, who was in jail for most of his childhood, was killed in a fight when Isaac was a teenager, leaving him to feel “there was no one to shield me” from life’s pressures.
Isaac tried to take his own life last year after an attempt to voice his suicidal thoughts was met with an offhand remark that it was “all in his head”.
Psychologists say many men in Singapore continue to keep their problems to themselves as they shoulder expectations to excel in their careers and provide financially for their families, even as the city state promotes mental health with its 2023 National Mental Health and Well-being Strategy.
National service – mandatory for males in Singapore – can also be “a period of considerable psychological stress”, especially for those who are already vulnerable, according to Jared Ng, a psychiatrist at Connections MindHealth.
Some of Ng’s patients visited him only after their struggles had transformed into suicidal thoughts, he said. “The problem is often not that men suffer more, it’s that they suffer for longer before telling anyone.”

Men made up 202 out of 314 (64 per cent) reported suicide deaths in Singapore in 2024 and about 69 per cent in 2023, according to data from the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority.
The lack of communication could then lead to loneliness.
“Men will withdraw into their own shell, they will not go out with anyone, and will probably say they are tired or unmotivated, but never use the word ‘depressed’,” said Amy Lim, discipline lead and senior lecturer in psychology at Murdoch University.
But Ng has seen a positive shift, with younger men more willing to discuss mental health than previous generations. “Initiatives like MenToo help because they give permission for conversations that many men have wanted to have but didn’t know how to start.”
Issac started attending therapy sessions after his suicide attempt, a decision he said changed his life.
“The more I speak about my issues and open up, to my therapist and online, the less it stays at the back of my mind and chews me up,” he said. “And when people resonate with my story and share their own, I feel less alone.”
Loneliness is a feeling Amir Khan is all too familiar with. The fitness trainer and former mixed martial arts fighter lost his confidante when his father died in 2020.

Amir, who was at the height of his fighting career then, was left feeling that no one was in his corner. “I was struggling a lot with my identity and worth. If I didn’t win in the cage, I felt like I had no value on Earth, being a dad, being a partner,” said the 31-year-old.
“I didn’t want to look weak, I didn’t know how to say I needed help.”
Amir has now taken it upon himself to help men build physical and mental fitness.
“I realised that strength actually means having the courage to ask for help when you’re not at your best,” he said. “And I think that’s what the MenToo movement teaches men to do.”
More for men
While acknowledging a growing awareness of men’s mental health, psychologists and community groups say there is more to be done on the policy and research fronts.
Lim suggested tailoring mental health outreach to encourage men to seek help.
“The framing of the messaging has to be more sensitive, to highlight that seeking help isn’t a weakness,” she said, so that men would feel comfortable reaching out.
More countries have started taking a more targeted approach to mental health and suicide prevention, including for men.
I think the space of policies and support for men is pretty barren
Brian Liu, Bros Before Woes co-founder
In November, England unveiled its first men’s health strategy, aimed at tackling issues predominantly faced by men such as suicide, alcohol abuse and problem gambling.
Australia’s national suicide prevention strategy, launched in 2025, identifies men as among the groups disproportionately affected by suicide, while calling for more tailored support for at-risk communities.
Brian Liu, co-founder of Bros Before Woes, urged gender-specific policies and initiatives in Singapore. “I think the space of policies and support for men is pretty barren,” he said.
MenToo aims to tackle this gap. At its launch, the movement signed an agreement with Murdoch University to advance research on men’s mental health and social connection, aiming to highlight systemic biases men face and provide policy recommendations.
“MenToo wants to take a very systemic and evidence-based approach to also shining a huge spotlight on this, and hopefully ... move the needle at the systemic level,” Liu said.
Rayner Tan, an assistant professor at Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore, said more research was needed to determine how life experiences mentally affected Singaporean men.
“We need research that looks at the confluence of intersecting identities, ethnicity, religion, class, sexuality, and how they shape the cultural and social determinants of mental health, well-being and help-seeking,” Tan said, adding that doing so would allow mental health promotion efforts directly respond to these issues.
Creating community spaces where men can form genuine connections, such as MenToo, is equally important, according to Ng. “Mental health is not just about treatment. It is also about reducing isolation before people become unwell.”
If you have suicidal thoughts or know someone who is experiencing them, help is available. In Hong Kong, you can dial 18111 for the government-run Mental Health Support Hotline. You can also call +852 2896 0000 for The Samaritans or +852 2382 0000 for Suicide Prevention Services. In the US, call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. For a list of other nations’ helplines, see this page.
In Singapore, you can dial 1771 for the national helpline or WhatsApp 6669-1771. You can also call 1767 for the Samaritans of Singapore or 1800-283-7019 for the Singapore Association for Mental Health.