Why our Grid Society Framework might sound masculine and why that might save lives in the Men’s Mental Health Crisis
- Team Gridmoves
- Jul 1
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 2
Grid Society explains why structure, strategy, and mission-based language are essential tools for reaching men and why a masculine tone does not mean exclusion.
There is a recurring observation made about Grid Society. Some say our tone feels assertive, even militaristic. They mention the language of missions, maps, frameworks, and internal warfare. The structure. The strategic clarity. The pace. It feels, to some, distinctly masculine.
We do not reject that description, nor do we apologise for it. If the tone feels masculine, it is because we are deliberately speaking to an audience that is dying in silence – men. If that structure saves lives in the men’s mental health crisis, then we will continue to speak in a tone that reaches the ones falling through the cracks.
The Men’s Mental Health Crisis: The data we cannot ignore
Suicide is the leading cause of death for men under 50 in the UK. In 2023, men accounted for 75% of all suicide deaths, with a rate of 17.1 per 100,000, compared to 5.6 for women.
📎 Mental Health UK
Only 36% of NHS talking therapy referrals are men. Despite being statistically more likely to suffer in silence or die by suicide, men are underrepresented in mental health services.
📎 Mental Health Foundation
1 in 3 UK adults has had counselling, but only 29% are men, compared to 41% of women.
📎 [British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), 2023]
In the US, only 7%–17% of men receive counselling or therapy per year, compared to 28.5% of women.
📎 CDC, 2019
📎 Verywell Mind, 2023
Men in England die four years earlier than women, largely due to so-called “deaths of despair”, including suicide, drug use, alcohol abuse, and liver disease.
📎 The Times, 2024
These figures are not just statistics; they are strategic indicators. They inform how we speak, who we target, and why we’ve built Grid Society the way we have.
Why strategy is sometimes the only language that works
So, when people ask why Grid Society uses mission terms, mental warfare metaphors, or sounds like a command centre instead of a healing circle, the answer is simple: strategy is the language many men already understand. We are not softening the tone to fit the room. We are building a room they can walk into.
Research from the British Journal of Psychology and the NIH confirms that men tend to process emotion through systems-based reasoning, structure, and visual mapping. These aren’t limitations, they are opportunities. The design language of Grid Society mirrors the way many men already engage with the world: through progression systems, targets, and cognitive problem-solving.
It is no coincidence that global gaming audiences skew male, especially in console and competitive genres. In the UK (Sept–Nov 2024), 29% of men reported playing console games compared to just 16% of women, highlighting a clear gender split in engagement with mission-driven game formats (Statista, 2025). Console gaming remains the UK’s second-most popular platform after mobile.
They understand missions. They understand levels. They understand that mindset and outcome are connected. So we built a mental health system that uses the same access route, but redirects it toward emotional growth.
It sounds masculine, but women embraced us first
We want to make one thing absolutely clear: Grid Society is not a men-only platform. From the beginning, it was women who found us first. Women booked the early workshops. Women shared the Orange Grid philosophies. Women told us that our systems helped them articulate thoughts they had carried for years but had never quite been able to name.
Women arrived first. They engaged, they stayed, and they built momentum around our work.
Now, men are beginning to arrive as well. They are entering the space, engaging with the material, and recommending it to other men. This is something we take seriously. It is not a coincidence and it is not an afterthought. It is something we are proud of.
If the tone of our framework feels masculine, it is because we are doing something that many other platforms avoid. We are speaking to men in a language they recognise.
This does not reduce the space. It expands it. Grid Society is a universal framework designed to serve anyone who wants to do deep internal work with structure and purpose. But we are also clear about one thing. The system was built with intent. It was built to reach those who are often left out of the emotional conversation.
We built it to reach the unreached, and we are seeing that happen.
We’re not replacing the room. We’re opening another door...
We are not here to overwrite existing self-help spaces. The world of personal development and self-help has long offered powerful tools, but it has often leaned toward women only in tone, language, and design.
That approach has helped many, but it has not worked for everyone. We are here to offer something different. Something structured. A format that speaks to those who have not always felt able to enter the conversation in those ways.
We are not asking men to abandon logic. We are offering them emotional logic. We are not telling them when or how to cry. We are giving them tools to explore thoughts that have never had shape or structure, in a language that feels clear, direct, familiar and still emotionally intelligent.
What the data shows:
🔹 A 2021 GlobalWebIndex report found self-help books and content are disproportionately consumed by women
🔹 A 2020 YouGov UK study found men are significantly less likely than women to seek emotional support or engage with traditional self-help resources
Personal development for whoever you are
If men are in crisis, and the statistics confirm that they are, then we must move past debates about tone and focus on what actually creates connection.
Grid Society is not masculine in order to separate. It is masculine enough to create comfort for those who have often felt unsure whether emotional spaces were built with them in mind.
This is a space that speaks to women with structure. It speaks to men with clarity. If our Grid system sounds like a mission, that is because it is one. Purpose. Language. Progression. Not dressed up. Not watered down. Built to reach the minds that demand strategy and the hearts that were never given one.
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