Toxic masculinity as bad as drinking behind the wheel, French road safety ad claims

‘Speed, alcohol, drugs, fatigue … what if we need to add masculinity?’

A new road safety awareness campaign in France has suggested that toxic masculinity could be as dangerous as drink driving.

The video aims to challenge macho stereotypes and behaviours that link gender to speed racing and a need to dominate the roads.

“You don’t have to follow what people expect of a man,” the voice of a new father tells his baby son in the heartwarming clip, which promotes the tender side of masculinity and urges men to confront their own behaviours.

“Speed, alcohol, drugs, fatigue … what if we need to add masculinity?”, the campaign slogan says.

The caption reads: “On the road, 8 out of 10 deaths are men. Be the man you want to be, but be a living man.”

In France, 78 per cent of those killed in road accidents in 2022 were men. Of French drivers aged 18 to 24 killed on the road last year, 88 per cent were men, while men accounted for 93 per cent of drunk drivers involved in an accident.

Florence Guillaume, the interministerial delegate for road safety in France, said: “It is about prompting people to examine their behaviour.”

“It does not mean all men are bad drivers – that is not true”.

She claims society should challenge the desire for risk-taking on the roads or the pressures on some men to show they could drive faster than is safe.

The campaign will be shown from February 8 on TV, digitally and in cinemas.

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