All That Remains vocalist Phil Labonte has courted controversial opinions over the years, though usually they have stemmed from his personal political beliefs. As a noted political commentator that has shifted to increasingly further right-wing over the years, Labonte takes has risen in right-wing circles, though his opinions haven’t sat well with some.
Recently Labonte stirred up considerable discussion with his thoughts on therapy when it comes to its efficacy with males. Labonte claimed that “therapy is for women”, and further put forth that talking to a therapist doesn’t “fix men at all.”
His comments arrived as extension of sorts of his his 2024 op-ed for Fox News, in which he outlined why he feels modern society has been failing men as a whole, leading to a decline in higher education, a growing disconnect with society, and a rise in suicide rates.
Speaking with ‘Today’s Boondoggle Podcast‘ in comments published earlier this month, Labonte in part argued his point:
“Look, for the better part of the past three decades, men have been told that they are the problem. You saw it in the ’90s when every single sitcom had the doofy husband, and the woman was the smart one, and thank God for her because without her, that poor schlub would just run his life into the ground. And that was the standard kind of thing. And it’s been like that. And that’s not the way that reality is. Raising a family is a team effort. Mothers are super important, but fathers are super important too.
And you see a lot of kids that are being raised by single mothers. You’ve got divorces at all-time highs. Generally, it’s initiated by the female. Young men are not going to college. They’re not graduating college. They’re checking out of society. They’re deciding that it’s not worth it to try and find a girlfriend. Most kids nowadays — I don’t know the numbers — but most kids have not gone on a date. There’s not nearly as many young men and young women getting together that are dating. Gen Z is the least sexually active generation in a long time. You see abortion is at an all-time high. All of these things are directly downstream from feminism and the massive influence that the left and feminist ideas have on society.”
“The idea that a woman can be the boss babe and a mother at the same time is a total lie. You cannot do both. You can do one or the other. Women are deciding that they want to go to school and have a career, and then when they hit their 30s, they’re scrambling to try and find a man, but men have checked out or they’ve already found — or they’re going for younger girls that are looking for families and stuff. Male suicide is at an all-time high. Men are, like I said, they’re checking out of society.
They’re deciding to anesthetize themselves with video games and pot. All these things are absolutely terrible for a society. And so the op-ed was kind of to outline this stuff, and now there’s a bill that’s in the House — it’s in committee, I think — and it’s to start the White House council on fathers and sons. It’s based on the framework that was created during the Obama administration, which was the White House council on women and girls, and then it was changed during the Biden administration, I believe.
I forget what the Biden administration called it, but it was something very gender neutral. And so there is a framework there. So hopefully we can, we can get this passed and have the White House actually talk about this because this is a crisis that is a big deal for society.”
Labonte further added:
“Suicide among men my age — 50 and above — the rates are up. Men have to have meaning. Men need something to do. The idea that men can go to therapy and that’s gonna solve their problems is ridiculous. Therapy is for women. Men don’t solve their problems by talking. Men solve their problems through action. So men should be doing things with other men, like building things, going out and fixing cars, whatever it is.
But those kind of activities are what will help a man feel accomplished, help a man feel like he’s got purpose. Just going and talking to a therapist, that’s not what fixes men. That’s not what fixes men at all. Men need goals that are achievable, and they need to make progress to those goals. That kind of stuff is what will help a man feel empowered, feel good about himself. That’s the kind of stuff that men need. And the idea that all of society is telling men, ‘Oh, you should be more like women,’ or, ‘You should go to therapy,’ none of these things help men.
And the evidence is in the statistics. The evidence is in the suicide rate. It’s in the depression rate. It’s in the fact that men are checking out from society. These ideas don’t work for men because men and women are not the same. And this is not in any way an attack on women, but men and women need to be treated as if they are men and women. They’re two different, different psychologies. And that’s not to say that there aren’t men with more feminine characteristics or women with more masculine characteristics, but broadly, men are different than women, and they need different things to make them feel emotionally fulfilled and psychologically acceptable.”
His assertion that therapy has no benefit for males inspired some heated discourse. It has also since led to some pushback from ex-Cradle Of Filth member Lindsay Schoolcraft, who has newly told Blabbermouth.net that Labonte‘s comments were “toxic”.
Schoolcraft penned her latest release “Harrowing” about her own struggles with mental health and surviving narcissistic abuse. When asked about Labonte‘s comments mentioned above, Schoolcraft responded:
“He’s not a healthcare professional, he’s not a psychologist, he’s not a therapist. This is my opinion and I’m not a professional either — I have a lot of male friends in therapy and it’s done them a world of wonder and has transformed their lives because you can do healing work and then you can do growing work, and there’s life coaching. You can come out on the other side. You don’t have to struggle.
Discouraging people from going to therapy, especially men — that’s an extremely toxic, masculine view that is ultimately an opinion from the patriarchy that has done a lot of damage to society and is the reason why it’s crumbling right now. I don’t know… I think he probably does need to go to therapy and is a scared little boy who cares too much about the scared little boy inside, his inner child and is scared of what his macho homies are going to think of him.
There should be no shame in getting help. If your brain is broken, you need a doctor. If you broke a bone, you’re not going to leave the bone broken; you’re going to get help. You’re not going to get a Band-Aid. You’re going to get it reset and cast and x-rayed. That’s what therapy is. It’s healing the brain. But I don’t think that’s a very good message, especially for young men who could be struggling.”
Schoolcraft‘s “Harrowing” came out today, June 19th. A member of Cradle Of Filth from 2013 to 2020, she is one of the five former members of that band to have filed a lawsuit against Cradle Of Filth frontman Dani Filth and the band’s management The Oracle Management last year. Collectively that suit cited various claims of unjust enrichment, unauthorized usage of copyrighted works, defamatory comments and more.
