Essay Changing the Meaning of Masculinity

When someone thinks of a man the first thing that comes to mind is a large man, the epitome of strength and toughness, but where did they get that idea. More often than not people get their ideas of masculinity from the shows and movies they watch throughout their lives. In the article Hegemonic masculinity in media contents, by Peter J. Kareithi, he focuses much more specifically on how the media has presented it to the public, and less of the why, and how it started. The paper by Connell and Messerschmidt, Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept, does a much better job at explaining the history of hegemonic masculinity and how it came to be. Though together the two articles give the reader a complete sense of what the focus is, and

Historically, masculinity in the United States has been constructed as being White Protestant Anglo-Saxon, furthermore heterosexual and in charge of all matters, and this definition sets standards against which other men are measured an evaluated. Michael Kimmel provides a good definition:

The definition of masculinity; Is the fact of being a man or having qualities considered typical of a man.

The article “The National Conversation in the Wake of Littleton is Missing the Mark" By Jackson Kats and Sut Jhally is about finding the cause of violence and relating it to students who dispense harm to society, as well as other students. There is a focus on masculinity, along with behavior and how that behavior is being influenced by the environment. The article focuses on factors such as peer exclusion, the prevalence of violence in the media and most importantly, violence in relation to gender. .

Essay 4 in The Matrix Reader “Masculinity as Homophobia” by Michael S. Kimmel explains the definition of manhood and how it has helped to create the concept of homophobia in a societal sense rather than a scientific one. Kimmel states that “Manhood is neither static nor timeless; it is historical,” and “…not the manifestation of an inner essence; it is socially constructed,” and “…does not bubble up to consciousness from our biological makeup; it is created in culture.” (pp.44) In today’s society, being a man has many stereotypes, and the legalization of gay marriage puts those stereotypes to test.

First, let’s start with the LGBTQ+ community. LGBTQ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer. This community is amazing, and I’m glad that more and more people are accepting them today. Unfortunately, there are still individuals who stand for homophobia. A homophobe is a person with an extreme and irrational aversion to homosexuality and homosexual people. A man or woman, who likes their own gender, identifies as another or none at all can be a victim of homophobia. Homophobia tends to be more prevalent among men than women. In the minds of many people, gay men are inherently not masculine. That is of course, completely false. Sadly, society projects an image of what is acceptable to be if you are a man, gay not being one of them. In the eyes of many, males are not supposed to act feminine. Males aren’t allowed to do things like wear feminine clothing or makeup, or act feminine to say the least. Obviously, being a man is accepted and promoted in our society. Women who are more masculine or present themselves as men sometimes have an easier time than men who present themselves as women. That's because what is projected to society is that to be male is to be powerful and to be female is not. In my opinion, the stereotypes when it comes to gender roles are horrible. Men and women should be able to express themselves without the fear of getting judged or

Even in queer communities, there is marginalization, as there are also factors of race and gender present. A heterosexual white man may have more power than a homosexual white man, but a homosexual white man will be more powerful than a heterosexual woman of colour, or another homosexual man of colour, or

For every Black man that is born, each is gifted with the rigid expectations of being a hyper-masculine male. These expectations seemed to be passed down through generations from family members. The study "African American Gay Youth and Their Families: Redefining Masculinity, Coping with Racism and Homophobia.”, portrays some of the hardships of coming out within this specific community. A mother who was interviewed in this study said “You are told to be a man … and being a man does not mean you sleep with other men,” she said. “Being a man means you have a woman and you procreate and continue the family name.” And for queer black men especially, this expectation of needing a woman to be the validation for your manhood takes a toll on them and their ability to feel safe in coming out. In this essay I intend to outline the problematic expectations and stigmatization of the black queer male community and develop ways in which this problem can start to be overcome while dealing with different sections of intersectionality.

It says in the Introduction Straight women, on the other hand, often don’t seem as threatened by lesbianism. If according to the article Designing Men: Reading the Male Body as Text, Culbertson states that woman rarely have power (Culbertson 3), then why does he also go on to later say that, masculinity as a gender construction in virtually every society must be constantly defended (Culbertson 4). If men are the more powerful people then why are they so easily threatened by something that rarely has any effect on women? Also, if men are the more powerful then why does Culbertson also state that, the homosocial system can be maintained only when men avert their gaze from each other; the gaze figuratively, must remain focused on a woman (Culbertson).

T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land explores modernism, specifically focusing on the troubling of binaries and the breakdown of the traditional. The boundaries between life and death, wet and dry, male and female, and more are called into question in Eliot’s conception of modernity and the waste land. The blurring of gender boundaries—significantly through Tiresias and the hooded figure scene in “What the Thunder Said”— in the poem lends itself to Eliot’s suggestion that traditional masculinity breaks down and decays in the waste land. Traditional masculinity is further challenged through Eliot’s criticism of hyper-masculinity and heterosexual relations in the modern era through allusions to the myth of Philomela and the “young man carbuncular” scene in “The Fire Sermon.” Along with this, Eliot stages scenes charged with homoeroticism to further challenge ideas of traditional masculinity. Homoerotic scenes such as the “hyacinth girl” scene in “The Burial of the Dead” and the Mr. Eugenides scene in “The Fire Sermon” suggest an intensity and enticement towards male-male relations, while also offering a different depiction of masculinity than is laid out in the heterosexual romance scenes. Through scenes depicting queer desire and homosexual behavior, Eliot suggests that masculinity in the modern era does not need to be marked by aggression and

Numerous straight men appear to think homosexual women exist purely for their pleasure and entertainment. Making the sexuality of those women seem less valid or not valid at all. Not only must women have to deal with this, but in the article “Who’s the Man?” published by The Guardian the gender divide people in same-sex relationships face is discussed. Usually, when there is a same-sex relationship the question many people over the years ask is “Who is the man in the relationship?” that question referring to who is the more masculine role or is in more control. This is often more prominent in female same-sex relationships. Both articles appear to show that there is an inequality in the stereotypes and mistreatment men and women of the LGBT+ community, but women are affected more than men. This is simply not true; men and women face the same inequality when it comes to their sexual orientation. Bros over Hos hints at the idea that men must act or look a certain way and they’ll be considered a homosexual. While young men were asked, what would suggest a man is a homosexual, they responded with: “He’s

Queer theory questions creations of normal and divergent, insider, and outsider.2 Queer theorists analyse a situation or a text to determine the relationship between sexuality, power and gender. Queer theory challenges basic tropes used to organize our society and our language: even words are gendered, and through that gendering an elliptical view of the hierarchy of society, and presumption of what is male and what is female, shines through. Queer theory rejects such binary distinctions as arbitrarily determined and defined by those with social power. It works to deconstruct these binaries, particularly the homosexual/heterosexual binary.4

The sodomite had been a temporary aberration; the homosexual was now a species,” (page 43, Michael Foucault, 1976). The emergence of homosexuality as a “species” has unfortunately led to suppressed, regulated and structured classifications of homosexuality that are present in society today. Homosexual people are now identified in terms of categories. Due to past discourses and the power bourgeoisie hold homosexuals are not accepted and cannot easily identify themselves individually or in a community.

In contemporary society, hegemonic masculinity is defined by physical strength and boldness, heterosexuality, economic independence, authority over women and other men, and an interest in sexual relationships. While most men do not embody all of these qualities, society supports hegemonic masculinity within all its institutions, including the educational institute, the religious institute and other institutes which form the ideological state apparatus.

Given that the structure of gender qualities has been a large part of our views, in regards to a variety of issues, a number of people take exception to variances from within these rules. Keeping this in mind, we will discuss the reasons why many individuals are discouraged from crossing traditional gender traits, and closely examine parts of the article assigned for this paper.