Explain The Central Issues Facing Boys In Today's Society

We define masculinity in a very narrow way. Masculinity becomes this hard, small cage, and we put boys inside the cage. We teach boys to be afraid of fear. We teach boys to be afraid of weakness, of vulnerability. We teach them to mask their true selves because they have to be, in Nigeria speak, ‘hard man’ (Adichie).

Society faces an issue that is not usually addressed because it is seen as the norm in today’s American culture. It is the crisis of masculinity. The notion of how men should be portrayed is not usually identified as a problem; today’s society views men’s apathetic and exasperated exterior as the orthodox behavior of everyday life. Boys at a young age are taught by the popular culture that they need to be a “real man” - strong physically and emotionally. The mask many men put up is based on the extreme idea of masculinity that emphasizes toughness, physical strength and gaining the respect of others through violence or the explicit threat of it. This front is put up by men because they do not want to stray from what is accepted, for men who

As discussed in a recent essay by Saul Kaplan “The Plight of Young Males”, there is a serious academic gender achievement gap in the United States and as I will discuss, around the world. Young women are doing significantly better than young men, and the results are shocking. In the latest census, males make up 51 percent of the total U.S. population between the ages of 18-24. Yet only 40 percent of today’s college students are men. Since 1982, more American women than men have received bachelor’s degrees. In the last ten years, two million more women graduated from college than men. As Kaplan reveals, the average eleventh-grade boy writes at the level of the average eighth-grade girl. He also states that women dominate high school honor rolls and now make up more than 70 percent of class valedictorians. Kaplan says, “I am happy to see women succeeding. But can we really afford for our country’s young men to fall so far behind,” (733)?

In Paul Theroux’s article “The Male Myth” Theroux makes a point that he does not like the stereotypes placed on men in today’s society. Theroux’s article is focused on exposing the stereotypes that men face and the reasons for their occurrence. He claims that writers and many others are directly affected by the expectations of masculinity that are thoroughly incorporated in America. The ideas of masculinity are deeply rooted in high school sports, in the view of the president, and in many other areas. Theroux attempts to prove that being a man in American is, “…pitiful, a little like having to wear an ill-fitting coat for one’s entire life.”

Masculinity has changed and evolved since the beginning of human creation. Males have had to adhere to the social norms of their time to survive without undue persecution. In the beginning of the 19th century, there was a shift in the way men could attain manhood. It was no longer easy for a man to enter into manhood with straightforward expectations and rituals. The state of manhood became difficult to obtain because of its precarious nature. During the same period, the industrial revolution was in full bloom giving birth to mass information outlets like newspapers, magazines, and advertisement: media. This set a prevailing state where boys and men alike could gain material on how to become or be men

The article “How Boys Become Men” written by Jon Katz, gives a positive statement on how boys still haven’t change and are still growing up the same. Jon Katz, shares with us while walking his dog one day, he saw a boy get beaten by a group of older boys. While walking towards him, Katz asked if he was okay; the boy said yes and begun to swing like nothing happened. I believe that what Jon Katz states is true, because the fact is; boys are always going to think they’re the Alpha Male in every situation. For example: who can climb the highest Rock, who can make a bigger splash in the pool or who can maybe get a girlfriend first.

The myth that boys in today’s society are encouraged to follow this “Guy Code” in order to be accepted amongst their peers, friends and family members can cause great emotional side effects. In “Bros Before Hos”: The Guy Code” by Michael Kimmel, he did a survey amongst college campuses and the question was simple “what is a man?” and the responses were pretty predictable. A few phrases stood out amongst this “Real Guys Top Ten List”: “ Boys Don’t Cry”, “Size Matters” and “Take It Like A Man” (Kimmel 462). All these phrases feed into this myth that men are to be aggressive and strong at all times. This “Guy Code” that is spoken of is a gathering of values, attitudes and traits that describe what a man is to be (Kimmel 462). Boys in todays day

In Michael Kimmel’s non-fiction academic book chapter: “Bros Before Hos: The Guycode” is an excerpt from his critically acclaimed book Guyland released in 2008, that addresses the ideals and fundamentals of where masculinity stems from and society’s direct effect on young men and the creation of the modern day masculine male. Michael Kimmel’s combination of credible resources, informative personal research, and real-life personal narratives that help to establish and support his strong and feasible argument, of societies effect on male masculinity, that readers alike can relate to and understand.

In Guyland, Michael Kimmel chronicles the journey of young males and the issues they face while trying to exert their masculinity and prove themselves to their peers. Based on interactions among North American males between the ages of 16 and 26, Kimmel has found that at an age where young men had previously prepped for a life of work and committed relationships, they are now living in “Guyland” where they spend their time drinking, playing video games, and having immature relations with women. Kimmel explains that these young men are “frighteningly dependent on peer culture” and “desperate to prove their masculinity in the eyes of other boys.” (30) These young men live in constant fear that they will not measure up to the ideals of

The Boys and Girls Club of America is a non-profit organization that provides youth with after-school resources. The club's membership fees are only five dollars per a year to insure that every child has a right to join the club. The organization's goals are to make sure every child graduates high school and has life skills to become successful. The five programs (Education & Career; Character & Leadership; Health & Life Skills; The Arts; and Sports, Fitness, and Recreation) aim to give the child a core development to become prosperous.

Men that carry out the “machismo way of life” feel that they have to constantly prove their manhood to the world. This is generally achieved

Besides being inadequately masculine, most men’s biggest fear is the growth of feminism. It may be an irrational fear, but the threat of women taking over society is enough to scare “manly” men. To avoid a takeover, men surround themselves with other men and engage in macho behavior. These actions may include excessive drinking, hunting, or fishing to name a few. Cracking a cold one open with the boys provides an escape from the pressures of work, school, or women they are trying to evade.

Rejecting traditional masculinity as a whole would improve society on many different levels. Masculinity is very dangerous in the aspect that aggression, competition, and dare plays a major role. These aspects can have negative effects on boys in the long run by increasing levels of stress, physical injury and early death. Rejecting traditional masculinity contibutes to the fact that these factors would be nonigsistent. In addition, traditional masculinity takes away from relationships men try to have. Traditional masculinity contributes to the great emotional distance from other people. Also, traditonal masculinity has a negative effect on the way women and men interact. As men attempt to show of their masculinity, they seem to see women

Society is the number one determinant on how an individual is supposed to act given their sex. If an individual is born with male reproductive parts, they must act a certain way in order to be accepted by the larger population. When a boy starts to engage in certain activities that are not defined as masculine he is shamed, and it is unbelievably hard to maintain his social status that he may have once had, or was striving to attain. There are a few different theories when it comes to masculinity and how it is defined. Also, actions that may be engaged that could hurt a male’s ego, are expressing health concerns.

In this essay I discuss that "doing gender means creating differences between girls and boys and women and men...." (West & Zimmerman 2002:13) I am concentrating on the female perspective, how societyputs forth expectations of what is 'natural' or biological even though, in some cases, it can be quite demeaning and degrading. I am using some examples from the local media and also a few childhoodexperiences that have helped me to now strongly suspect that the quote from Simone Beauvoir (1972) "One is not born a woman, but rather becomes one" most likely has quite a bit of truth to it.