Gender Bending : Femininity And Masculinity

One of the major themes in Pat barker’s ‘Regeneration’ is gender and masculinity, this is my chosen theme. The novel overall reflects the struggles of World War one soldiers and their attempts to overcome the trauma of war experience. In this essay, I will be exploring ways which Barker represents my chosen themes. By discussing in depth and focusing on homosexuality, parenthood, emasculation, and mutism as a symbol.

“The woman who does not require validation from anyone is the most feared individual on the planet” (Mohadesa Najumi). Essentially, femininity is the art of being a woman. Through fashion in the 1920’s, a new kind of femininity blossomed enthralling both men and women. As illustrated during the Jazz Age, a wave of women rejected the damsel in distress outlook and began channeling their inner Femme Fatale.

To read Babio without recognizing the gender politics at work in the play would disregard much of how the play itself creates meaning. So much of the play’s plot and character dynamics are related to the way gender functions in this play. One major theme of Babio is the idea of masculinity and how masculinity is defined. Through the portrayal of Babio as an effeminate character, Babio is able to define masculinity through absences in Babio’s Character. Consequently, Babio makes the additional point that lovesickness is not an intrinsic aspect of medieval masculinity, despite the fact that love sickness is often attributed to men.

The feminine is a word that describes having qualities or appearance traditionally associated with women, while the masculine is qualities or appearance that associate with men. In all of the seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race, RuPaul and the Drag queens challengers get help from “the Pit Crew”. They are a group of very muscular and masculine men, and they wear just their underwear and show a lot of body. The men have usually no talking part and they show up as an “eye candy” for the viewers (Pit Crew, 2014). In the last episode of season 6, the difference between the masculine and the feminine is big during this scene, in the last challenge, RuPaul and the last remaining Drag Queens

An article I found that compliments my topic for this essay is “Recovering the feminine other: masculinity, femininity, and gender hegemony” by Mimi Schippers. This essay discusses how the gender roles of masculinity and femininity define the world we live in and create a structure that is believed cannot be changed. One of the author’s focuses is the “compulsory heterosexuality” of hegemonic masculinity and femininity, and how those who don’t align with heterosexuality automatically are not as masculine or feminine. Another theme is the institutionalized traits and characteristics displayed by the hegemonic masculine and feminine, and that this is an ultimately ridiculous binary that somehow rules society across cultures and countries.

In our society, masculinity can be broken down into five parts which include athletic abilities, economic success, sexual conquests, domination, and aggression. The typical male archetypes we see in the media are superheroes who show strength and athletic abilities, thug characters that promote violence and aggression, the man child character that is in a perpetual adolescence stage that engages in high risk activities and doesn’t face consequences, and finally the silent males that maintain control of their surroundings and don’t show emotion. These archetypes teach boys that instead of being sensitive they should give off a fear inducing energy which in turn allows them to maintain an indestructible, hard outer shell. Society in turn shapes masks of anger and aggression for boys and men to wear. For example, studies show that men who experience feelings of shame and

I learned how the traditional perceptions of masculinity and femininity are restricting to both sexes, but in different ways. Men are told to stay inside their man box, but doing so would make them sacrifice important human qualities, like emotion expression, sensitivity, and empathy. Because masculine men are supposed to be strong and have no weak emotions, men are constantly pressured to be tough in order to validate themselves. On the other hand, femininity devalues women to subordinate and inferior roles to men. This makes strong, independent women seem like anomalies since women are supposed to be weak damsels in distress. This is important to me because having grown up as a tom boy who loves sports and being active, I occasionally felt dejected for not being more “lady-like” like the other girls around me. However, the faulty, sexist natures of masculinity and femininity has taught me to appreciate myself more for my strong, athletic self.

During the passage, Henry’s voice expresses his genuine sympathy for Catherine as he watches her suffer through child birth. He later watches her die after their child was pronounced dead. Henry has been extremely pessimistic about the birth, the baby and Catherine which foreshadows this dreadful ending, “[Henry] But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially,” (249). In the passage Henry is shown cursing God for Catherine’s suffering and sarcastically thanking God for the anesthesia that she wouldn’t have needed if she wasn’t in agony. Overall the tone of this excerpt is lamenting.

How is gender and gender roles socially constructed? Soulliere states that gender is a cultural creation that is frequently developed by and represented through popular cultural media such as advertisements, music, sports, and entertainment television (Soulliere 2006). The article “Wrestling with Masculinity: Messages about Manhood in the WWE” by Danielle M. Soulliere (2006), examines messages about manhood revealed by televised professional wrestling (Soulliere 1). Messages concerning masculinity and manhood were investigated and compared to the cultural version of masculinity (Soulliere 2006). Soulliere’s research proves that the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) depicts messages, which supports the dominant hegemonic form of masculinity (Soulliere 2006). To further grasp and understand Soulliere’s hypothesis, we must first examine her research methods and outcomes.

comes off as androgynous rather than a specific gender. The interpretation of this painting can be left up to the individual viewing the painting but the implication of the character being painted as androgynous can be seen in historical terms. These terms being that women are starting to be seen in a more masculine role due to their increased role in both society, and in taking control of their own lives. Applying masculinity to women of this time period would also have other implications further emasculating the society causing the battle against conservatives to be even harder.

Throughout the 1920’s, before Women’s Suffrage, women were viewed as inferior, as well as subordinate to males because of many years of patriarchal dominance. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, women are seen as lesser by the male characters, yet show a great sense of power and domination over the actions and storyline. The major plotline of Gatsby’s love for Daisy and the American Dream circulates around the mere factor of the power women have over men. Fitzgerald’s portrayal of women parallels with the 1920’s societal reflections on how men are viewed as dominant, whereas women are treated as second-class citizens. Daisy, Jordan and Myrtle are portrayed poorly through their insouciant view on the world, objectification by their male counterparts and their narcissism, but defy the stereotypes of the 1920’s.

When thinking of anything to do with the gender norm shifting or otherwise it comes to terms with masculinity and feminism and these are always a topic when we discuss the understandings of women within militarism and war (Riley, 2008 p. 1193). Of course war is considered and seen as the quintessential masculine activity, though which manhood is demonstrated and expected when engaging within war (McLaughlin, 1990 p. 193). However, when we think of this within the understanding of how women could have been or can be a massive influential element to the understanding of the nature of war one can say it could be inaccurate. It is well known and quite common within the descriptions of warfare in medieval texts were prepped with referencing and

In a recent meta-analysis by Kite and Whitley in 1996, it was confirmed that men hold more negative attitudes toward homosexuality than do women. They also determined that men's attitudes toward homosexuality are particularly negative when the person being rated is a gay man rather than a lesbian. Their review of the literature also highlighted the complex nature of attitudes toward homosexuality noted by others. In order to understand the constructive attitudes of homosexuality, there are several factors that include beliefs that gay people are threatening or dangerous, etc. I reviewed Millham, San Miguel, & Kellogg, 1976; Plasek & Allard, 1984. These complexities, and how they influence sex differences in attitudes toward

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.

One of the unclear and questionable subjects in psychoanalysis, from Freud to Lacan, is the psychology of women and femininity. Male-centered psychoanalysis, which with no doubt is a reflection of tradition, patriarchy, misogyny and women discrimination as a second gender,; is the most important factor that this theory is static and conservative despite some valuable revelation.