Gender Roles And Its Effects On Women

In the article “Toxic Masculinity Is Killing Men: The Roots of Male Trauma,” Kali Holloway explains why the ideal of masculinity is so unrealistic and harmful to men. Holloway also gives many studies and writings to back the idea that to be a strong man you have to suppress feelings and pain. In these studies, it proclaims that both men and women start off equally feminine as babies and that these ideas are taught to boys and girls as they grow up learning how to “be a man.” Holloway goes on to say that masculinity is not just taught by parents, but also taught through television and movies that portray men as masculine and strong. There are many examples given showing the ways men release their stress differently than women. This makes it

We often hear the phrase nowadays of “toxic masculinity”. Many use it but often without explanation. What exactly is toxic masculinity? Why is masculinity and the history of hypermasculinity in American culture so toxic? In American culture, there is a history of a “survival of the fittest” mentality. The strongest men are domineering and powerful, and take no nonsense from women, or progressives, or gay people. These traits are hypermasculine, an extremeness of generic masculinity, both of which should be handled with care, as masculinity itself is a fragile construct. American masculinity can be extremely toxic and dangerous to both the men themselves and the people around them. Masculinity can often be a cage to men, whom society

Holloway begins her essay by stating the traditional standards for both men and women, stating that “If we are honest with ourselves, we have long known that masculinity kills men” (1). She then defends her argument with a brief description of struggles the men go through with their health and mental health that are indirectly caused by masculinity. Holloway then dives into fields of scientific data to break down how the idea of masculinity is built into a child’s mind and how this process is damaging to the young boy’s mind. Holloway ends her essay by reentering her earlier idea that most of the problems that men face with their health and their mental health is caused indirectly by masculinity. However, this time she includes more detail and more scientific evidence to reinforce her idea. Holloway states “ We have set an unfair and unachievable standard, and in trying to live up to it, many men are slowly killing themselves. We have to move far beyond our outdated ideas of masculinity, and get past our

When you hear the phrase “toxic masculinity,” it’s usually used as a joke. For those of you who have somehow never heard of toxic masculinity in this context, it’s not something that’s taken seriously. It criticizes patriarchal societies, so a patriarchal society isn’t going to just accept it.

Throughout the history of society, women and men both have faced the constricting roles forced upon them, from a young age; each gender is given specific social and cultural roles to play out throughout their lives. Little girls are given dolls and kitchen toys, little boys are given dinosaurs and power tool toys, if one was to step out of this specified role, social conflict would ensue. Contrast to popular belief, sex is a biological construct, and gender is a social construct specifying the roles men and women are to follow to be accepted into society as “normal”. The effects of gender roles have had on women have proved harmful over the decades. Although the woman’s involvement in society has improved throughout the decades,

In Toxic Masculinity is Killing Men, Kali Holloway discusses the issue of men slowly deteriorating due to their own masculinity. I found Holloway’s article to be both informative and compelling due to her ability to explain, in detail, her views about masculinity along with facts and statistics to back up her argument. I agree with Holloway’s argument that men are so focused on proving their masculinity to not only themselves, but also to everyone else in the world and that it’s taking a toll on their lives. In Toxic Masculinity, Kali Holloway begins her argument by simply stating that masculinity is killing men.

Masculinity is as much problem as gender-based violence. According to the Oxford Dictionary, masculinity is the “qualities or attributes regarded as characteristic of men.” Therefore masculinity is not biological, it is a term that society perpetuates that men should be. This hurts young boys and directly and indirectly hurt our young girls and later on women. From a young age, boys are taught to be a man.

However, there are certain characteristics for men that are more ideal than others. Wade and Ferree describe this principle as hegemonic masculinity, which “refers to a type of man, idealized by men and women alike, who functions to justify and naturalize gender inequality”. They expand this concept and explain that “the hegemonic man is the “real man” in our collective imagination who theoretically embodies all the most positive traits on the masculine side of the gender binary” (2014:124). Other researchers examining hegemonic masculinity concluded that this concept supports a “social hierarchy where masculinity is hegemonic: where men dominate and women are subjugated” (Dill, Brown, and Collins 2008:1403). This dominance is particularly salient in gaming culture, where most, if not all, of the characteristics of games are geared to appeal to men. From the portrayal of men as strong heroes to the violence and aggression they are free to engage in within the game, these games are created with the hierarchy of men in mind. This hierarchy is “a rough ranking of men from most to least masculine, with the assumption that more masculine is better” (Wade and Ferree 2015:125). In order to perpetuate this hierarchy, men react negatively to anything that threatens their position. Researchers Michael Kasumovic and Jeffrey Kuznekoff explained this phenomenon of male reaction as evolutionary theory because by threatening the position a man holds in the hierarchy, one threatens his access to potential mates. They further expanded on this theory to “predict that a male’s behavior should be moderated by status and performance, such that only lower-status males that have the most to lose with a hierarchal reorganization by the introduction of a female competitor will be hostile towards female players” (2015:3). This theory explains why men tend to

Gender roles govern the way that most of the world’s population interact with one another. Many African cultures uphold deeply patriarchal gender roles which dictate how women and men interact with one another. Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie, a staunch feminist, gives readers a look into Nigerian gender roles in her short story Birdsong. Her writing in Birdsong and her TEDtalks explore and expose how these gender roles are harmful and how important it is for many stories of young women of color to be heard.

Masculinity is a term that is often associated with strength, power, control, and dominance in men. However, many texts support the claim that masculinity can be perceived as “socially constructed” and available for systematic discrepancy, similar to femininity. For example, in Michael Kimmel’s “Men, Masculinity, and the Rape Culture,” Kimmel identifies the “traditional masculinity” in which men exclusively can experience the “right to manhood” and the “dare and aggression” that is rightfully theirs (Kimmel, 142).

Masculinity, a seemingly simple concept. Yet, when examined more closely, it is clear that masculinity is constantly changing in its definition as well as in its most basic essence. Throughout the years, one can see this evolution firsthand by looking back at the men who have been portrayed in popular media in the United States of America. From the suave Don Draper types of the 1950s to the more casual, educated, and easygoing men- with perfectly chiseled abs, of course- that are portrayed in media today, the difference is clear. This drastic, yet unsurprising, shift in ideals, as well as the exponential increase of media consumed every day, has led to a change in how “masculinity” is perceived, as well as how it is enforced by society in the modern day. Alarmingly, this trend has led to the birth of so-called “toxic masculinity”, a bastardization of the original ideas behind masculinity which has created an enormous, detrimental effect on society as a whole. As defined in the article The Difference Between Toxic Masculinity and Being a Man, toxic masculinity is “manhood as defined by violence, sex, status, and aggression. It’s the cultural ideal of manliness, where strength is everything… where sex and brutality are yardsticks by which men are measured,” (O’Malley) This is a clearly displayed truth, and it’s astounding to see how even from a young age boys are taught not to show emotions other than anger, conditioned to believe that being “like a girl” is the worst possible

Society today places many ideals when it comes to proper behaviours regarding gender roles. These are considered societal norms that are widely debated and controversial. Society has created a norm, which encompasses specific expectations and rules that change the daily lives of men and women, giving them specific tasks and behaviours to abide by. These standards are known as gender roles, which are defined as distinguishing actions, thoughts, and feelings of males and females. Gender roles are said to be a result of nature, which is a natural process, every male or female is to follow. On the other hand it can be a result of nurture, which changes ones way of thinking and adapting their lifestyle to fit their environment. Either way gender roles are a part of someone’s life from the moment of their birth, as they develop, and long after that, this proves that gender roles are influential to a person’s life and development. This essay examines how media such as music, family life, and different parenting styles encompass gender roles and teaches behaviours regarding them. Therefore, gender roles define males and females are a result of nurture and not nature.

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.

Masculinity is ideological; it is embedded in culture and constructs gender. One is born as a sex, either female or male, which then leads to a representation of there gender, as in if you’re a man it is being masculine and a female being feminine, these expectations of gender have been embedded in society and determine traits and qualities that represent the two genders. This means we have to act in a certain way to show our gender or to be considered masculine or feminine and if you don’t fit into to these stereotypes, it can effect

It is difficult to imagine living in a world without the patriarchal roles that are present in society and have been throughout history. In the article “Feminist Criticism,” by Lois Tyson, the idea of feminism and how society has affected feminism is the focus. These ideas are seen because men have more of a voice in nearly everything and the oppression of women is very common; a society set up like this can be described with the term patriarchy which is “any culture that privileges men by promoting traditional gender roles,” where men are cast as “rational, strong, protective, and decisive,” and women are cast “as emotional, weak, nurturing, and submissive” (Tyson, 1). This thought that men are strong and women weak is not uncommon in