Is Masculinity Truly Challenged By Many Aspects Of Fatherhood

At the end of the study, the results where indicating sitcoms on television in the past 11 years have been portraying gender stereotypes. Women appear doing domestic chores and working “less” than men. However, watching some new sitcoms there has been a slightly change in portraying women. In today’s sitcoms we see women complaining to their partners or yelling at each other. Maybe this is a way to express how trapped women feel and was a triggering point for all housewives to take action and fight for what they want. Another stereotype that is very common in today’s society is the single mom. On sitcoms the single mom is portrayed as the woman looking for “something”, usually a father to her children. When in reality the single mom is the one that does a complex job, since is both mom/dad, sometimes the only source of income. The multitasking mom, that loves her children, and works very hard to maintain her family all together.

In chapter 12, Jackson Katz talks about how awareness of violence against women needs to be introduced to boys at a young age. A large reason for this is how our society puts boys above girls. “Everywhere you turn, you see manhood equated with power and control – of other men as well as women” (Katz, 2006, 229). Katz talks about how everyday things effect young boys into thinking that they are superior: in super hero cartoons, music, and even nicknames of NASCAR drivers. Katz also states that boys get the message that any sign of feminine qualities is not good and that they need to be masculine at all times (Katz, 2006, 229).

Jenifer Siebel Newsom’s documentary, The Mask You Live In, is about the struggles young men and boys face while they are figuring out their identity in a stereotyped America. The film highlights the negative psychological and sociological implications that stem from society’s expectations of “masculinity.” According to Dr. Caroline Heldman, masculinity is defined in the U.S. as a rejection of everything feminine. American culture has classified masculinity as a strong, hardened, domineering, powerful, and controlling state of being. There are typically three lies that boys learn at a young age that plant the idea that they have to be masculine. Those lies are 1) You must have superb athletic ability and be fast and buff, 2) in order to be a “true” man, you must have

My study looks at how all my texts are connected by portrayals of masculinity and conformity. All of these texts have main characters who struggle with the demands of masculinity and the pressures to conform to society’s view of masculinity. The texts that I am using are Foreskins Lament by Greg McGee, The Godfather by Francis Ford Coppola, Kite Runner by and The Tomcat by James K Baxter. This interests me because I am a young man beginning my adult life and I feel a lot of pressure to conform to what society thinks is a good man.

Masculinity can range drastically in the level, shape, and or form it takes in each individual’s mind, but this phenomenon is formed as a complex experience through social construction. Masculinity has never been an ideal or a code I found myself reflecting on growing up, but my subconscious was constantly battling the juxtaposition of my experience at home, school, and on basketball teams. These factors would eventually shape my idea of masculinity surrounding home, particularly through the communicative aspects of athletics and academics.

A way we explain masculinity is the “Man Box” inside of the box is a list of socially valued roles and expectations that you associate masculinity with and the words outside of the box are used to confine boys into a very narrow definition of manhood. For example some of the words inside the box are: strong, tough, rugged, in control, powerful, muscular, and never show weakness. Examples of words outside of the box used to confine boys and men are: Queer, fag, pussy, wuss, homo, and mama’s boy. In this way, boys and men are often punished (by other boys and men) in a particularly gendered manner. For example, if boys and men do NOT meet the expectations of being a man they are often called homophobic and feminizing slurs.

What images come up when you think a man? Many people would think short hair, beard, and sixpack. Because these images of men have been, many men maintain short hair, trim beard, and do workout for having sixpack. Many People say, “Men have to be strong themselves to endure hardships that you face,” or “don’t cry. You have to always protect girls, and ladies are first,” to young boys. Recently, only men who follow the established masculine concept are regarded as real men with respects from other people in this society. However, a lot of men are suffering from being looking down by these misrepresented images of masculinity. They try to hide their real mind and emotion for showing that they are strong. “The Representation Project”, a nonprofit organization, effectively persuades the audience of their film, “The Mask You Live In,” which asserts that the America’s narrow definition of masculinity should be changed for a healthier generation of boys and young men through the use of well described visual images, face-to-face interviews of real struggling men, and

This review provides an explanation from teen fathers while measuring masculinity differences. This material covers topics that impact teen fathers’ interactions, beliefs, traditional societal ideologies, and judgment. This analysis reflects qualitative data that describes stigma and the involvement of society regarding teen pregnancy.

The misguided perception of masculinity is the absence of anything remotely homosexual. In Michael Kimmel’s novel Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men he discusses the contradictions of masculinity and what it takes to be seen as a real men. In American, middle class white society, manhood is more than beards and sleeping around with women, it is being as far away from feminine as allowed. The most foreign idea to most would be to consider a gay man to be “manly.” This unfathomable idea is what spurs on homophobia and gives homosexuality a foul name. To be called a “sissy” or “faggot” is worse than being called a “bastard” or “dick.” Shaking a man of his masculinity and naming him a woman psychologically destroys a man.

Whitehead (2002: 166) writes, “men’s complicity in sexist or homophobic behaviour arises not from their core sexuality, but from a desire not to be excluded from male groups; not to be cast out and declared ‘not a male/man, like us’.” Consequently heterosexual masculinity is defined in opposition to racial and sexual minorities, and women. Gorer (1964: 129) states, “The lives of most American men are bounded, and their interests daily curtailed by the constant necessity to prove to their fellows, and to themselves, that they are not sissies, not homosexuals.” This, according to Kimmel (2001: 279), results in men inflating traditional rules of masculinity, a consequence of which is not only homophobic acts, but also the predation of women. Consequently, homophobia, racism and sexism are closely interlinked, as women, gay men and other minorities become the ‘other’ against which heterosexual men construct their identities. Kimmel (2001:284)

Wood’s (2004) The Gay Male Gaze, Wood analyzes how gay men are the most likely to be the least satisfied with their body image, coming in above straight women, lesbians, and lastly straight men. Wood theorizes that, with heterosexism and internalized homophobia playing a part, the main issue lies within the fact that gay men, like straight women, are still performing for the male gaze, which subjects them to strict scrutiny and body standards that are not always physically attainable (46). His research also indicates the issue of performing masculinity in gay men: while most men desire to be bigger with more musculature, twice as many gay men desire to be thinner, although the majority are often thinner than the average straight man already (47). Wood associates this with the fact that gay men are socialized as men, but sexually objectified as women. This paradox creates the issue of maintaining gender roles while also staying true to one’s sexuality, and the associated expectations that come with being masculine and gay, which are not always complementary. An example of this would be what Beren, Hayden, Wilfley, and Grilo (1996) found in their research: although gay men were found to generally be more effeminate growing up, gender nonconformity can be highly stigmatized among other men, which is creates such a conflicting image for how gay men see themselves as they grow

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

According to Anthony Clare the heart of the masculinity crisis lies within the understanding of “the private and public sphere, the intimate and the impersonal, the emotional and the irrational” (Clare, 2000:212). Both men and women are both confined to their spaces and the line between the two has somewhat been blurred, thus resulting in a crisis. The way in which this line is blurred is by masculinity becoming more feminized. There have been two major shifts in masculinity over

Just like women are pressured by the need to act feminine, men are pressured by the need to act masculine. They have to prove themselves superior, independent, and physically powerful else they aren’t seen as a proper man. Nearly every male is judged by this standard which constantly pressures them into roles they may not want to fulfill. Young boys and men within society constantly face the problem of having to meet the standards of the ideal man by having to prove their masculinity which limits the actions that they can perform and conceals their true personality.

Consistent with Hofstede, masculinity is that the extent to that a society values accomplishment, positive, aggression, and fight. To be precise, masculinity refers to the fabric success as against trait that issue with the standard of life (Hofstede, 2010). Also, masculine societies place additional stress on the segregation of gender roles, i.e., ancient roles for, and belief in difference of girls, moreover as attitude. As ours could be a masculine society, the roles of men and ladies here square measure outlined. In our society, it's the responsibility of men to perform official activities. Therefore, compared to ladies, men usually ought to visit offices. And as a consequence, it's men WHO ought to be baby-faced with the troubles within the offices, that is, men square measure additional sufferers within the workplace. For this reason, men square measure additional uninterested in the town corporation offices, wherever ladies square measure maybe not therefore bored. this could be a reason that {we can| we will| we square measure able to} see that girls are additional happy with the services provided by the town corporation, whereas men square measure less happy.