Men often feel they have the power of rationality through the words they use and their actions. Women are often viewed stereotypically as not being rational because of their language and their actions. In Victor Sieldler essay “Language and Masculinity” Sieldler talks about how man’s rationality controls everything he does, from the way a man speaks and acts to the way a man views others. A man’s religion, community, and family can affect this rationality. In an article by the Newsweek, it explains how language has created a gender gap, and how the gender gap has deemed what is masculine and what is feminine. In Sophocles ‘Antigone”, Creon is an example of how men use power has a way to appear rational to the general society. One can see how these three articles show how language and rationality are tied together in the definition of what it is to be a rational man or women.
Man acts out of the kindness of his heart or the coldness inside him. One uses words and actions to confront people and to comfort them. Men feel to be masculine you have to hide all emotion unless there is a reason to express it. We men follow this code, “Help others when in need and punish those who are cruel and unwilling of our emotions.” Is this a true sign of masculinity? No, but man does it anyway. Masculinity should express emotion through actions and words. Man needs to help those when in need with comforting language and help those who should be punished with a mixture of language. Men
This starts in childhood when false masculinity is induced by a parent, mentor or neighbor. In a number of social situations, a boy is continuously taught that emotions are not a man’s zone. A strong association of emotions and femininity is imposed on a boy when someone says that crying makes him look like a girl. As a result, a low level of emotional intelligence is one of male typical features by their teens. This means that the skill of being aware of their own feelings is underdeveloped with most men. The greatest emotional outburst is usually about anger because it is associated with “macho” type. This is why it is so typical when a man cannot help feeling angry even in situations when he should normally feel another emotion like sorrow or offence. A psychologist says that many men are “trapped in the
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
Men are treated vastly differently than women. For example, men are expected to not show their emotions. In “why men don’t last” by Natalie Angier, a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter, she described how even when men are young boys they have their emotions shamed out of them by their parents and their peers (Angier 1011). In “The War Against Boys” Christina Hoff Sommers, a writer of several books, wrote how men have it imprinted on them at a young age that showing your emotions is a sign of weakness. Men are also taught to be self-sufficient and not ask for help (Sommers 1061). For example, there were many times when I was in school but needed help. I never asked because I always wanted to think of myself as self-sufficient, that I did not need the help from my teacher and I could figure it out myself. Now, of course, I realize how dumb that was that there is no shame in asking for help,
Throughout the literary works of Lysistrata, The Nun’s Priest Tale, and Tartuffe, there are consistent themes of gender role reversals, through which the women have no power yet see situations and people for what they truly are, while the men have power yet are blinded to reality. This situation, then, would create a broken society that would be unable to function properly. Therefore, through the use of numerous figures of speech, these satirical authors indicate that at some point women had to have possessed some form of power in society, and the normative gender construction is not as airtight in the ancient and medieval cultures as some would believe.
Americans understanding about getting involved in physical activity has been evolving since the idea of sport first entered the culture. At first a sport was nothing more than a way to prove yourself to others and to show masculinity. These changes were brought to fruition through more knowledge. When Americans first realized that physical health was of importance, it was what started to make sure that everyone was getting active in some way. These changes happened first for males. It was, for a long time, still considered inappropriate for a female to in peak physical condition. Because it took so long for anyone to believe that the same resources that men were given to stay physically active should be given to women to, women are still not given the same opportunities at any level of sport in America today.
There is a masculinity crisis in America that has been escalating, since society has gravitated to the auspice of anti-marriage and single parenthood. The nuclear family is the root of a successful society. In a traditional nuclear family, family structure plays a vital role in the healthy developmental stages from birth through adolescence; otherwise, the child cannot adjust due to lack of social conventions. There are numerous factors that contribute to the threat of masculinity in our society; namely, families headed by single mothers, the media metrosexualizing males, and absence of God.
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
The article, “Gender pride as tragic flaw in Sophocles' Antigone” by Omolara Kikelomo Owoeye examines the tension between Creon and Antigone, and how the dramatic gender conflict effects the purpose of the novel. Through a psychoanalyst study of Creon, we see that the conflict is deeper than man vs. state. We see an internal conflict between himself and divine law, and then using this tension to attack the protagonist of the novel, Antigone. Owoeye makes the case that the critical reason for his stubbornness is because Creon is a woman, and in society during that time, it would have been a comical action on Creon’s part. He believes that his title, status, and gender make him the superior being. This thought process is what leads him to defy
Regardless of my lack of adequate educational opportunities during my childhood, as I progressed throughout my higher academic courses over the past years, I have learned that I have always been treated differently due to my sexual orientation. In other words, as a heterosexual Christiane male in the American community; I have always being treated with honor simply because I supposedly fit the acceptable identity of a male standard within the Liberian and American community. For example, as a straight man in the American and Liberian community, I have the freedom to use any restroom and I have the opportunity to walk around my community without fearing for my safety as compared to a LGBT person. Unfortunately, members of LGBT label do not get
Gender stratification expresses the prominent issue of gender and its link to authority. In Ancient Greece a man’s role in society was looked upon as superior to a woman's role; however Sophocles challenges Gender role attachment, the beliefs of what is appropriate behavior for gender, in his play Antigone. The root of problems in Antigone is the unjust gender expectations. The Characters in the play attempt to break the intrinsic tensions between masculinity and femininity in Thebes and the extreme authority of men. Antigone’s defiance against Creon sets off a domino effect of outbreaks against gender role attachment. The constant tug of war against breaking gender stratification is evident through the action of Antigone and husband to be
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. .
At the break of the day I wake up before the sun has even settled itself back into the sky, I repeat my dreary morning routine, and I go somewhere. I go somewhere by myself, quite alone, maybe in my car, maybe just for a walk around the neighborhood. While I’m out on my walk or after I’ve driven somewhere and gotten out of my car (that seriously needs a run through the car wash), I become aware. I become vividly aware of all the people around me and feel unsafe, I feel unsafe in my own neighborhood because I heard a woman was held at gunpoint not far from here, I feel unsafe because I’ve binge watched Criminal Minds and I know how easy it is for unsuspecting women who feel safe in public, at stores and in parking lots, to be abducted.
As a boy grows into a man he faces the ever-raising mountain of masculinity. In regards to the occurrence, he finally reaches maturity he has no choice but in order to fight to retain his measly sense of manhood. He is not allowed to act feminine or else he’s not man enough, he can’t show his emotions, he has to hide that he can do anything a woman can do sans give birth. Boys grow up being told they are not allowed to cry and that they are supposed to be tough, that they are not able to be like girls and in the event that they are then they are not real boys. This concept is known as toxic masculinity, some people are not aware that men are being forced to suppress their emotions or even that toxic masculinity should be a topic that is
This research looks at the association of masculinity with violence, racism, power and the objectification of women, which has been around since early civilization. This study also shows how these concepts are still evident today in the media. Masculinity in the media is portrayed as muscular, violent, angry, aggressive, dominant, and warrior like. The rhetoric in media, as it relates to masculinity, has influenced the amount of violence in the world.
Masculinity can be defined as the behaviours, social roles, and relations of men within a given society in addition to the meanings that are attributed to them. The term masculinity stresses gender, unlike male, which stresses biological sex. Despite, this we often times see masculinity being represented as directly correlating to men with an inability to adhere to this is shown making you less of a "man". As put by Katz (1999) there is an expectation that men on screen must be void of emotion, not backing down from a fight, tough and an embodiment of the male gaze. Katz (1999) argues that essentially what