Masculinity And Feminism

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.

A cowboy, the strong and silent “man’s man” is the iconic figure of masculinity. The same cowboy also has a certain fragileness. The perception of a man usually does not reveal the fragile side. However, Gretel Ehrlich reveals this underlying soft side of cowboys in About Men (1985), and Paul Theroux explains in Being a Man (1985) that the idea of manhood is pitiful because there is a fragile side to every man.

“When I 'm talking to groups that are all men”, said Gloria Steinem, writer and political activist, “we talk about how the masculine role limits them. They often want to talk about how they missed having real fathers, real loving, present fathers, because of the way that they tried to fit the picture of masculinity” (Steinem). This particular idea of masculinity is a much more modern interpretation that has changed drastically over the centuries. Masculinity used to be defined as a male who was a man’s man that exemplified President Theodore Roosevelt’s idea of pulling one’s self up by the bootstraps. Over the years, especially in literature, the evolution of masculinity can be directly traced through careful and considerate evaluation and analysis. As we explore the evolution of masculinity, the key elements to fully understand include what exactly it means to be a man, how this concept has changed over time, and what it means to be a man in today’s society.

Everyone who does not fit the idea of masculinity has been placed in the other category. Kids have a hard time to self-identify themselves because of all the masculine role moles that present themselves in the media. Masculinity has created a structured binary that makes their role the ideal role for society to be. That ideal role is traced back to a long history of old traditions, that society cannot look past. This ideal of masculinity has created complications within gender and sexuality that have made people hold onto heteronormative ideals. The heteronormative ideals have created a privilege society where the white males dominate the world and place everyone who does not fit in their binary into the other people category.

What does it take to be defined as masculine or feminine? Since the dawn of time there has always been this huge culteral divide between men and women in terms of what they may or may not be categorized as. Over the past few centuries there has been a massive reconstruction on what it takes for a man to be masculine and for a woman to be feminine. Surely we can say that both men and women have a drive to succeed through hardwork and dedication.

Acknowledging the interconnectedness of gender and warfare is unavoidable in contemporary literature on the subject. War’s ability to enhance men’s authority and magnify the distance between femininity and masculinity (Cockburn 2010, pg. 144) has lead to the prominence of the subject in contemporary feminist studies. Understandably the majority of recent literature has been directed towards war’s impact on women and ‘the feminine’. This limitation, however, fails to take into account the way in which “men and their interests, their notions of manliness, and masculine micro and macro cultures” (Nagel 2006, pg. 243) impacts on politics and war. If we accept that nations and

This is the second in a series of posts exploring modern masculinity. Last week, we talked a little about some of the groundwork for our present expectations of manliness. These were codified around the turn of the century as women as a group began to more successfully assert themselves in society, and men made a generally defensive rather than a jointly innovative response. Today I want to consider a particular area of this response, found in our popular media.

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.

The theme of the construction of masculinity is seen in different ways in the Amongst Women, in Quiet Man and in the Guests of the Nation by Frank O’Connor. In each case, the issue of masculinity is explored from different aspects, such as through the relationship between father and son, the intimate relationship between men and women and through the comradeship. To start with, Amongst Women, the theme of masculinity is reflected by the father of the family Moran and his children, and especially with his son, Luke, and Michael. In Quiet Man, the matter of masculinity is established through the relationship between men and women and especially in the film by the marriage of Thornton and his wife Mary Kate but also through the public and the

Many boys are raised in a home where there is a dominant male, most of the parents and psychologist agree that young men need more feminism, even in their homes. Young men do need to be more concerned about women's right on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality of men. There are many examples of women being superior to men, and yes men do need to be raised so they have more “Rugged masculinity”But they also need to need to learn how to respect and try to gain more rights for woman. There needs to be more of a change in the way we raise boys. Women are being disrespected and the men involved have slower brain development.

Encarta dictionary defines masculinity as “those qualities conventionally supposed to make a man an excellent specimen”; but what exactly are those qualities? Many would say that physical strength, ability to compete in sports, or even the ability to hold liquor are all parts of masculinity. In ancient Greece, they called this quality andreia, literally meaning “manliness”. In truth, masculinity is a much deeper trait that can be viewed differently by a variety of people. Realistically, masculinity cannot be defined universally. A man who is considered masculine in France would most definitely not be considered masculine in the Middle East, simply because the cultures in those areas of the world are vastly different in their beliefs and

Since the time of Florence Nightingale nursing has been popularly understood to be a highly gendered profession based on abilities of caring, helping, and nurturing – which are characteristics stereotypically identified with women and not men in the Western world (Cottingham, 2014; Rajacich, Kane, Williston, & Cameron, 2013; Stanley, 2012). Nightingale’s profound influence on nursing was filtered through the rigid Victorian cultural concepts of her time that viewed women as carers and helpers and men as active doers and experts, with white women of the middle class being the ideal helpers for knowledgeable and powerful male doctors whose primary function was scientific excellence and technical mastery and not the human dimension of caring, showing empathy, or serving others (Andrews, Stewart, Morgan, & D’Arcy, 2012; Cottingham, 2014). After Nightingale, the identification of femininity with nursing continued as the essentialist notion that women are carers and men are doers went essentially unchallenged (McMurry, 2011; Rajacich et al., 2013). This construction was based upon gendered notions of the characteristics of masculinity – defined as “hyper-heterosexuality, control, technical/physical competence, autonomy, and rationality” that are constructed as superior to “feminine” characteristics and deserve more respect, celebration, and recognition by society (Cottingham, 2014). In essence, to be a male and a nurse was therefore to be

Growing up, I always felt a conflict between my femininity and my masculinity. As a small child I loved pink, and Barbie dolls, and flowers. I was always trying to sneak my mothers makeup, and frequently I was traipsing through my house in high heels 10 times too big for me. At the same time however, I also loved to fish with my grandpa. I liked riding around in a tractor, and getting dirt under my fingernails. I would look at my older brother and wish I could be him.

Large numbers of American boys are being remodeled by women. A strengthening movement in our civilization, charges mothers with the huge responsibility, of being both mom and dad. What are mothers to do, having to teach boys how to be men?

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.