Masculinity Essay

When someone thinks of a man the first thing that comes to mind is a large man, the epitome of strength and toughness, but where did they get that idea. More often than not people get their ideas of masculinity from the shows and movies they watch throughout their lives. In the article Hegemonic masculinity in media contents, by Peter J. Kareithi, he focuses much more specifically on how the media has presented it to the public, and less of the why, and how it started. The paper by Connell and Messerschmidt, Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept, does a much better job at explaining the history of hegemonic masculinity and how it came to be. Though together the two articles give the reader a complete sense of what the focus is, and

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

The definition of masculinity; Is the fact of being a man or having qualities considered typical of a man.

Over the course of his life, John Wayne developed a powerful and one of a kind star persona. John Wayne's persona is highly tied to masculinity, which we see through many of his character roles in his Western films. John Wayne made many movies throughout his long, illustrious career but he is most well-known for his appearances in Stagecoach (1939), The Searchers (1956), Rio Bravo (1959), True Grit (1969) and many more. Throughout John Wayne's career, his persona shows us the nature of the world where men are forced to choose to be part of a family or to remain independent and keep their masculinity. Ultimately, his persona sends the message that men can be family

“Some of the features that are to become key elements of the genre are to be found in early silent Westerns from the late 1890s and early 1900s” (Westerns). Since this time, many of the famous films have become household names. For some people, the reason they have been introduced to this film genre is because of their grandparents or parents. For others, they may have a genuine interest to understand this culture that has transformed itself to fit with a new era of time. Although these films have been able to generate great amounts of revenue, they are full of underlying elements that show the cultural issues of that time period. Moreover, some of these elements may not be noticeable to everyone at first, but that is where the satire and parody come into play.

The movie surveyed a wide array of the troubles faced by boys and men as they try to navigate the realm of masculinity. A common theme was the command “be a man” and the cultural baggage that comes with living up to that ideal. To “be a man” means to not cry, to not be sensitive, to not let people mess with you, to respond with violence, to be angry, to drink, to womanize.

Masculinity. When people see this word they tend to associate its meaning with anything that is associated to men. This leads one to wonder what defines a ‘man’. Why are we associating these traits to this ‘man’? What is so special about the ‘man’ that makes us associate these terms with him and thus associate masculinity with them? The United States society that we live in today may seem to be making people pay a steep price for masculinity, but one does wonder was it always like this? Actually no it was not. Today dressing up as a women or ‘acting like a girl’ reduces your masculinity and makes people view you in a negative light. Cross-dressing in general is frowned upon. Men are very in limited in what they can express and how

The article that I will be examines is “Booty call sex, violence, and images of black masculinity” by Patricia Hill Collins. The author has examined the black experience and how the media misrepresents black men; these effects are still felt in the present. Collins was using different forms of media such as sport, film, and historic events. To help the readers to learn where hyper sexuality, violet, and criminal stereotypes of black male come from.

This is more of a personal question, but how do you define masculinity and more specifically black masculinity? What does it mean to you? In our earlier reading for black masculinity, we learned about different definitions of black masculinity through different lens. For example, authors such as Byron Hurt and Kathleen Brown state that black masculinity can be rooted in many from expressionism to violence. With every reading and every discussion in class, I consistently have to return to these questions in order to remind myself what black masculinity should look like and how it is portrayed to be in society. On that same token, do you believe masculinity and black masculinity should be separated as two different concepts.

Threat to masculinity reached its apogee in 1950s with the re-returning of war veterans who felt domesticated in a family atmosphere, losing their roughness, harshness and becoming tender in their approach. A fear of losing masculinity was prevalent at that time. Western films in the 1950s dealt with race issues and how the rugged masculinity of the West was under siege from 1950s domesticity. Hong Kong films though maintained a patriarchal order but magazine articles that appeared in 1957-58 claimed that American men are going soft and diverse films such as Rear Window, Gunman’s Walk, The King and I, Sayonara and Home From the Hill were actually severely testing traditional forms of masculinity. The Western films were undergoing change

To what extent was society’s perception of James Dean as a rebel the reason for his iconic status? James Dean was a worldwide admired screen personality, eventually becoming the centre piece for restless American adolescence in the 1950s. A Hollywood star whose rapid climb to fame also had helped hurl him into the eternal sanctuary of film greatness and has continued to entrance audiences with his acting abilities and trade mark attitude which still lives on today.

During the 1960’s and the 1970’s, America was experiencing a cultural evolution that moved from the stereotypes in the 1950’s to a more free expression nation. There was numerous reasons why this culture changed, which resulted from the Cold War, the Vietnam War, Cuba Missile Crisis, or the tensions of equality among races and gender. The entertainment industry changed their media to attract their customers, which led to controversial movies and a new form of music. A movie that was a huge success due to its relevance at the time and people was “Easy Rider”. The movie was released in 1969 and became a success.

Being a male in today’s society is not about living and enjoyment, it has become more of a task. Social pressures and media have made it difficult for males to live a life in which they are not being pressured to act or perform a certain way. In order to reassure themselves of their masculinity, violence has become the main method in assuring themselves and those around them that they are powerful. Not only is this violence being perpetrated against others, but self-inflicted violence also exists. The violence being used is not only physical but it is emotional abuse as well. Masculinity has forced many males to perform in ways that are detrimental to their own health as well as their loved ones. Furthermore, it has also put males in the

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.

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.