'Masculinity In Gretel Ehrlich's About Men'

When defining the term ‘manhood’, many people may use terms such as courage, strength, or bravery. Throughout history there have been many pressures on men to be as stereotypically manly as possible. If men don’t conform to those stereotypes, they may be looked down upon by society as a whole. Richard Van Camp’s short story ‘The Night Charles Bukowski Died’ is a prime example of the dangers of nonconformity to stereotypically manly traits. The story is an intense first person stream of consciousness from the point of view of an unnamed narrator that follows the narrator and three of his peers: Mikey, Jason, and Scott. The use of metaphor, point of view, and setting in “The Night Charles Bukowski Died” exposes how stereotypical expectations of manhood can lead to dangerous situations not only physically, but also socially and emotionally.

The theme in the book Shane, by Jack Schaefer, portrays that true manhood consists not of bravado or status, but of character, honor, and loyalty. The main character is a man named Shane, who rides into a small valley mysteriously at the beginning of the book and takes a position as the aid of a farmer, Joe Starett. When Shane arrives, Joe and the other farmers of the valley are struggling, while the rancher Fletcher is the highest valley authority. The townspeople and Bob, Joe’s son, struggle to discover what make a man honorable and manly. They hold Fletcher and his cowboys as authorities, manly men in a culture that admires this, because of the glamour of their profession. Fletcher’s confidence and bravado, as well as his profession and position, appear to the townspeople to be the epitome of manhood. Bob falls into this easy way of thinking as well; he says that before Shane came into his life his highest aspiration was to become like his father, but his ambition was to first be a cowboy. Bob visualizes himself riding through the country: rough, strong, free, and well-liked. After Shane arrives, Bob starts thinking about true manhood, comparing his father, Shane, Fletcher, and the cowboys. He realizes that manhood is not being like Fletcher, with shows of bravado designed to insult others, but instead is standing up for your family and principles when necessary. Bob also learns that manhood has to do a great deal with character, finding

The opening of the novel presents a prelude of how life for the 19th century cowboy was and how

In one scene of the memoir, Allison describes her uncles and their need to be depicted as masculine and to act “hard” to the world around them. She also remembers her cousins as young boys and how quickly they seemed to turn into men. The time came for them to act as the world expected them to. This action shows how gender may oppress some males when they feel the pressures of the world to act a certain way. Otherwise, they are at risk for being seen as different and abnormal. Men who do not portray masculinity well are often seen as feminine and weak. When Allison describes her uncles she states, “If you didn’t look close, you might miss the sharp glint of pain in their eyes, the restless angry way they gave themselves up to fate,” (Allison, 28). These men already had their futures planned for them though the society and gender norms. Acting against these norms was seen as unusual, radical, and

Cowboys are the American idol of the “Old West” pictured as silhouette riding out over the prairie on their horse with the sunset ahead of them. They are what shaped the entire cattle raising industry in America. A study of the cowboy way of life helps us to discover the hardships they faced and the experiences that every cowboy has witnessed.

Indeed, throughout the essay, Ehrlich uses cowboys to represent all men. The advertisements responsible for the misconceptions of the cowboy are developed in New York City, where her article was published, and Ehrlich uses this fact to juxtapose the metropolitan origins of these campaigns with the day-to-day realities of the cowboy and the genuine hardships they encounter. Ehrlich reveals many of the less romantic and appealing details about the job: miniscule pay, extremely challenging labor, burdensome emotional torment, and constant care for dangerous animals. Ehrlich starts by stating, “When I’m in New York but feeling lonely for Wyoming…[I’m given a] reminder of the ranchers and cowboys I’ve ridden with for the last eight years” and shows her audience this topic is personal to her (198). She immediately establishes credibility: she lives in New York but grew up in Wyoming--around actual cowboys. She says this with the intent to show she not only knows of the “traditional cowboy” that is depicted in subway ads all around New York, but also is very familiar with the real cowboys of Wyoming. By establishing this credibility, her audience can immediately trust her argument due to her

Building on the notions of femininity and masculinity, the author outlines all the cliché qualities of men and women, supporting them with vivid imagery, while also being careful with his

The Day the Cowboy’s Quit takes place during the 1880’s and revolves around the character, Hugh Hitchcock. “Hitch” can only be described as a man of his word, perhaps even to a fault. He enjoys simple pleasures, and idealizes the cowboy lifestyle. Hitch works for the W Ranch, for a rancher named Charlie Waide, to whom he looks up to as a sort of father-figure. At Charlie’s ranch, Hitch and the other cowboys are free to own their own cattle and brand them as such, so long as they don’t steal from him or any of the other ranchers. However, not all ranchers see fit the hands-off approach Charlie takes with his men. Since the W Ranch is only expanding its horizons, the cowboys, and Hitch, although optimistic, and faithful in Charlie, see this free way of life coming to an end. Soon enough, big ranch owners try to force their ways upon the W Ranch, and Charlie resists, that is, until one of his own is found to have stolen cattle. Charlie’s trust in his men falters, and he conforms to the business oriented ways of the other ranchers. Upon word of this, the

Barbara Ehrenreich, in The Hearts Of Men, illustrates how gender roles have highly constricted men, not just women, and therefore have inhibited American society from developing its full potential. She deviates from conventional wisdom, which says that gender roles have been largely detrimental to only half the population, which is simultaneously confined to working in the domestic sphere and prevented from participating in the public realm. Her theory says that Americans subscribe to a "sexuo-economic system" which reduces men to "mere earning mechanisms" and forces women to "become parasitic wives" (6, 4). As she explains, members of both sexes adhere to a system which forces them to succumb to

Males are interesting objects. They have to keep their chest high and stand their ground. Cowboys are supposed to have a beer belly, mustache, long comeback boots, and the upper lip mug on their face. This is how a man’s mentality should always be. Males are known to be tough and not show emotion, “Cowboys are just like a pile of rocks – everything happens to them,” (Ehrlich 1045). No matter how much they get attacked, pushed around, and so on; they are told to just stand there and deal with it. “Take it like a man,” something that is said all the time when a young boy or a grown man tries to show a “feminine” emotion. Emotion is a dull thing to a male and should not be shown. They can only be happy, or mad. There is no in between to that. If sadness is shown, then they will be called weak or a wimp, and being called

In the opening scene of Jane Martin’s “Rodeo,” there are many stereotypical props used to portray the beer-drinking, hard-working, cowboy image with the characteristic country music playing as an added touch. Most people are familiar with this type of scene in their minds, with a man as the character, but not this time – we find a tough, smart, opinionated woman with a distinctively country name of Lurlene, and the typical cowboy kind of nickname, Big Eight. The reader will dive deeper into the true character of this unusual woman and realize that she is no different from the average woman in today’s workforce. She is feeling the frustration of discrimination and the push out of the only lifestyle that she knows, by “Them” (1667).

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.

Westerns connote images of dirt, dust, guns, horses, cowboys and heroes: physically strong, iron-willed, independent, resourceful, quick-witted men. Although the modern Western (the writings of Louise L’Amour, Zane Grey and the numerous films starring John Wayne, Roy Rodgers, Gene Autry) seems to focus on this ideal hero, the genre actually also provides women with strong, self-reliant, active roles. In fact, many texts that precede the typical modern Western had females as the main characters. However, the role of the heroine still differs from that of the hero; the role does not defeminize women but gives them depth as characters. These women still retain their femininity and domesticity, but they also rescue those around them, take care

The sexual politics of the man-woman relationship, or more specifically the sexual exploitation of women by men, is a clear concern in Margaret Atwood's "Backdrop Addresses Cowboy." Although the oppressor-as-male theme is by no means an original source of poetic inspiration, Atwood's distinction is that she views the destructive man-woman relationship as a metaphor for, symptom and symbol of, bigger things. From the vantage-point of feminine consciousness, Margaret Atwood empahsizes the "backdrop" as being not only the woman, but also the land and the spiritual life of the universe; the "cowboy" is both a man bent on personal gain (possibly an American based

Have you ever wondered who the cowboys were; how they lived; or what they did? The American Cowboy's way of life was interesting and unique, and they contributed more to society than one might think. Besides looking after stock and driving cattle, they had to round up huge numbers of cattle for ranchers. This paper will examine the American cowboy's character, what they wore, the everyday things they did like driving cattle and branding calves and the lawlessness of the old west.