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
After reading chapter 3: "Prejudice and Discriminations" and as well the article "Transgender African-Americans' Open Wound: ‘We're considered a Joke’”, I have a better understanding of the challenges that certain group undergo due to prejudices and discrimination that exist within their own racial group and other groups of our society. Although the LBGT community has made its social conditions a little more better, there is still those within their group that are even more marginalize, this is the case of a African-American transgender. African Americans transgender face twice as much prejudice and discrimination. They battle prejudice and discrimination from their own racial group and from society because of their skin color and their gender
Women today are still battling with the stereotypes given to them many years ago. Women are seen as less than men, they are expected to stay home and take care of the children and absolutely never be more successful than a man. They are not supposed to be seen as the hero in a situation because heroes are seen as masculine men, not women. More shows and movies are starting to fight back against these stereotypes. One show in particular, NCIS or the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, portrays women as strong and successful. It gives women a chance to show how confident they can be in themselves and that they can also be considered the hero. NCIS shows through Abby and Ziva that women can be successful and the hero, which provides women with a strong and heroic role model to emulate.
Never cry or show any emotion, when things happen take it like man, do not get mad, get even. These along with many other rules are makeup “the Guy Code” believed to shape what masculinity in American society. “’Bros before Hoes’: The Guy Code” by Michael Kimmel discusses a set of epigrams and analyzes American masculinity. These ideals of what is takes to be a “man” are often portrayed by hip-hop artists in today’s mainstream music industry.
Society’s current structure of masculinity is unforgiving in form. It cuts out other forms of masculinity, it physically and mentally demanding, and its ill effects extend far beyond the men it infuses itself in. Yet what would we do if we were given other options for masculinity, ones that allowed for unique blends of attitudes and perceptions? Looking in to the lives of homeless men we can see the forced strategies which create new masculine codes created for the adaption against patriarchal pressures. They are made out of survival need to circumnavigate the painful mental and physical reality that is only made worse by harsh masculine standards. Yet these new masculinities hold out a form of hopefulness for society. They offer up new discussion to what it means to be a man, the potential for change, and what we can expect from changes in male identity over time. Using what we learn from the disadvantaged, we can hope to improve the lives of people, although the process will take time, effort, and careful mediation.
Oppression of minorities has had a detrimental aspect in the associated individual’s lives. History has demonstrated that as a western society, we devalue minorities’ rights and values through legislation and societal views. Today, this remains to be an issue for many individuals of many stigmatized groups. Although efforts to reach a more unified community have been taken, many minorities still fight oppression. Through activism, social and political movements, the LGBTQIA community have progressed immensely throughout the past few decades. History has demonstrated a slow, yet vast amount of success in this marginalized group. Activists endured a long journey toward gaining rights for the community which lead to a modern day civil rights movement for the LGBTQIA community. Although there has been a great amount of successes, non-heterosexual individuals still do not have full equal rights as their heterosexual counterparts. There are still adversities that are being faced in this population that hinder these individuals from thriving. The issue is even greater when the individual has an additional identity that is also marginalized. Specifically, individuals who identify as people of color (POC) and LGBTQIA still encounter prejudice from society.
According to the article African American men “, bears a greater burden of type 2 diabetes,” (325). Diabetes is known to have an effect on the individual’s socially, economic and culturally. These factors may include reason as to why diabetes is more prevalent in the males of the African American communities. The article details three main points in which African American men are effected. “ males seek medical care less frequently and at a later point in the course of illness; males generally pay less attention to their diet; and males more often engage in risky behaviors including smoking, alcohol abuse , violence and unsafe driving,”(324). These factors may also include the lack of education and awareness about such disease but also the
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.
The short film American Male shows how the male protagonist was being influenced by the society’s definition of a man. The film starts with the voice over, “Order beer. Not wine. And beef, not chicken. Never light beer, though.
...Tell me is it cool to fuck?” or Jay-Z’s hit song: 99 problems, “99 Problems but a bitch ain 't one. If you having girl problems. I feel bad for you son. I got 99 problems but a bitch ain 't one.Hit me.” Each song displays a different type of hatred and is sexually degrading towards women in their own way. However, many of these rappers face the pressures of their hierarchy, the corporations that produce this music, and find what its viewers are listening and responding to the most. The content of the messages in these rap lyrics has become more hardcore over the past years in order to make records sell, because that’s what consumers like, that’s what they want to hear. The negative depiction and hegemonic masculinity are what is making these records sell. Consumers play a key role in the process. Misogynistic representations of women and the more general marketing of “hood narratives”, occur in part, in response to a perceived consumer demand for stereotypical representations of the ghetto, and specifically of young Black men and women (Watkins 2001:389). Negative representation towards women isn’t only talked about in their songs, but shown in the popular music videos that played on stations aimed for kids of the younger generation, such as MTV. It is found that women in rap music videos were more likely then men to be associated with themes of misogyny. The prominence of misogyny as a theme may be related to viewers’ expression of similar attitudes towards their own
Society faces an issue that is not usually addressed because it is seen as the norm in today’s American culture. It is the crisis of masculinity. The notion of how men should be portrayed is not usually identified as a problem; today’s society views men’s apathetic and exasperated exterior as the orthodox behavior of everyday life. Boys at a young age are taught by the popular culture that they need to be a “real man” - strong physically and emotionally. The mask many men put up is based on the extreme idea of masculinity that emphasizes toughness, physical strength and gaining the respect of others through violence or the explicit threat of it. This front is put up by men because they do not want to stray from what is accepted, for men who
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.
Masculinity is described as possession of attributes considered typical of a man. Hegemonic masculinity is a form of masculine character with cultural idealism and emphasis that connects masculinity to competitiveness, toughness, and women subordination. Masculinity hegemonic is the enforcement of male dominion over a society. Masculine ideology dates back to the time of agrarian and the industrial revolution in Europe when survival compelled men to leave their homesteads to work in industries to earn a living for their families while women remained at home to take care of family affairs (Good and Sherrod 210). Women did not work in industries then because industrial labor was considered too physical beyond their capacity. This led to
In today’s society, masculinity has changed throughout time. Fast forward one hundred years ago, masculinity is defined as being strong and having a good paying job. But as the world is changing so is the representation of manliness. You don’t have to show your dominance over men or women today, but you should support your family nowadays and we have all been brainwashed by the thought of masculinity from our ancestors. As men our reputation is always being valued but now it isn’t so much about our reputation but about caring for one another and especially for our families. Perspective of manhood is also a significant factor in portraying what masculinity is in the eyes of other people. Masculinity has been shown through money, appearance, and providing protection for your family members but as we shift into the modern world, masculinity is not seen as displaying the most discipline but caring for one another by taking out some of your time to help one another. Throughout the paper, I will be writing about my interviews from a broad spectrum of ages from one of my younger sisters to my dad with not friends not at Seb’s in between so I can get what it really means to be a man from all ages.
In the past Britain used to be a patriarchal society, however, now it is hypothetically equal. The gender-role identity is the extent of masculine or feminine self-appreciation of an individual (McNeill & Petersen, 1985, cited in Fromme & Eccles, 1996). Masculinity and femininity described by Deaux (1984) as personal characteristics, activities, behaviours, dispositions, appearances which are acceptable for males or females and established by sociocultural factors, while sex refers only to the physiological dissimilarities. Per biological supposition, gender is fully defined by biology, particularly, by the physiology (work of the nervous system) and inheritance (genetic factor) (McLeod, 2014). On contrast, psychodynamic paradigm primarily focused on conscious and unconscious stimuli within the individual and psychosexual development with an emphasis on early childhood experiences, like the main factor of gender formation (Brannon, 2016). In this essay, biological psychological approach to the formation of an individual’s gender role identity compared with the psychodynamic approach.