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.
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.
Male gender roles in contemporary media that are negatively portrayed through masculinity greatly effects the physical, psychological, and behavioral image of men. The social construct of masculinity in society and its relationship to males is generally reflected in male media consumption. The popular concept of women’s feminine image in the media is vastly overshadowed and more predominantly acceptable in subtle society in comparison to male’s image of masculinity.
Continuing on with the discussion on working-class occupation and masculinity, Paul Willis (1977) conducted research and wrote an article on why working-class kids get working-class jobs. The 12 working-class 'lads ' that Willis (1977) interviewed were all from a town in England, that was largely industrial, called Hammertown. Willis (1977) witnessed a distinct counter-culture towards the school and what Willis calls 'learning labour '. The argument that is put forward in the article is that the 'lads ' rejected the 'learning labour ' not because they had bad experiences in school, but instead because it was seen as feminine (Willis, P., 1977). Thus 'lads ' demonstrated stereotypical views of working-class males masculinity. They believed that manual labour and working physically hard is an expression of male masculinity (ibid). The article does also share an idea that the lads conform to the ideas that are shared by the leader or others members of the group (ibid). This conforming to social groups does give us a valuable insight to the possible reason why working-class males get working-class masculine jobs. Linking in with Joan Acker 's (2006) work on inequality regimes, Willis (1977) does make reference to companies praying on lads, similar to the ones he interviewed, who are from working-class backgrounds and share the lads masculine ideas, to work in their low-skilled factories. However, the 'lads ' did not see this as them being exploited by the organisations,
My study looks at how all my texts are connected by portrayals of masculinity and conformity. All of these texts have main characters who struggle with the demands of masculinity and the pressures to conform to society’s view of masculinity. The texts that I am using are Foreskins Lament by Greg McGee, The Godfather by Francis Ford Coppola, Kite Runner by and The Tomcat by James K Baxter. This interests me because I am a young man beginning my adult life and I feel a lot of pressure to conform to what society thinks is a good man.
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.
Showing your humanity through raw emotions used to be seen as proof of a person’s sincerity, honesty, and integrity. Something happened in the 20th century, women became the picture of teary-eyed fragility and the tearless, aggressive male became the ideal of masculinity. Media messages, commercials, and television shows stopped portraying men as responsible, competent, and compassionate husbands, sons, and fathers, instead they consist of idiotic or misogynistic archetypes. When men are portrayed as sensitive humans, it is largely under the caveat of being gay. As stated in A New Vision of Masculinity, there is still little worse than being mistaken for a homosexual (Cooper, 2016).
This review provides an explanation from teen fathers while measuring masculinity differences. This material covers topics that impact teen fathers’ interactions, beliefs, traditional societal ideologies, and judgment. This analysis reflects qualitative data that describes stigma and the involvement of society regarding teen pregnancy.
This dissertation explores an emerging masculinity with an unlikely genesis stemming from a television program called My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I call this developing form of masculinity “concordant masculinity” which defines itself through harmony by means of collaboration and agreement without coercion or appropriation. This form of masculinity varies from other structures of the term in that it allows for greater gender fluidity and a wider array of gender performances while further fracturing contemporary understandings of traditional masculinity. Simultaneously, concordant masculinity does not dismiss or marginalize other types of masculinity as previous constructs have a tendency to do. Moreover, compromise is a key component
No matter where you go in the world, gender is always constructed in two ways: Feminine and Masculine. Woman are seen as feminine and submissive, while men are known to be masculine and dominant. Socially femininity meant being: “girly”, frail, a woman, caring etc. While being masculine meant the opposite. Strong, man, hardworking, tough. That’s what we as a society see masculinity. But who can show masculinity? Why can people only show masculinity because of their gender? What will happen if they don’t hold enough masculinity that the public want? Article we were given in class will provide some insight to these questions.
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.
What does it mean to be male or female? To you, masculinity is probably playing sports, drinking beer while watching football games, and wearing a suit and tie. Masculinity is probably short hair and bulging muscles. To you, femininity is probably dressing up in fancy dresses and jewelry, putting on a face of makeup, and going to the nail salon. Femininity is probably long, flowing hair and a slender body. This is not the truth, however. These images have been fed to us by society since the day we were born.
The masculinities and femininities which exist in society play an important role in the gender inequality and gender relations. There are many cultural activities which are gendered and contribute to the construction and reconstruction of these femininities and masculinities. One of the most prominent cultural activities which are gendered is sport. Therefore we need to be aware of the role sport has in constructing masculinities and femininities and the ideology, sportocracy. Sport is a gendered cultural activity because it perpetuates many gender stereotypes and promotes or encourages specific masculinities, especially aggression, physicality, competitiveness and dominance.
When thinking of anything to do with the gender norm shifting or otherwise it comes to terms with masculinity and feminism and these are always a topic when we discuss the understandings of women within militarism and war (Riley, 2008 p. 1193). Of course war is considered and seen as the quintessential masculine activity, though which manhood is demonstrated and expected when engaging within war (McLaughlin, 1990 p. 193). However, when we think of this within the understanding of how women could have been or can be a massive influential element to the understanding of the nature of war one can say it could be inaccurate. It is well known and quite common within the descriptions of warfare in medieval texts were prepped with referencing and
In spite of the fact that it is a crucially significant area concern within the intersectionality of feminism and feminist discourse, the subject of “men” – in particular, the subject of men and masculinity – is not given the proper consideration it may deserve. This is in part due to the fact that there is a degree of illogicality in discussing topics of men, given that they are the dominant oppressive group within society. This however is not the case, as even with the social constructed gendered group of men, there exists oppression by a dominant group. Social hierarchies are constructed that put certain men at the top and others at the bottom. Those who are privileged enough to acquire top positions in the social hierarchy are viewed as most masculine form of man within society, and the standard by which all other men are judged.