Masculinity : The Real World

The article “The National Conversation in the Wake of Littleton is Missing the Mark" By Jackson Kats and Sut Jhally is about finding the cause of violence and relating it to students who dispense harm to society, as well as other students. There is a focus on masculinity, along with behavior and how that behavior is being influenced by the environment. The article focuses on factors such as peer exclusion, the prevalence of violence in the media and most importantly, violence in relation to gender. .

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.

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.

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 boy can start out loving to play with something usually meant for girls, such as a barbie. This is entirely possible but then why don’t we see this happening in society? It’s because with time, the children are exposed to negative provocation on how barbies are meant for girls. This type of exposure eventually stop him from liking barbies, and shifting to playing with something more “boyish”. One of the best examples of this happening is seen in the short story, “Boys vs Girls”, by Alice Munro.

The Hippie era has come to end and the days of self awareness have arrived. Instead of focusing on love to all, many Americans were indulging in their self pleasure. According to Alfred Kinsey’s research Americans sexual behavior deviated from their widely accepted norms (Glbt.com/shsh/sexrevo cites correctly). Wilhelm Reich added to Kinsey’s research with a remark that he believed sexual repression overwhelmingly distorted psychological development (glbt.com/shsh). To further societies receptivity of sexuality the case Roth v. United States in 1956 created a public arena in which it became possible to discuss sex and represent it both literary and visually (glbt.com). Furthermore the counterculture of the 60’s had a new candidness of sexuality,

Seeing all the ways masculinity is performed and expected really made it clear to me the way everyone performs masculinity in society, especially in terms of holding back emotions. In The Mask You Live In, they discuss how by the age of ten, boys are socialized into believing it is not okay to cry in public because emotions, especially sadness, are seen as feminine and weak. While this especially affects boys and men, it also affects anyone trying to gain power in society. Women have to perform masculinity in order to be seen as competent, respectable, and strong if they ever want to hold a position of power. For example, if a female politician shows any strong emotion, they would be seen as emotionally unstable and therefore unfit for the position.

The nature of the self is what controls one's instincts like reacting violently and it is largely influenced by internal and external factors including destructive societal pressure. In the documentary The Mask You Live In, it provides the idea that masculinity in modern society is highly emphasized, causing several destructive effects. For example, males from a young age are often taught to behave like a "Real man" who is not allowed to shed tears publically. As a result of these masculinity "Rules", men always tend to hide away their emotions afraid that it will challenge societal beliefs. Over a long-term, boys who endure these external pressures experience longlasting toxic outcomes including becoming self-enclosed.

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.

What is it to be a man? Masculinity is defined and characterized differently across cultures and time there is no “global” standard. In some cultures, being a man may mean being comfortable with both your masculine and feminine sides or it could suggest being “tough” and not letting your feelings show at all. Manliness can be demonstrated in some cultures by providing for a family through work, and in others, it might mean scoring the winning goal in a championship game. Trying to define one’s own masculinity and live up to its standards is a tough and grueling task that many men struggle with. Maintaining this masculinity is something that the male characters in both Death of a Salesman and A Raisin in the Sun are familiar with.

In our society, there are norms of what is considered to be feminine and what is to be considered masculine, but how are these norms constructed? Through the use of toys, books, and clothing, children are socialized into their “appropriate” gender. These objects provide influence over behavior and appearance, showing boys and girls what is appropriate for each gender. After some investigation it was found that the toys, books, and clothing that children use not only foster the norms of gender behavior and appearance, but also construct gender roles in their young minds.

War has been a mainstay of human civilization since its inception thousands of years ago, and throughout this long and colorful history, warriors have almost exclusively been male. By repeatedly taking on the fundamentally aggressive and violent role of soldier, Man has slowly come to define Himself through these violent experiences. Although modern American society regulates the experiences associated with engaging in warfare to a select group of individuals, leaving the majority of the American public emotionally and personally distant from war, mainstream American masculinity still draws heavily upon the characteristically male experience of going to war. In modern American society, masculinity is still defined and expressed through

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.

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.

“[Masculinity/ femininity] refers to the extent to which a culture values aggressiveness, competitiveness, looking out for yourself, and dominating others and nature versus gentleness, cooperation, and taking care of others and living in harmony with the natural world.” (Wood) Toula is pressured to marry a nice greek man, while her brother is expected to marry a greek virgin but does not receive the same pressure. Gus also has some expectations of Nick to partake in masculine activities unlike Toula where he is accepting of Toula wanting to take “pottery classes.” Evidence of this is when Nick is trying to show Gus his drawings for the menu and Gus completely disregards his efforts, always responding with, “Where did you get this?” And when Nick says that he drew it, Gus responds with a grunt. “Long term/ short term orientation refers to the extent to which members of a culture think about long term (history and future) vs short term (present).” (Wood) “Individualistic cultures generally rely on low-context communication style, which is direct, explicit, and detailed.” (Wood) “Collectivist cultures typically rely on a high-context communication style, which is indirect and indetailed and which conveys meaning more implicitly than explicitly.” (Wood) Gus is very oriented around the future and therefore follows along with the principles of long term orientation. Even before his children have grown old enough to date, they are already taught that Greek women are to grow up