Portrayals of Masculinity in the Films Tough Guise and Oceans Eleven

“Tough Guise 2: Violence, Manhood & American Culture” is a bold documentary highlighting the role of masculinity as it implicates American culture. In the opening scene you are befuddled by historical and Hollywood images of violence, high tempo music, and male-driven aggression. As the narrator, Jackson Katz, details in his openings statement: whether you are recoiling from violence or celebrating it, you are doing it from the viewpoint of male-driven masculinity.

We define masculinity in a very narrow way. Masculinity becomes this hard, small cage, and we put boys inside the cage. We teach boys to be afraid of fear. We teach boys to be afraid of weakness, of vulnerability. We teach them to mask their true selves because they have to be, in Nigeria speak, ‘hard man’ (Adichie).

These socially created norms change the views of masculinity. Tough Guise showed several images of young males mirroring the actions of the media portrayals of tough rap artists. This example gave a clear definition of how the media can affect individual actions. Using the images of tough rap artists allowed my grandmother to understand how socialization agents can cause stereotypes.

No matter what, we are almost always talking about violence masculinity in America. Whether we are talking about the horrifying, high-profile mass shooting we have seen over recent decades, the far greater rates of murder and gun violence we see on a day – to – day basis that barely register in the national news, or the epidemic of sexual violence and domestic violence, the vast majority of this violence is committed by men, young men, and boys (Jackson Katz, 2013). Throughout this essay the topics covered will be how culture defines masculinity, according to the film, violent masculinity as a cultural norm, agents of socialization that teach boys how to be men, the cool

Along with dominance over women he aims to prove superiority to other male peers specifically other black males that he degrades by referring to them as “ni**as” or “pussy’s”. Further accentuating his masculinity via threats of violence and gun violence. In relation to Tough Guise, the image of racialized men in the media is a topic is discussed. Katz states that racialized men, specifically black and Latino males, are continuously displayed as thugs and gangsters.

In the movie, Ocean’s 11, upon his release from prison, Danny Ocean seeks to carry out one last job, a 3 in 1 casino robbery. Immediately, Ocean seeks out his smart and trustworthy friend, Rusty, who must help him coordinate the ultimate plan. After carefully running through the concept and evaluating the chances of success, they decide to go with it. Together, the two carefully develop an effective team, selectively recruiting people they personally know, each with different sets of skills and knowledge needed to perform certain critical tasks. More importantly, the two masterminds pitch the idea to Ruben, whom they know loathes Benedict, the owner of the casinos they wish to rob, almost instantly he climbs on board.

    In society today, masculinity is seen as never crying or feeling pain. Emotionless zombies who show no sympathy and have no care in the world are the manliest of them all. Media portrays masculinity in his skewed way. Fight Club is known for its extreme display of the masculine identity. Conformed middle aged men break out of their shells by fighting their peers and proving themselves worthy of

The "tough guise" refers to the many ways that America has created and enforced a certain set of values, behaviors, and traits as true masculinity or what makes someone "a real man". The title serves to refer to the American standard that guys should be tough as well as highlighting the depth of these standards in every level of our society, hence being a guise (aka a manner of presentation) that is strong and a challenge to break or change. This guise is created and maintained over the decades on a large scale by our culture. To begin to break down how our culture creates this guide it's easiest to view it from it's two most predominant sources, individuals and the various media that they produce. People in this country interact with one another and by doing so they influence each others thoughts and

Danny and Rusty set up the path to be followed to achieve their goal - to rob three casinos owned by the ever ruthless Terry Benedict. Danny acts like the charismatic leader of the team. The plan is to pull off the heist, but what enhances the movie’s plot is Danny Ocean's charm. Besides the common shared goal, the film also focuses on

Hatfield states, “Fictional television can be seen either as an influence on, or reflection of, culture—the shared norms, values, and beliefs held by a society. Yet many groups exist within a society and multiple value systems may be at play” (p.530). On television and in movies there are very few forms of masculinity shown. The majority of male masculinity usually ranges from gun toting hard asses, to a playboy, to the effeminate man that is often there for comic relief. Men in society do not always fit into these three categories. Masculinity is a much more complex and complicated identity to develop. There are shows like 24 where the main character, Jack Bauer, is a governmental agent going around the world in twenty-four hours to stop terrorism. He is unattached emotionally and highly dangerous. This does not represent a real form of masculinity that we have in today’s culture. There are men that probably do fit into the same category as the fictional character, but they are very unlike the average males in society today. A second common type of masculinity shown on television is the playboy style masculinity: men that have multiple sexual partners and seem to have the ultimate bachelor lifestyle with no worries or concerns. According to Ward, Merriwether, and Caruthers “ because men do not live in isolation, their beliefs about masculinity are likely to influence not only

Each day, violence is pushed on children, teenagers, and adults. Yet we as a society continue to overlook the issue. We fail to ask ourselves the important questions. Why are there so many mass shootings, why are there so many unjustified murders, or why are men using masculinity as an excuse to become more aggressive towards woman sexually, and also towards men who don’t display what our modern cultures and movies tell us is manly? I believe that we don’t ask these questions not because we don’t want to hear the answers, instead because glorified ferocity has become a normal part of our everyday lives. So much so, that we think it’s just the way life is. After watching Tough Guise 2 it becomes clear that although violent action is the end result, our true problem lies within the horrible messages our movies present to us.

Masculinity, a seemingly simple concept. Yet, when examined more closely, it is clear that masculinity is constantly changing in its definition as well as in its most basic essence. Throughout the years, one can see this evolution firsthand by looking back at the men who have been portrayed in popular media in the United States of America. From the suave Don Draper types of the 1950s to the more casual, educated, and easygoing men- with perfectly chiseled abs, of course- that are portrayed in media today, the difference is clear. This drastic, yet unsurprising, shift in ideals, as well as the exponential increase of media consumed every day, has led to a change in how “masculinity” is perceived, as well as how it is enforced by society in the modern day. Alarmingly, this trend has led to the birth of so-called “toxic masculinity”, a bastardization of the original ideas behind masculinity which has created an enormous, detrimental effect on society as a whole. As defined in the article The Difference Between Toxic Masculinity and Being a Man, toxic masculinity is “manhood as defined by violence, sex, status, and aggression. It’s the cultural ideal of manliness, where strength is everything… where sex and brutality are yardsticks by which men are measured,” (O’Malley) This is a clearly displayed truth, and it’s astounding to see how even from a young age boys are taught not to show emotions other than anger, conditioned to believe that being “like a girl” is the worst possible

This research looks at the association of masculinity with violence, racism, power and the objectification of women, which has been around since early civilization. This study also shows how these concepts are still evident today in the media. Masculinity in the media is portrayed as muscular, violent, angry, aggressive, dominant, and warrior like. The rhetoric in media, as it relates to masculinity, has influenced the amount of violence in the world.

Masculinity can be defined as the behaviours, social roles, and relations of men within a given society in addition to the meanings that are attributed to them. The term masculinity stresses gender, unlike male, which stresses biological sex. Despite, this we often times see masculinity being represented as directly correlating to men with an inability to adhere to this is shown making you less of a "man". As put by Katz (1999) there is an expectation that men on screen must be void of emotion, not backing down from a fight, tough and an embodiment of the male gaze. Katz (1999) argues that essentially what

Strong, Independent, Intimidating, Powerful, Strong, Independent, In control, Rugged, Scares people, Powerful, Respected, Hard, A stud, Athletic, Muscular, A real man is tough, Tough, Tough” These are the responses of young men when they were asked what they believed what being a man was in the movie Tough Guise. This is a movie by Jackson Katz who is an anti-violence educator. The media that is taken in by the young men in our society is a very violent one. The men in most movies are portrayed as violent, tough, powerful, and criminals. The roles played by these men create an image for these young men making it seem ideal to be like them. The media influences the men and makes them have the negative portrayal of what a man is supposed to be. Masculinity reaches many people by influence through others.