Reflection On Engagement With Masculinity

Before this class I believed men and women’s gender roles in society were strictly defined. As I gained more knowledge from the Critical Thinking Reader, The Grapes of Wrath, and my research project, I learned that gender roles change based on an individual’s environment, socio-economic standing, and societal norms/expectations. These resources helped clarify that men and women’s roles in society are interchangeable and there are no definite lines or barriers that keep them from fulfilling all roles, that being said men and women can also remain stuck in the roles society has traditionally seen them in.

In America today there are clear views on what masculinity and femininity. These views have given Americans the outlines for how they must behave based on what gender they are. Masculinity is constructed in American culture through many different forms of media, so as the ideals and values attached to masculinity change in the media so has the ideals and values that the everyday man see as being part of masculinity. In this respect the ideals and values of masculinity are shaped by what the media shows it to us.

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. .

Masculinity has changed very little over time. By definition, to be masculine is to be tough, having little or no emotion, and having great physical strength and endurance. Men are thought to be natural leaders and should accept the role of dominating the household (both his wife and children. “Inequality between women and men is a worldwide social phenomenon”. (Schaefer, R., 2012. p354)

Moving onto the topic of masculinity, there is a striking difference in the way we portray masculinity in the

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.

Three main terms will be used in this essay and require a definition as to avoid confusion. Masculinity is defined by Merriam-Webster as,

Not surprisingly, the article analyzes the differences between men who are womanizers and ones who are gentleman. This article was written in response to the author, Laura Merten’s, experiences regarding the collateral damage caused by masculinity in the United States. In this article, she highlights her desired characteristics in a gentleman. In other words, she is describing her ideal characteristics of masculinity. Some of those characteristics include, “Love, understanding, vulnerability, respect, loyalty, and concern” (Merten). Interestingly, these traits are all qualities one would look for in a best friend. In reality, men seem not to focus on the aspects, in which women desire, but the socially constructed aspects, sought out for men’s approval. First of all, this inherently demonstrates the lack of respect devoted to women. Additionally, this desire for men’s approval only reinforces the continuous cycle, which devalues and even dehumanizes

I like that this reading provided history of hegemonic masculinity and provided the theories of the ever changing term. Something that stood out to me was the idea that, we need to distinguish between "patriarchy and gender" (Holter, 1997,2003). I think that a lot of people to connect the two terms, we I think of patriarchy I think of power over the female gender. When it's slightly more than that. I think that men conform to masculinity and all of the socially constructed attributes just as much as women conform to femininity. I feel that once we drop the image of the ideal man or woman the issues of masculinity and femininity won't be as big of an issue. The two attributes seem to be directly linked to heterosexual attraction. Once our society stops selling this idea of attractiveness in a fixed category in media we can start shaping our own ideas. And there will be more room for people to be non

Traditionally, the notion of “masculinity” has been tied to physical attributes of men: conceived as biologically determined, masculinity was considered a “fact of nature” which legitimized and perpetuated male power (Saco 1992:23; Stibbe 2004:32). However,

The concept of the masculinity of real men and femininity of real women has been questioned from one age to the next/ from one culture to another. Upon interviewing three people I have been able to identify cultural patterns. When one looks at society from a broad viewpoint we see a divergence among cultures because of the cultural bias’s implanted from an early age. Additionally, movements by men and women have been fortified because of the reactions to the rationales projected by different cultures. Throughout society the concept of real men and women has been inundated by differentiating cultures allowing for a mixing of belief systems however, someone’s principal belief comes from their family heritage.

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.

In the short story “Being a Man” by Paul Theroux, who explains his severe dislike of being a man and society’s overlook about manhood. He also describes society’s view of generosity and what it means to “be a man”. He argues how society obligates men and women to act in a certain way in regards to their gender roles. Theroux’s argument about how people are being controlled by society’s version of what masculinity represents. Thus, people joint to make certain decisions such as career choices based on society’s expectation instead of their liking. As he describes, certain carriers are not suitable for men or women based on society’s definition of masculinity or feminism. This definition puts pressure on people making important decisions in

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

According to Anthony Clare the heart of the masculinity crisis lies within the understanding of “the private and public sphere, the intimate and the impersonal, the emotional and the irrational” (Clare, 2000:212). Both men and women are both confined to their spaces and the line between the two has somewhat been blurred, thus resulting in a crisis. The way in which this line is blurred is by masculinity becoming more feminized. There have been two major shifts in masculinity over