Resonation Between Masculinity And Femininity And Gender Identity

Looking tough, sagging your pants, big muscles, baritone voices, and being homophobia do not characterized what masculinity is. Masculinity is biologically constructed and consists of traits such as aggressiveness, non-emotional, competitiveness, and tough skinned, strong, and hard. However, over the decades of our time, men that are queers (homosexual man) have now been identified as “queering masculinity”. Men such as; Ellyn Harris, best selling open gay author, Alvin Ailey, CEO and founder of the, American Dance Theatre in New York City, Langston Hughes, famous African American Poet, James Baldwin, civil rights activist and author of, “Go Tell it on the Mountain”, and the “Fashion Queen” himself, Mr. Andre Leon Talley, former editor and chief of Vogue magazine. These philanthropic men have all been influential in our societies and communities. Their pioneer abilities has transcended them as visionaries and are the voices through the lens of, “Queering Masculinity: Manhood and Black Gay Men in College”. Which is also known as “BGMUs”. This was a qualitative study that explored the lives and experiences of BGMUs’ and how they identified with masculinity and manhood affecting them socially and academically.

Catullus 16, "A Reply to My Critics" is a poem written by the Roman poet Gaius Valerius Catullus "that was deemed so obscene it was not published in its entirety in English until the latter part of the 20th century" (Winter). To give the poem some context, this aggressive rebuttal was addressed to two men, Furius and Aurelius, who are also referenced to as Catullus ' "critics" he is replying to. These two men tend to appear in other poetry by Catullus, where he, again, employs the use of abusive language at them. These rather intrusive retorts are based on the Roman contructs of masculinity, as Catullus exhibits the need to portray a dominating demeanor upon his critics in order to deny the claims of Aurelius and Furius, that the nature of his poetry is mollis, meaning ‘soft’ and 'tender ', which esstenially makes Catullus mollis. Because of these accusations, he himself is made effeminate by these criticsims and therefore feels the need to combat these views by aggressive attacks that fortify a perceived masculine persona. Therefore, this poem serves is an attack on these demeaning criticisms and a demonstration of social norms on skewed portrayals of masculinity within the Roman society.

In this paper I will present an analysis of two fitness magazines, Self and Men’s Fitness. Having read a lot of fitness magazines myself, I am used to the way women’s magazines look and what approach they have, so I find it interesting to compare that to how fitness is presented in a magazine for men. The feature I have chosen to look closer at is food, how it is presented to reach a male and female audience

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.

Compare and contrast the representation of masculinity in two films or TV series of your choice.

I think you did a great job of explaining which narrative you chose and shared your favorite line. Like yourself, I also enjoyed how Perrin discusses how society interprets feminism and masculinity. I also was admired by the fact that he enjoyed nurturing his family and exhibiting emotions such as love to his daughter’s cat. To me men and women should be able to share their feelings, likes and dislikes without the world condemning them as something out of the norm. What is normal? In today’s society, the media portray numerous examples of how men and women should represent themselves in the sense of actions, behavior, and appearance. Too many people in today’s society worry too much about meeting society’s standards

Chevrolet has created a commercial based on the actions of women who prefer “masculine” male drivers versus “passive” drivers. The message is intended for men, however, it also has a major influence over women due to the severity of their opinion about men. Masculinity and insecurity coincide with each other creating the idea for men to prefer to have the object the leans toward them being the real men women desire. Men who are susceptible to this notion are usually single and looking for a partner, wanting to man up other man, value others opinion about them, and/or creating self-worth based upon the fear of rejection. They feed into what society believes are the things that make a man “ a man,” and strive and/or do anything to achieve the acceptance of not only women but their male peers as well. These men want to fill a social void that is missing in their lives.

This is a movie where all the main characters are women. It is about strong women who should, based on other films, develop in a typically "feminine" problematic environment, but is instead, viewed from the perspective of women themselves. They are not observed from outside in, but from the inside out. At the same time, Danzon reverses and thus subverts the classic representations of gender, while relocating and challenging gender roles. Unlike the common representation of women in former Mexican cinema, femininity is not defined as being an opposition to masculinity in the film. In fact, men almost rarely appear. When they do appear, they appear as constructed discourse, female imagination, or as feminized subjects. The traditional excessive narrative and visual that usually characterizes a melodrama that manifests through the body of the woman is not the case in Danzon. In Danzon, is it the body of transvestite Susi that is decorated and fetishized; it is the body of Reuben, the young lover of Julia, which appears as an object of desire; and it is not sexual desire of the mysterious figure of Carmelo to Julia that serves as reason to the narrative. Furthermore, Julia occupies and develops the role of seductress, conqueror, and possessor of desire; images that are otherwise a traditional cinematographic male role. Another central element that violates the traditional forms of representation is not only the fact that the female figures replace male and their roles, but the

Almost every person has heard the quote “the first rule of fight club is you do not talk about fight club”, a line from a film that’s widely known for its mind-bending plot that’s a blend of dark comedy, psychological thriller, and drama (Linson & Fincher, 1999). Despite its entertainment value, many fail to see the films in-depth social commentary on life in post-modern America. I saw that the film subtly skewers many aspects of life today such as consumerism, morality, organized religion, pop culture; and the focus of this essay; the portrayal of masculinity. In Fight Club, masculinity is portrayed as an essential merit of identity, absent in the average postmodern American male due to the consumerist nature of society. Consequently, the

Womanhood is often associated with femininity while manhood with masculinity. Masculinity is the idea that men are tough both physically and mentally. Femininity, a term associated with being a women and used to describe a women’s comportment and attitude. A gentle individual, male or female, who wear dresses, skirts, high heels, makeup, have long hair is considered feminine. Unfortunately this term is used to define womanhood, if a women does not portray feminine characteristics she is judged or criticised by the society. Also she is either viewed as homosexual or queer. I chose two pictures of Grace Jones,whom happens to be a bender gender, portrays elements of femininity and masculinity (opposite of femininity),thus, a possible victim of such persecutions. Grace Jones is a supermodel and singer from Jamaica, who’s renowned for crossdressing and artistic fashion styles (Williams). One picture is from national portrait gallery website titled, “Jones/Nightclubbing”, while the other, from “Essence” website, both will be used as my sources of comparison for this essay. These images of Jones demonstrate that women can be feminity or soft while obtaining masculine characteristics or hard through her outer appearance, physique and body expression.

From Schrock, Schwalbe, Pyke and Johnson, we know that there are two subsections in both masculinity and femininity: hegemonic, and subordinate. The hegemony in both gender identities is typically associated with the white, middle class individuals, while the subordination is associated with anything other: the people of color, the economically marginalized, and the non-heterosexuals. Because it is hard to fit into the hegemonic masculinity/femininity, those of people who do not have membership to the hegemony makes “adjustments”; through these adjustments, the definitions of specific subordinated masculinity and femininity are re-inscribed. (Schrock and Schwalbe, 2008)

People's conceptions of masculinity and femininity, ideas concerning the fairness of differential treatment  or expectations of women and men, internalized schema that evoke different judgments of women's and men's actions, rules about proper male and female behavior applied to children – all these and more concern the influence of ideology on gender identities, differential treatment of women and men, and the organization and persistence of gender

When I took the “BEM Sex Role Survey” I got 62.5 masculine points, 69.167 feminine points and 54.63 androgyny points. I would never say I have been the ‘tomgirl’ or the stereotypical ‘girly girl’. These points seem accurate to describe my femininity, masculinity, and androgyny. I have never thought of myself as super feminine, I don't wear makeup, I don't normally wear dresses or high heels, I usually always wear my hair up in a ponytail. I have never considered myself ‘girly’ yet I have always considered myself feminine.I may not be the stereotypical feminine which is why I agree with my scores all being relatively close together for masculine and androgyny.

“[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

Womanhood is often associated with femininity while manhood with masculinity. Masculinity is the idea that men are tough both physically and mentally. Femininity, a term associated with being women is used to describe a women’s comportment and attitude. A gentle individual male or female, who wears dresses, skirts, high heels, makeup, and has long hair would be identified as feminine. Unfortunately, society judges and criticizes a women who do not depict feminine characteristics. Such women are regarded as either homosexual or queer. I chose two pictures of Grace Jones to compare in this essay since she happens to be a gender bender and victim of alike persecutions. Additionally, Grace Jones is a supermodel and singer from Jamaica, who’s renowned for cross-dressing and artistic fashion styles (Williams). The picture titled, “Grace Jones/Nightclubbing,”was derived from the National Portrait Gallery,while the other from, “Essense” website, Jones demonstrates that women can be feminine or soft in one picture and masculine or hard in the other picture through her appearance.