Roseanne Kennedy Masculinity

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.

As Tamsin Wilton explains in her piece, “Which One’s the Man? The Heterosexualisation of Lesbian Sex,” society has fronted

“A sex symbol's currency lies in her youth, her curves, in the suggestion that a sexual encounter lurks around the next corner.” (Sharon Krum, The Guardian) The media is one of the easiest ways to exemplify the power struggles between genders. In today’s society, celebrities, especially women, are judged largely on their appearance and sex appeal because it is critical for them to stay in the spotlight. This is a clear example of the inequality between the male and female, and what their roles are intended to be in society. Three Girls by Joyce Carol Oates is a story about a lesbian couple, and their observation of the behavior of a disguised Marilyn Monroe who, surprisingly to the narrator and her companion, wants to be seen as nothing more than a common person. During the progression of the story, the author provides perspective on the gender roles women faced in 1956 New York, and gives the reader insight into the thoughts and reservations of a lesbian couple in this time period. Through both implicit and explicit expression, Oates implements feminist and marxist ideas of power struggle into Three Girls in order to establish themes of imbalance and subordination by women in society.

In “The Metaphorical Lesbian: Edna Pontellier in The Awakening” Elizabeth LeBlanc asserts that the character Edna Pontellier is an example of what Bonnie Zimmerman calls the “metaphorical lesbian.” It’s important to distinguish between Zimmerman’s concept of the “metaphorical lesbian” and lesbianism. The “metaphorical lesbian” does not have to act on lesbian feelings or even become conscious of herself as a lesbian. Instead, the “metaphorical lesbian” creates a space for woman-identified relationships and experiences in a heterosexually hegemonic environment.

In modern times, feminism and the yearning to become more than a traditional “housewife” have been topics of fierce discussion; however, often neglected is the fact that men, too, are expected to fulfill a role in society. In Michel Marc Bouchard’s Lilies, the characters are heavily influenced by the Catholic, Quebecois society of Roberval, which promotes heteronormativity and a certain masculine mold, resulting in tense relationships with oneself and with others. This can be seen as Simon struggles internally with who he is while Bilodeau and Timothee express discontent in the increasing visibility of homosexuality and the breakdown of the masculine “norms.” Although this play takes place in the early 20th century, the advocacy of what a man should be according to Catholicism, which often leads to homophobia, still prevails heavily today, as seen in Katherine Dugan’s “Gendering Prayer: Millennial-generation Catholics and the Embodiment of Feminine Genius and Authentic Masculinity” and in Wayne Martino’s “Policing Masculinities: Investigating the Role of Homophobia and Heteronormativity in the Lives of Adolescent School Boys.” These articles show the extent to which the toxic outlook on masculinity is seen in Lilies while providing insight into how the public is expected to adhere to heteronormativity. These struggles perceived in Lilies can also further be analyzed through the works of Roy Brooks-Delphin, Lowell Gallagher et al., and Wolfgang Palaver.

We are all living in a society that is filled with social expectations of gender. From our early age, we seem to be able to response to these expectations accordingly. For example, we notice Barbies are for girls while robots and cars are for boys only. In the “Performative Gender”, “Doing Gender”, and “Nerd Box”, authors all indicate gender is learned instead of inherited. They bring out their insightful observation and critical personal experience to illustrate how the social expectations with punitive effects construct our gender unconsciously. These articles provide a great lens for us to understand the mental state and behaviors of the main characters in Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. In Fun Home, Alison Bechdel portrays how living in Beech Creek, Pennsylvania during the 1930s not only repressed both her father, Bruce, and her from coming out as a homosexual and genderqueer, but also trapped her mother, Helen, in her “women box”. Through the graphic memoir, Fun Home is able to present the struggling process that one may need to go through before admitting one’s unusual gender identity and sexual orientation.

This approach to queer subtext has been has always been a part of Western media as we as we explored in the film “The Celluloid Closet” (1995). Queer representation for many years was an continuous uncategorized personification that was vaguely acknowledged but to those who understood the subtext, it became an undercurrent of complex coded information that eventually paved the way for the integration of queer identification within the hetero film storylines. Doty speaks about this and also mentions that at some point in time representation of queer culture and sexuality

The uprising of gay and lesbian entertainment in shows such as “Will & Grace,” Showtime series “Queer As Folk” and “The L Word,” has overthrown the former cookie cutter husband and wife TV series. Gay and lesbian affairs in the media emerged quickly after the coming out of Ellen Degeneres in her hit sitcom, “Ellen.” The comedian now has her own daytime talk show, achieving mainstream popularity for obvious reasons: she’s funny, down-to-earth, and openly gay. In earlier decades homosexuality was previously limited to a closet of taboos, where no one knew about it, and no one admitted to it. Primetime programming would never house a show in which gay men and lesbian women openly discussed their sex lives and sexual preferences, nor a show that based its entire plotline on gay and lesbian couples.

In several cases, the desire to kill the queer self also occurs when it seems impossible to move forward without fully accepting and presenting oneself as queer. When this idea is seen on television it is presented in both the interpersonal and introspective forms. For example, the characters that attempt suicide, such as the eight queer women characters between 2001 and 2016, are illustrating the introspective act of assassinating the queer self by killing themselves. In contrast the interpersonal aspect derives from the idea of identity as zero-sum and therefore the queer characters who do not cover present a threat to the stability and validity of gay characters on screen. This paper will specifically investigate how the interpersonal side of "assassinating the queer selves" plays out on screen as a way to reinforce the importance of

Queer is a term that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) people use to describe the entire LGBT community. It has made them feel like they have their own community where heterosexist people won’t judge them. “The term is used positively to say it is okay to be different and it serves as an inclusive category that encompasses the shared political and social experiences of the group (classnotes, 2016). Basing on this assertion, Queer Theory through the theme of lesbian isolation in a heterosexist world is seen in “Don’t Explain” by the ways the protagonist Letty recognizes her sexual orientation but denies it, demonstrates internalized homophobia, and the way Letty interacts with Delia and Terry. In addition, the articles “We’re Here, We’re Queer, Y’all” by Karen L. Cox and “The Paradox of coming out” by Steven Petrow further proofs how queer theory is evident in “Don’t Explain.” It is clear that stereotyping basing on sexual orientation has led to negative perceptions of different LGBT community members (McDonald, 2013). In most cases, lesbians have been painted as men haters or over-feminized just as gays have been portrayed as haters of women. These stereotypes do not apply to all lesbians but creates undue pressure on characters like Letty forcing then to live in fear because of being different. The fact that fictional lesbian visual representation has being distorted by heterosexuals males has caused Letty and her lot to conceal their true

In her essay titled “Compulsive Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence,” Adrienne Rich claims that any alternative to heterosexual outcome is discouraged by society. The essay claims that Western tradition has used the heterosexual family model as the basic social

Sex and gender categories, such as “men,” “women,” “masculine” and “feminine,” have been in place for generations. They are socially constructed categories and expectations assigned to children at birth, in order to regulate and shape them into this “ideal” heterosexual being. Men are expected to embrace masculine qualities, while women are required to be feminine and submissive to the male authority. Monique Wittig’s article, “One is Not Born a Woman” observes how the class of “women” is not “natural,” but is created by the society and framed by the male ideology, as a way of producing a clear gender difference between men and women. J. M Coetzee reinforces Wittig’s beliefs by sharing similar ideas of hegemonic masculinity and male dominance

The heterosexual imaginary is immensely ingrained in our everyday experience that most people, including feminist sociologists, has become inclined to conceptualize and theorize based around the heteronormative. The heterosexual imaginary acts as an invisible framework at play that structures our thinking processes and in which constructs our social identity. For instance, the inquiry of a survey taker’s marital status in most social science surveys come to show that our recognized and appropriate social identity is formed around heterosexuality. That is, any deviation from this heterosexual norm would be considered abnormal and be marginalized. To a minimal extent, this focus has served the interests of women because of the lack of activism

In his novel The Hours, Michael Cunningham creates a dazzling fabric of queer references managing to intertwine the lives of three different women into one smooth narrative. In this essay, I will discuss what makes The Hours queer literature, how the novel has contributed to the queer genre, the cultural significance of the novel, and I will discuss several points made in Jeanette McVicker’s critical article “Gaps and Absences in The Hours.” My aim, however, is not to say that Michael Cunningham’s The Hours is strictly a queer novel, but to highlight what makes the novel queer and to discuss Cunningham’s idea of sexual orientation as a fluid entity.

The “New Woman” refers to a category of women, beginning in the late 19th century, who adopted feminist ideals, wishing to break gender roles and gain independence from and equality with men (Newton, 560-61). While not one specific, real person, the “New Woman” is an overarching term that encompasses the many women in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The first generation of these women strove for economic and social autonomy with roles separate from the home and family spheres of domesticity (Newton, 561). For example, they would not marry, but instead receive a higher education and work in a profession (Newton, 561). To replace their commitments to men and family, they instead formed close and passionate relationships with other women, though these relationships were not sexual in nature, people viewed women as passionless and pure. The second generation, however, living in a more modernist culture of sexual freedom, began to discuss female sexuality, and wanted to participate in more opportunities only offered to men, including drinking and smoking (Newton, 564). Because of the societal idea that only men were sexual beings, New Women had to explain the intimate relationships among them, which had become sexual in the second generation. Thus, they created the idea of masculine lesbians, who had male souls that caused them their sexual feelings (Newton, 566). The “mythic mannish lesbian” refers to these women who dressed and acted in a masculine manner