The Differences Between Opinions Of Tougher Guise Essay

As Americans, living in a egotistical and self centered society, we often think that we are the best, the top 1 percent in every aspect. However, When compared to other countries of the world, America is ranked 14th in education, 44th in health care efficiency, and 101th in peace. But it ranks first in incarceration, 2nd in ignorance, and 3rd in global competitiveness. One can see how the rankings that America is top in are those that promote violence in one way or another. In the book Violence and Culture: A Cross-Cultural and Interdisciplinary Approach by Jack David Eller, the author discusses violence in American society in one of his chapters. In this chapter, he mentions some social characteristics that represents and plays a role in

When a man fails to live up to other’s expectations of being a “real man,” he is diminished and criticized for being a “woman.” Thus, starting at young ages, boys are fall into the misleading idea that respect is acquired by force. In fact, younger boys look up to men who display uncontrollable rage because these men evoke fear to those around them. Boys are taught that fear is equivalent to respect, and society’s perception of belligerent men only fuels their drive for violence. The phenomenon of posing - creating a false depiction of what men are truly feeling - showcases that this widespread performance of masculinity does not just stem from the media. The explanation of this projection of masculinity is oversimplified, and identified as cause and effect relationships between imitative violent acts from video games and movies. However, the actual truth is that the problem does not only lie in these few few places. It is everywhere, embedded deeply in

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.

In his book, More Than a Movie: Ethics in Entertainment, F. Miguel Valenti examines nine “hot buttons” of violence – “creative elements that filmmakers use to manipulate viewers’ reactions to onscreen violence.” (99) These elements, posited by researchers conducting The National Television Violence Study (Valenti, 99) are “choice of perpetrator, choice of victim, presence of consequences, rewards and punishments, the reason for the violence, weapons, realism, use of humor, and prolonged exposure” (Valenti, 100) .

Acts of violence are detrimental when regarding its effects on human emotion. When exposed to too much violence, a person’s perception on society and even themselves begins to be altered. Nevertheless, just as violence can be disadvantageous to people, it can also be seen as an advantage as it causes citizens to realize that change needs to occur. In “Great to Watch,” the author, Maggie Nelson, discusses how society, especially Americans, have become desensitized to violence. Nelson also goes into depth to explain how society has become accustomed to violence due to the fact that people are exposed to it on a daily basis. In addition, Beth Loffreda discusses and explains the effects that a violent hate crime had on the town of Laramie, Wyoming

Jackson Katz’s essay, “Advertising and the Construction of White Masculinity”, focuses on violence in mass media and how it shapes white masculinity. Katz believes masculinity as emphasized in our society explains why crimes are mostly committed by males. Mass media depicts that “real men” should be strong, dominant, powerful, and able to “use violence successfully”. Advertisements use men with bulky muscles carrying weapons to portray masculinity. While ads and films usually have the stereotypical macho men as the leads. Katz’s argues these representations in mass media negatively affect male

Richard Rhodes the author of “Hollow Claims about Fantasy Violence” expresses that the media’s portrayal of violence has no influence on those that view it. One of the first tactics that Rhodes used was by attacking the flaws of Organizations who blamed entertainment for the issues of violent behaviors. He claims that due to increased social control over the years has caused a decline in violence. Rhodes’ used thought-provoking tactics attempting to disprove that violence is influenced from the media instead he believes that violence is stemmed from personal violent encounters. Although Rhodes brought about very good points to dispute that violence is not caused by entertainment, it is not convincing.

In relation to gender, masculinity plays a crucial role in shaping ego and self-esteem. While answering the question “how does violence relate to masculinity?” it is important that we examine the pressures of both societal and cultural norms.

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.

Sissela Bok opens a controversial topic on violence as entertainment which explores the effect of the increasing of violence both in fiction and in real life. Not only do films, television shows, and video games evidence an escalating level of graphic violence, but daily news of war and other human brutality are as bad as well. As less time pass on doing physical activities and an increase in using electronic devices as increases, particularly by teens, there is growing concern about a possible link between violence viewing content and actual behavior. Bok draws a balanced image, naming some possible benefits from violence. One of the benefits could be the redirection of human physical and verbal aggression and the confrontation of fears in

Tough Guise provides a stunning look at the violent, sexist, and homophobic messages boys and young men usually receive from virtually every corner of the culture, from television, movies, video games, etc. What does it takes to become a “Real Man?” Boys and men show the world parts of themselves that others define as manly. My initial reaction to Jackson Katz’s, “Tough Guise: Violence, Manhood and American Culture,” movie is I truly believe that video games and movies are a big part of violence.

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.

Katz explains how the media plays a crucial roll in constraining men to see violent masculinity as the cultural norm. Katz takes examples like John Wayne and Rocky, to show how this is what our society agrees to be a bad ass. Men act different when they are around their friends and others. Our society has defined what it is to be a man, I can speak from experience that when I am around my mother I am a completely different person, than when I am around my friends. Like the study we talked about in class, where when two boys were placed in the same room alone, one boy will try and take leadership of the other.

“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.

In the book Critique of Violence ,author Walter describes Violence as "The intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, which either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, male development, or deprivation .The violence that is portrayed in the media has been debated for decades ,and it has rose a question about how does it influence the youth?. From movies to video games society has been accustom to seeing violence in their everyday entertainment. Since children are easy to be influence by their environment, it is safe to say that violence in the media can and will contribute to violent behavior.