The Importance Of Masculine Vulnerabilities

1. In the essay titled “Gender Treachery: Homophobia, Masculinity, and Threatened Identities” Hopkins introduces the term “gender treachery.” How does Hopkin’s define gender treachery? What are some examples of acts of gender treachery and/or gender traitors? Provide some examples given by Hopkin’s and provide some of your own examples.

Boys are often encouraged to become these strong, aggressive, prominent, men. While girls are encouraged to become these sensitive, ladylike, caretakers. An example of this would be the infamous saying “Boys will be boys.” Which is often reiterated

In the world people idolize the idea of the aggressive and powerful man, but this is a dangerous icon to present to children. Taken to an extreme it can cause the cycle of toxic masculinity to begin. Toxic masculinity is a dangerous set of ideals and beliefs, it provides a dangerous mindset of violent behavior to young boys, leads to anger issues, depression, and a severe urge to compensate for perceived inadequacies by the use of violence in the teenage years, can lead to an adulthood filled with violence towards family, and others, and allows the cycle to repeat.

The novel That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis is comprised of a lot of gender issues, especially concerning the two main characters. The two main characters are Mark and Jane, a married couple who struggle with their roles as husband and wife. Chapter 1 starts with a quote from Jane that states, “Matrimony was ordained, thirdly for the mutual society, help, and comfort that the one ought to have of the other” (That Hideous Strength, 9) That quote ran through Jane’s mind throughout the day, during her daily house cleaning duties, and while she was waiting on Mark to call and say he would not be able to attend dinner due to work taking longer than expected. Based on that knowledge, it is easy to say that their marriage had trouble from the very

In The Tragedy of Macbeth, Shakespeare attempts to define manhood and explore the different perceptions held towards what it means to be a man. As William Liston notes in his essay, “Man appears more than 40 times, almost always with a conscious sense of defining the term—or rather, of defining a person by the term” (232). Lady Macbeth is used as a tool to not only convey this theme, but she instigates the plot as well. Without her consistent scorn and ridicule of Macbeth and his “femininity”, he would most likely have never killed King Duncan or performed any of the other murders that occur throughout the play. Specifically speaking, the word choice of Lady Macbeth as well as her actions are what propel her husband into acting himself. Eventually, Macbeth’s overall attitude changes as a result of his wife’s ridicule. While Lady Macbeth undoubtedly spurs her husband into action, it is important to note that by the end of the play, she has lost what influence she had over him as well as her ability to control her own emotions.

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.

Regularly and routinely reinforcing one’s masculine identity for fear of contempt in the eyes of their peers is a driving force in how military masculinity maintains itself. Much in the same way that masculinity operates in the civilian world, masculinity requires continual verification to remain secure. These moments of reification could include moments of physical aggression, substance abuse, and other high risk behaviors.

From a young age, boys and girls are told to act a certain way based on their gender. The norms they are told often contradict each other, with boys being told to be confident and girls compliant. As a UNICEF report from 2008 describes, “Children start facing norms that define ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ from an early age. Boys are told not to cry, not to fear, not to be forgiving and instead to be assertive, and strong. Girls on the other hand are asked not to be demanding, to be forgiving and accommodating and ‘ladylike’.

For the end of the class I would like to reiterate the importance of ending gendered violence by starting with toxic masculinity. “Masculinity’s death tolls are attributed to its more specific manifestations: alcoholism, workaholism and violence” (Holloway, 2015) I believe we can bring an end to gendered violence by focusing on the toxic masculinity as the root of the problem. Majority of my efforts this year have been for feminism and after much research and talking with many people, over all the concern is safety. I plan on doing more research on the groups and people who are trying to help and seeing how my community can work together with them.

Showing your humanity through raw emotions used to be seen as proof of a person’s sincerity, honesty, and integrity. Something happened in the 20th century, women became the picture of teary-eyed fragility and the tearless, aggressive male became the ideal of masculinity. Media messages, commercials, and television shows stopped portraying men as responsible, competent, and compassionate husbands, sons, and fathers, instead they consist of idiotic or misogynistic archetypes. When men are portrayed as sensitive humans, it is largely under the caveat of being gay. As stated in A New Vision of Masculinity, there is still little worse than being mistaken for a homosexual (Cooper, 2016).

Tough Guise did a remarkable job of addressing the problems society faces unconsciously by trying to attain dominance and gain acceptance in the social hierarchy of present times. The narrator of the film, Jackson Katz, touches upon various ways masculinity is perceived and gained. In one section of the movie, the topic of how culture influences young men is analyzed thoroughly and gives insight on what we unconsciously process. For example, hypermasculinity shows how many men strive for dominance such as a having a cool pose or behavior. Katz uses multiple sources as examples for his arguments, some of which are how minorities play a role in the media, how sexual abuse is normalized in the younger generations, and how violent crimes feed some people’s hunger for masculine acceptance and dominance.

Do you remember that old school education? Can you think back to those strict days of paddles, switches, and rulers? You might ask, what could a whack from a 12-inch ruler teach a second grader? In those hardcore days, many students, who were like me, learned discipline through excruciating pain, but even though there were negative implications, there were also positive advantages that resulted from an agonizing whack.

In contemporary United States culture, the most exigent social justice issue facing our country is violence towards women, specifically the classic mantra “boys will boys”. Despite it being a seemingly innocuous phrase, I and others attribute this banal vernacular as being one of the early stages of developing acts of abuse towards the female gender. This mantra so to speak, normalizes the unknowingly sexist actions of boys. This idea ingrains into the minds of young children that aggressive behavior is to not only be excused, but to be expected, because it is “just in their nature”. When a young boy is aggressive towards a girl he finds attractive, parents and educators oftentimes make excuses for the boy’s behavior and tell the young girl

This paper is devoted to the research of masculinity, in particular, to the way men lead conversations, putting major focus on gossiping. For a long time they suggested that gossiping refers exceptionally to females, but the research proves that men gossips much more frequently than women, taking a great pleasure from this process.

As I was growing up, my mom would tell me stories when they would use the wooden paddle in school. She would tell me that they would spank her friends when they would behave bad. She also told me that there was this kid they spanked so hard that they heard the kid sobbing and squealing.