Working Class Occupation And Masculinity

Women today are still battling with the stereotypes given to them many years ago. Women are seen as less than men, they are expected to stay home and take care of the children and absolutely never be more successful than a man. They are not supposed to be seen as the hero in a situation because heroes are seen as masculine men, not women. More shows and movies are starting to fight back against these stereotypes. One show in particular, NCIS or the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, portrays women as strong and successful. It gives women a chance to show how confident they can be in themselves and that they can also be considered the hero. NCIS shows through Abby and Ziva that women can be successful and the hero, which provides women with a strong and heroic role model to emulate.

At a time when labour unions were gaining in memberships, organization, and bargaining power, women in the workforce made marginal gains during this period considering the booming economy. Sociologically, a healthy economy should in theory provide the framework for change. When citizens have low unemployment and more money in their pockets, time and attention is less directed at bread and butter issues like sustenance and poverty, and aimed at equality and social progress. For women unfortunately, this was not necessarily the case. Their battle with employers was still a struggle between classes than gender parity. Male union leadership would naturally further male worker interests first,8 and this shows a culture of sexism in the workplace that was clearly difficult for working women to overcome. Even union-dues paying women rarely openly questioned their subordination as a sex.9 They were most likely outnumbered and the consequences of being a whistle blower did not want to be entertained. In the mindset of women who worked however, was a developing identity as female wage earners and unionists.10

Society’s current structure of masculinity is unforgiving in form. It cuts out other forms of masculinity, it physically and mentally demanding, and its ill effects extend far beyond the men it infuses itself in. Yet what would we do if we were given other options for masculinity, ones that allowed for unique blends of attitudes and perceptions? Looking in to the lives of homeless men we can see the forced strategies which create new masculine codes created for the adaption against patriarchal pressures. They are made out of survival need to circumnavigate the painful mental and physical reality that is only made worse by harsh masculine standards. Yet these new masculinities hold out a form of hopefulness for society. They offer up new discussion to what it means to be a man, the potential for change, and what we can expect from changes in male identity over time. Using what we learn from the disadvantaged, we can hope to improve the lives of people, although the process will take time, effort, and careful mediation.

In today’s society, masculinity has changed throughout time. Fast forward one hundred years ago, masculinity is defined as being strong and having a good paying job. But as the world is changing so is the representation of manliness. You don’t have to show your dominance over men or women today, but you should support your family nowadays and we have all been brainwashed by the thought of masculinity from our ancestors. As men our reputation is always being valued but now it isn’t so much about our reputation but about caring for one another and especially for our families. Perspective of manhood is also a significant factor in portraying what masculinity is in the eyes of other people. Masculinity has been shown through money, appearance, and providing protection for your family members but as we shift into the modern world, masculinity is not seen as displaying the most discipline but caring for one another by taking out some of your time to help one another. Throughout the paper, I will be writing about my interviews from a broad spectrum of ages from one of my younger sisters to my dad with not friends not at Seb’s in between so I can get what it really means to be a man from all ages.

In addition to defining gender, Padavic and Reskin coin the term “gendering” to describes circumstances or outcomes that, like gender, are socially constructed and tend to give males certain advantages over females. Three key components—the assignment of tasks based on workers’ sex, a higher value placed on men’s work than on women’s work, and employers’ and workers’ social constructions of gender on the job—make up gendering. (Padavic and Reskin, 6). It allows males to maintains certain advantages over females, thus maintaining the force and coercion dimension of inequality. Sex and gender differentiation have existed since the beginning of the labor force, and have paved the way for the assignment of different tasks to men and women throughout the years. When the labor force first emerged following the Industrial Revolution, it was comprised of people who either worked for pay or were actively seeking paid work. The labor force split working people into three different groups—wage workers, unemployed, and nonemployed. This distinction between paid work in the labor market and unpaid domestic work by the “nonemployed” has had important consequences for gender inequality. Since then, men have been more likely than women to belong to the labor force, and women have been more likely than

Male gender roles in contemporary media that are negatively portrayed through masculinity greatly effects the physical, psychological, and behavioral image of men. The social construct of masculinity in society and its relationship to males is generally reflected in male media consumption. The popular concept of women’s feminine image in the media is vastly overshadowed and more predominantly acceptable in subtle society in comparison to male’s image of masculinity.

Not allowed to work in many jobs purely because they were labelled as ‘’mens jobs’’

The nature of the self is what controls one's instincts like reacting violently and it is largely influenced by internal and external factors including destructive societal pressure. In the documentary The Mask You Live In, it provides the idea that masculinity in modern society is highly emphasized, causing several destructive effects. For example, males from a young age are often taught to behave like a "Real man" who is not allowed to shed tears publically. As a result of these masculinity "Rules", men always tend to hide away their emotions afraid that it will challenge societal beliefs. Over a long-term, boys who endure these external pressures experience longlasting toxic outcomes including becoming self-enclosed.

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.

What is it to be a man? Masculinity is defined and characterized differently across cultures and time there is no “global” standard. In some cultures, being a man may mean being comfortable with both your masculine and feminine sides or it could suggest being “tough” and not letting your feelings show at all. Manliness can be demonstrated in some cultures by providing for a family through work, and in others, it might mean scoring the winning goal in a championship game. Trying to define one’s own masculinity and live up to its standards is a tough and grueling task that many men struggle with. Maintaining this masculinity is something that the male characters in both Death of a Salesman and A Raisin in the Sun are familiar with.

Indeed, service labor was often viewed as “women’s work”, which directly challenged the authority and the masculinity of men. With women “flooding” the service sector, “the meekness of Jesus” and Christianity did not fit in with ideals of masculinity, independence, and power and thus posed an ethical problem. In order to subvert this, a new trend of “servant leadership” began, with men acting as transitory and moving managers, and women acting as long-term low-wage workers. Instead of focusing upon the managers’ labor, the focus was placed squarely upon the “natural prerogatives of men as men, not as managers”, reinforcing a hegemonic and sexual chain of command promoting the “masculinity, autonomy, and skill” of men. Subsequently, these men became symbolic heads of house, effectively owning the labor of their employees. In this way, the man could remain “the master of his small world”, effectively translating his dominion of influence from the household to the aisles of Wal-Mart. Furthermore, Moreton states that prominent philosophy must explain how the authority of men has increased with service sector work in order to “contain” the threat posed by the “effeminate”, the “androgynous”, and “sissified men.” For instance, a female clerk might impend the masculinity of men, conversely, a female clerk working deferentially

According to “The Mask You live in”, society in the United States has created an “idea of masculinity” that does not give young males an opportunity to feel safe with their masculinity. Stated by Tony Porter, “from the beginning we are taught as boys to lock down our emotions”. Stated in the film the idea of being weak in the eyes of other boys emerges at a very young stage, in which we later must prove we are not weak to look good in society. Furthermore, in the film one of the participants explains that in school he would get bullied because society determines masculinity by being strong and being able to smoke a blunt and have sex with many women.

Firstly, males were dominant in the workforce and the majority of females were responsible for domestic roles. The non-Indigenous and Indigenous working class workers worked in the factory and mining site respectively. They had less autonomy in the workforce, performed hazardous work and exposed to asbestos at the factory such as Bernie Banton. Capitalists are the people who control the means of production and are responsible of hiring workers or labourers. In the movie, all the workers were males and this indicated the capitalists in the Hardie’s Company only hired males because men was seen as causing less vulnerability in the workforce.

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).

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.