The author of this article is Robert Jensen. He is a journalist professor at the University of Texas at Austin. Jensen’s writing and teaching focus on interrogating power structures of race and gender. He also wrote and published The End of Masculinity; therefore this is a topic that he feels really strongly about. Jensen first published the article “The High Cost of Manliness” to argue for an end to the conception of manliness. He states that the idea of masculinity is a bad thing because masculinity is often described as competition, domination and violence; and therefore society should get rid of it. These views can be threatening for women because men believe they can acquire dominance towards a woman. These are misconceptions that they learn throughout life and when they do not exhibit …show more content…
Society should not base masculinity with these traits since it is learned by observation and demonstration, and this leads men to disconnect their emotions. The author is trying to take away the blindfold on society's eyes because there is an injustice towards men and woman. These aspects of masculinity are how men are taught to be, but if we remove, eliminate, or ignore those aspects and misconceptions men will express their emotions openly without having to restrict themselves and be able to fit in society or at least feel like they are a part of the society. As you can see these views make men disconnect with their emotional side Jensen mentions this when he gives the example of his friend that worked on Wall Street and his friend described it as “coming to work as like walking into a knife fight when all the good spots along the wall were taken” (131). If we stop identifying masculinity as conquest, men would stop trying to be competitive, dominant, and even violent men might not need to always be on their guard to keep this appearance all the
Gail Bederman, author of “Manliness and Civilization” published in 1995, explains how manliness is associated with race and civilization. She states that historians explain manhood as a normal aspect of human nature and although it may be expressed differently at different times, the meaning of it always remains the same. Bederman indicates her thesis, “ This book will investigate this turn-of-the-century connection between manhood and race. It will argue that, between 1890 and 1917, as white middle-class men actively worked to reinforce male power, their race became a factor which was crucial to their gender. ”(p.
Masculinity has been a heated debated topic over the past years. Not just america or europe, but our whole society. Men tend to think that entering manhood is a good thing, but most don’t know it can be just as detrimental to our society. Men have certain characteristic when it concerns to masculinity and when doing so it can have a range of effects. So, how do men identify themselves masculine and how do they define themselves that way?
History has repeatedly given men privilege due to their physical advantages; yet it is these same advantages that have developed into “rules” or expectations that all men should conform to in order to prove their manhood. Michael Kimmel’s essay, “‘Bros Before Hos': The Guy Code” outlines the “rules” where men are expected to never show any emotions, be brave, act knowledgeable, be risk takers, be in control, act reliable, and be competitive, otherwise they would be showing weakness which is analogous to women. It is humiliating that men associate weakness with women; they should focus on the potential of the individual rather than their gender. Most insults toward men attack their masculinity because society finds it shameful for men to be
Rather than a single standard of masculinity to which all men and boys are taught to aspire to, studies have documented a variety of masculinity that define manhood differently across racial , ethnic, class, sexual , and regional boundaries.(Kathleen Blee) In this quote the author states that due to intersectional differences, different racial groups of men might have different definitions on what it means to be masculine and what it means to perform masculinity. Gender roles are also modified by life experiences over time across racial groups. In the next images I presented are all images of my guy friends and cousins. More specifically they are all images of African American males in my life choosing to participate in gender and masculinity.
He acknowledges that men are put first while women are below them. As generations progress, misogynistic men pass on their views to their sons. They then almost always take these views and incorporate them into their lives. This is a dynamic shown
His revulsion comes largely from the social expectations of masculinity,
Masculinity is compared to brutality and violence, power and strength. It drives men to kill and prevents their grief. It’s something that men strive to be and are held to standards they can’t meet. They can’t show weakness and must show their power whenever they can. They aren’t allowed to grieve
This essay made me recognize how much someone’s masculinity influences someone’s thinking, belief, and opinion about someone just by observing them. It opened me up to the different beliefs people have about being masculine and what it means to be masculine. Overall, the most important thing about this essay is that it made me a more well-informed person on the influences that made me who I am
Toxic Masculinity is the root of men’s oppression, and it requires our attention to be adequately addressed. This is because in the United States we teach boys that demeaning women make them more valuable to society. The idea is that women are only around to give men pleasure and to be seen as objects. In the documentary, we are also told by Joe Ehrmann that in addition to demeaning women we are taught that we need to strive for money and positions of power to obtain money with the help of media and film perpetuating the idea. He also added that if that we look at what society is telling boys, they will lose what is truly important in life.
“Masculinity as Homophobia” an article by S. Kimmel, that talks about how men these days have the fear of being judged and ranked based on their manhood. There are some arguments that the Professor mentions and uses in his article that supports his argument and some experiences from other people 's perspective in life of men over the years. The author’s main argument is about how men these days are being watched and judged closely based on how they walk, talk, eat, dress, move and look like. The author explains how the world is judging men and how it tries to take that power and that pride of being a man.
In the essay “Masculinity as Homophobia” by Michael Kimmel, he brings up many points as to how men view masculinity as trying to be perfect to hide underlying insecurity. He then states that anything deemed less than manly (females, people of race, homosexuals, etc.) is ridiculed because of the way we view masculinity. Kimmel first brings up a story about boys on a playground, where you have to prove that you’re manly at a young age, and that it is essentially engraved into our nature that we must not be a “sissy”. This then stems off to how violence is created by this sense of manhood, since we must always fight and never run when conflict arises. Kimmel argues that we have gender coded responses to everything, and that if a man does anything
There is a lot of pressure on men in society to be manly; however, what exactly does it mean to be manly? Though many people have different opinions, a lot of them conclude that a man has to be strong and somewhat emotionless to be considered a man. This assumption can lead to Toxic Masculinity, which is “A false idea that men are expected to be as manly as possible” (The Hard, Adrenaline-Soaked Truth About 'Toxic Masculinity, 2017). Men are forced to face these assumptions not only from those around him, but also from people he might see in Media. Media reinforces Toxic Masculinity which in turn causes men to belittle women.
In the 16th century, not only in England but also almost in all the countries, all the families were “under” the patriarchal society. A patriarchy, from the ancient Greek patriarches, was a society where power was held by and passed down through the elder males. When modern historians and sociologists describe a "patriarchal society," they mean that men hold the positions of power: head of the family unit, leaders of social groups, boss in the workplace and heads of government. Unfortunately, this fact still exists, even today in the 21st century in many countries, especially in the Muslim countries where women have restricted rights. Patriarchal society, manhood, and the sense of masculinity, in my opinion, raise two main issues: the issue
Masculinity (also called boyhood, manliness or manhood) is a set of attributes, behaviors and roles generally associated with boys and men. But the culture doesn’t end at the definition, it starts from there. The first thing to come to mind when the word masculinity is heard is usually a man flexing his gigantic muscles, as the word might sound to suggest, and that right there is the current culture of masculinity because sadly, in the world we live in, not everyone has a “muscular body”. So far we know the concept of masculinity, but the culture is what is truly hampering.
His sense of attaining masculinity is fuelled by an indomitable desire to rise above his father’s spendthrift, lazy, ineffectual and effeminate character and he associates violence, haughtiness, and aggression as the only set of emotions to be displayed for expressing true masculinity. He beats his wives and threatens to kill women.