Guns. The first thought that can come to mind is a weapon held by a male. Why can this be the case? Well, according to Michael Ian Black, an editor for The New York Times, emphasized the issues on masculinity and its connection to gun violence. Black chose to focus on a different topic on the event of the mass shooting of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School compared to the usual gun debate. Despite combating the issues surrounding guns, the editor focuses on a wider issue that’s been a common problem throughout generations, which is the definition to be a man, masculinity. Whenever a mass shooting occurs, the media focuses on the obvious point regarding guns yet they never emphasize on why it’s always majority boys. Somehow, it’s video games, …show more content…
Black states in his article, “Girls aren’t pulling the triggers. It’s boys. It’s almost always boys.” It’s important for this to be pointed out because guns or anything that may contain violent content are what’s focused on instead of the psychological aspect. Guns can be considered a branch of the tree called masculinity. It’s a part of it but it’s not the real issues since it can be broken off. The act of using guns is only the result of what masculinity can lead to for some individuals or the enforcement of the idea can cause it. It’s obvious that gun control could’ve reduced the amount of deaths from any mass shooting but the problem laying behind it will continue to persist and evolve to another form. Guns aren’t what cause the shootings to begin with, but it’s the result of other contributions that leads on to it as the “only …show more content…
Feminism does show the flaws that masculinity has yet ignored or seen as “boys will be boys” type of idea, but it’ll slightly blind us from the main point of it all, to be human. We were born with the abilities such as emotions, thinking, interacting and expressing. The idea of masculinity suppresses a lot of the ideals of being human and more of turning us into a robot with simple instructions to follow. Knowing what it is to be human can contribute combating masculinity. Although Feminism is a good first step of acknowledging the harm masculinity can bring, it doesn’t in its full
Gun Control Imagine a situation where a family is enjoying a movie at their house and someone breaks in with a gun. The family should not have to worry because they have the right to own a gun. However, if those guns were taken away, the family would have no option except be scared. In many cities where gun control laws have been put into place, crime rates went through the roof. Criminals know that they can get guns, however, the citizens cannot.
According to the author “when white man feels disempowered, they are primed to resort to gun violence to reassert their sense of authority” meaning that the increase in mass shootings over the last few years are a respond to the expansion of women and minorities rights .In the article Wuertenberg implements the use of pathos by bringing in mass shootings from the past years in order to create awareness of the fact that “mass shooters have routinely expressed white-supremacist views or motivations.” He goes back to the first mass shooting and explains how the victims of those were chosen in a racist matter. Evoking emotions like courage, anger, disgust among on his readers. He also creates a trustful environment since he is going against his own race to face the truth that have been hidden for many years.
When we talk about masculinity in America today we theorize that violence that happens more often than we like, from mass shootings or crime in general, including rape and murders in the real world and in the virtual thrill world of videogames and movies we find a parallel connection of masculinity as violent. Even though an overwhelming majority of violence is committed by men and boys we as americans rarely connect gender as a major key in violence. But when we lay out the plane lines about culture of violence were almost always hinting that it is a masculine trait that is a taught behavior. The modern society has conjured up the idea of the ideal man, that showing emotions is wrong but one must be charming, seeming smartish but more of an attitude of control showing that manhood has a hierarchy. Weakening the not so tough guy, society giving them labels to show they are outside of the gender binary.
Multiple other places exist where young men learn these behaviors, such as community, school, and in their family; however, Katz argues that one of the most powerful influences is the country’s pervasive media. For example, as movies have progressed, men have grown larger as women grow smaller. Movies such as Rocky, Rambo, and even the Godfather show men as inherently violent, strong, and emotionally underdeveloped, and this becomes the ideal image for boys just as the beautiful, nurturing, thin woman becomes the ideal for girls. Similar to Sapolsky, Katz believes that in order to lessen violence, our society needs to show honest and diverse representations of males rather than blaming
“Honor,” one of the qualities that guns represent, is a socially constructed factor that can be used to differentiate class. “Human triumph over nature” is a literal presentation of humans supposed ability to dominate nature, and “individual protection” is a means of maintaining one’s socioeconomic status. All of these three qualifications suggest an idea that guns are used to demonstrate or maintain one’s social class (or domination over lower social classes and
Gun control is what restricts people from buying and using guns, but these laws are not strengthened at the extent they need to be strengthened. This leads to many people getting these guns and using them to cause mass shootings all over the U.S. For example, according to the Council on Foreign Relationship, a news article that covers major world issues, in 2017, mass shootings at a music festival in Las Vegas and at a church near San Antonio have rekindled the gun control debate (“U.S. Gun Policy: Global Comparisons”). The fact that gun control is still not tightened is a huge margin and error, and still causes mass shootings as we just covered. Many people have said that we should not allow guns to be purchased, which would seem like the logical option. However, according to the same source, Council on Foreign Relationship, some states, such as Idaho, Alaska, and Kansas, have passed various laws attempting to nullify
In modern society, guns are seen as a form of control. Those who have guns are able to overpower those who do not. This trend was set when guns were first invented and has stayed the same throughout history. The one place where guns are not a symbol of power and control is in literature, specifically “The Old Gun” and Hamilton. In Mo Yan’s short story “The Old Gun”, the protagonist is a hungry boy who does not even know how to use the titular firearm.
Victor Rios begins chapter six by describing the way the Latino boys he studied used masculinity as a rehabilitative tool. He describes how the boys are constantly “questioning” each other’s manhood as a way of proving their own masculinity. “The boys’ social relations with one another and with community members were saturated with expressions and discourses of manhood” (pg.125). Rios continues to describe the affects criminalization and its gendered practices has influenced these young boy’s mentality of what it means to be masculine. In chapter six, the author explains that although the boys had easy access to weapons, they rarely used them because of their clear understanding the consequences associated with such violence.
Mental Health is a bigger issue than guns, and mental health will be regulated and not guns if the authority and the government want killings to stop occurring. Taking away guns will not stop killings with guns. People will find other ways to kill people, because people if they want to kill, will kill. Some argue that the guns need to be taken away because guns take away Innocent people’s lives. However, the real reason people are killed by guns is that of the people using the gun.
When children are young, they are taught that men and women are different. The problem with this is that it has a profound impact on the values we tend to hold dear: power, domination, and aggressiveness above empathy, caring, and teamwork in how we educate our boys to be men. Philip Reese notes that mass shooters often exhibit toxic masculinity. The author explains, “Their actions are rooted in a twisted form of masculinity, one that equates violence with power and sees women as objects to be dominated” (Reese). It's essential to recognize that toxic masculinity can have far-reaching and devastating effects.
Benson Lin Professor Owen English Composition 15 January 2023 Two Coins to Masculinity Masculinity has long been a source of controversy, as different society have their own varying standards of what it means to be a “real man”. In recent years, our society has shifted to view traditional masculinity traits more in a negative light, commonly referring to them as toxic masculinity. A couple examples would be men suppressing their emotions because it’s a sign of weakness, or the idea that they must compete against and dominate others. Such behaviors can have destructive effects for both men and women.
Guns are just a tool, like knives and hammers and it completely depends on the people on how they use it. People who support guns and arms say that the Second Amendment secures individual’s right to carry guns with them and that gun rights is needed for self-protection, and was intended for military to have peace and defend the country if needed (Spitzer, 70). Most of the Americans use guns as a source to protect themselves and they believe that gun ownership prevents crime. A study conducted on November 26, 2013 showed that bans on weapons did not significantly affect murder rates at the state level (Lane, 5). Moreover, even if the rules and regulations are executed on gun control, not all criminals obey the law.
With the “Women’s Liberation” movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s, Feminism became even more powerful. Women of this movement believe, among other things, that they should be equal to men in every manner. In its present form Feminism is a dangerous and unenthusiastic approach. Actually it derision womanhood by implying that as a woman I’m not good enough and that I must be equal to a man. Men and women have equal poise in reality but only different
What modern feminists refuse to admit is that feminism is only one side of a two-sided coin of inequality. A “movement” that advocates for the rights of one gender over another is sexist and unequal by nature. If feminists were striving for equality, then they wouldn’t be FEMinists. Being feminist, simply put, means that you want women to not only be equal to, but greater than men.. Thus, I believe that feminism is a poorly made masquerade to cover women’s desire to control men.
The ability to attain guns can generate actions and ideas that are homicidal. This, has been proven factual throughout history and present day news. According to Christina Beck who wrote a piece for the Christian Science Monitor, “The NRA and its statehouse allies adhere to the disproved theory that a good guy with a gun will stop a bad guy with a gun, and thus the more firearms carried around, the safer society becomes. … Studies have found a correlation between higher statewide restrictions on access to guns and lower levels of gun violence in those states"(Beck).Not only are guns fatal when put in the wrong hands, but there is evidence that shows that they can be unnecessary. They are unnecessary because without accessible weapons you wouldn't need a gun for