Hegemonic Masculinity And Men's Social Identity

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Research claims that the term ‘masculinity’ can offer insight into men’s social identity as it “consist of those behaviors, languages and practices, existing in specific cultural and organizational locations which are commonly associated with males…” (Itulua-Abumere, 2013 pg.1). Despite this, there are societal and personal definitions of what it means to be masculine and how masculinities can be performed, however, most men aspire towards ‘hegemonic masculinity’ (Carrigan et al., 2004; Connell and Messerschmidt, 2005). The concept hegemonic masculinity explains society’s ideology of what it is to be a real man (i.e. being a breadwinner, tough, dominant and violent), and advises against behaviours that would make males appear unmanly and feminine …show more content…

However, in reality, this is not always the case as some young black males struggle for identity, power, status, respect, and acceptance of who they are as an individual, rather than how they are projected (i.e. a nigger or thug) (Nedhari, 2009). The stress to follow Caucasian male patriarchal ideals of manliness as being the breadwinner and protector are can be seen as a problem for most young black males. Even with the unconscious imitation and social acceptance of the patriarchal ideals, inequalities and limited access to educational and employment opportunities deemed necessary to accomplish maleness, prevents them from expressing these behavioural expectations (Harris, 1995, p. 279). As a result, they have relied on their toughness, aggression and violence in order to demonstrate their masculinity (Connell and Messerschmidt, 2005). In his movie, ‘Tough Guise: Violence, Manhood, and American Culture’, Katz (2013) argues, men are taught masculine behaviours that are socially acceptable to the Caucasian patriarchal

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