Masculinity In The Media

Gender rules the world in mainstream America whether we like it or not. As we look through our gender glasses we see gender on an individual level that we also categorize. In the movie “Tough Guise 2- Violence, Manhood & American culture” we see some of the oldest perspectives know in gender; femininity and masculinity. 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. Giving american men the natural behavior to want to produce a manhood that is harsh but welcomed We see this want cultivated in today's pop culture from movies to tv shows that have hypermasculinized the idea of the ideal man being a womanizer on sexual conquest leading men in the real world to feel lonely because they can't meet the ideals men's quota.

What are some benefits to boys and men of putting on the “tough guise”? When is it an effective and adaptive response, and when is it self-destructive and dangerous to others?

In the video clip Tough Guise 2, masculinity is a pose to male identities because of how the media is portraying them as violent, tough, strong, independent, and aggressive. These characterization of masculinity can be harmful to male because of what they have to act like in order to be seen as masculine. For instance, violence is portrayed as a masculine factor for males in the media with guns, fighting, or crime related actions. So, when younger boys see violence in video games and social media, they are going to think that it is okay to imitate that behavior in order to be seen as masculine. This can impact young boys to start violent behaviors at a very young age and get involved with illegal crimes.

Newsom says that as a culture, the society is pushing men to treat women in a certain way. The Mask You Live In” shows us that many gender traits are solely created by the society and that the images of men that boys receive at home and from television, movies, games and video sport events that give confidence to them to be aloof and unemotional, dominant and to resolve issues with violence. “We want to strengthen that loving is not just a feminine trait,” says Jennifer Siebel. “My son is always grabbing ice or getting Band Aids and taking care of the worn out knees and elbows. It’s about growing him as an individual

In the documentary, Tough Guise: Violence, Media and the Crisis in Masculinity, the focus is on mass media and society’s influence and expectations of the male gender and how ‘real men’ are defined. “Boys and young men, learn early on that being a so-called, ‘real man,’ means you have to take on the tough-guise,” Jackson Katz, Ph. D. continues, “In other words, you only have to show the world certain parts of yourself that the dominant culture has defined as manly.” In the opening segment of the documentary, Dr. Katz, one of America’s leading anti-sexist activists, provides the audience of how the title was developed. Together with The Media Education Foundation, the documentary encourages the audience to think and analyze the influence mass media has, socially, politically as well as culturally in the development of young men. Tough Guise breaks down the correlation of pop-culture imagery and the social

Jackson Katz’s film Tough Guise 2 seeks to expose how the media promotes a toxic ideology behind what makes a man masculine and show that it is a social construct. For decades print, television, videogames, and film have presented masculinity in a way that makes men think the only way to be manly is to be emotionally unavailable, sexually aggressive, and violent. This ideology has been a curse on culture in America and many other countries around the world. “We're not living in the Wild West. We're not a Third World nation” (Katz). The days of warrior culture, where a man had to protect his family from being pillaged in the dead of night, are long past us. However, the media promotes an ideology that men must still be prepared to answer the

Similar to Sapolsky, Katz argues that the media teaches men from a young age to be tough, aggressive, and not to show emotional vulnerability. This is what he calls the “tough guise” or the artificial definition of manhood that forces men to conform to society’s expectations by being “tough” and powerful and hiding their emotions. In the beginning of the film Katz shows interviews with various young males where he asks what it means to be a man, and all of them provide an answer referring to strength, such as “powerful,” “intimidating,” “strong,” and of course, “tough.” When asked what a male is called when they fail to live up to these expectations, the young men replied, “wuss,” “fag,” or “sissy.” Katz points out that this just one of numerous methods that society uses to contain young men in this “tough guise” box, using insults to drive them to perform the way they believe a man should. 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

Although it is common to see how women are misrepresented, the male population is also victimized by improper portrayal in the media. One could see that the view of masculinity promoted by the media is erroneous and brings about negative feelings in men such as self-doubt and inferiority. False perceptions of how men should be are conveyed in the article, “Are Men the Latest Victims of Media Misrepresentation,” stating that “the media industry tend[s] to characterize men as macho guys, skirt chasers and inept at parenting and relationships. While this may have historically been true, what our results showed is that these characterizations aren’t reflecting the behavior and aspirations of today’s men” (Casserly 1). From this quote, one could

The main issue is, we are raising our young boys to be men right away. This prevents them from being able to show their feelings and makes them lash out in an aggressive manner. There is a problem with men in this country that nobody seems to try and fix. Men are being bullied, put in stressful situations in need of help but only being told to "man up" or told that their problems "aren 't that bad". According to an article titled Dangers of Masculinity by Shannon Beam (a writer for The Odyssey, a news station similar to CNN), 98% of all mass shooters from 1982-2016 were men. Do you think this relates to how they were raised? We give men this idea that they have to be the ‘perfect ' man. They have to provide for their family, love sports, and be strong. We don 't necessarily give them the option to be anything different. We push them to be independent, but all the bottling up of emotions can lead to hatred towards themselves, and hatred towards others. Throughout history, we tend to correlate toughness and aggression with men, but maybe it doesn 't always have to be like that? Maybe it doesn 't have to be a norm anymore to be aggressive. Another article titled Boy 's Emotional Needs by Sarah Glazer was published on June 18th, 1998. This article was published shortly after the tragedy most of us know to be the Columbine shootings. She related the issues we see in men nowadays to the issues the two men who shot their classmates were suffering with. Both of them had been bullied and didn 't seek help. As awful of a thing that was, we can 't only blame them for being bad people. We need to also blame society, for putting all this pressure on

Over time, the thought patterns of many individuals mould to believe only one perception of what is morally acceptable— a perception that is completely faulty. The ideology of the male body and demeanor is only one of the many societal norms constructed by the media, and it alone can result in mental health fatalities, mass violence, or the mere elimination of self-identity whilst attempting to meet the ever-changing ideals of masculinity. The continuous and stereotypical depiction of masculinity in the media has idealized invulnerability, toughness and physical strength as the sole qualities of a ‘true man’. As a result, the complexity of masculinity is flattened, and immense pressures are placed on individuals to meet requirements that are entirely faulty. According to Katz, cultures, topics, and even genders are not one-dimensional; in order to fully comprehend the meaning the entirety of something, one must look at more than its representation in the media.

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. The types of media that encourage Toxic Masculinity are Television, Music, and Social Media.

The article that my group and I decided to do was “Toxic masculinity is killing men: The roots of male trauma” by Kali Holloway. Many people do not know that by saying “be a man” can cause such a huge negative impact. In this article it explains how masculinity is toxic and how it affects the life of men. In the article it reveals all the effects of masculinity, how it starts, and ways how it is shown in society. From here on I will be summarizing the article, making connections, explaining my involvement in the project and a reflection of my overall performance.

“Talking to Boys the Way We Talk to Girls” by Andrew Reiner argues that boys are being taught a message of masculinity that is becoming detrimental for their emotional development. Andrew Reiner says that, contrary to how we are raised, men are actually more emotional than women. This contradicts society's portrayal of men, which says men need to be tough due to the harshness of society. Reiner shows how this message of masculinity is perpetuated by our parents. Fathers focus on achievement driven words of theirs sons, which is contrary to mothers and their daughters. Andrew Reiner proposed solutions are to strengthen emotional communication with men and allow them to express themselves without being scrutinized as being weak.

The Film we watched in class Tough Guise: Crisis in Masculinity, gave me a better idea of how the world and its peoples see these young men behind the mask showing their true colors. Showing their true colors meaning that they aren’t what they seem to be, as soon as the public has brutalized their mind they often set their plan for revenge. Setting their plan for revenge could include anything from the media giving a bad image of things to the students in schools bullying other children and running these young boys life into retaliation. This movie made me feel as if young boys who aren’t raised right or aren’t socially interacted with the other children are usually the ones to become outgoing into committing bad realities. Social interaction a very big part of any

All the same, there must be a way to allow men to act and see past their hyper-masculinity from an earlier age, in order to help prevent domestic and sexual assault all together. One way Michael Kaufman suggests in his article, The Seven P’s of Men’s Violence, is “challenging and dismantling the structures of men’s power and privilege, and ending the cultural and social permission for acts of violence” (4). Most people do not learn about social issues, especially gendered violence issues in their day-to-day life, unless it is of unfortunate happenstance. Personally, I did not learn of these problems until I went away to college; which, in essence, is unsettling for many people do not have the privilege to get a higher education and thus, are unaware of gendered violence issues as a whole. That is why I would propose we, as a society, teach our children early on how to speak up against violence, especially our boys. Perhaps, as a community, one could create a class that explains to parents how to teach their boys on how not to become bystanders and perpetrators to sexual and domestic violence. Similar to Barbara’s Story in Alternative Interventions to Violence: Creative Interventions, parents within a community could drill the idea into their children’s minds that boys will not be boys, but rather, boys will be held responsible for their actions, or lackthereof, just like everyone else. Feasibly, communities could even help each other to develop their children’s sense of self separate from their masculinity by not adhering to society 's strict gender rules.Of course, these are all ideas that would time a great deal of time and effort to even begin to see a change within our society. However, wouldn’t it be worth the chance for