Social Construction Of Gender In 'The Mask You Live In'

In discussing the many facets of masculinity among young men, one key issue has been the correlation it has with several developmental concerns. In Michael Kimmel’s 2008 publication “Bros Before Hos: The Guy Code”, he talks about how men believe manhood is really achieved. More specifically, he talks about “Guy Code”, the universal rulebook that all men must follow if they wish to remain in good standing among their fellow man. These rules are taught as early as their toddler years.

For multiple years, young boys and men have struggled to keep up with society's mental image of what a man should look, act, and be like. From the minute they are brought into this world, boys mostly always already have an idea of what they should be as they get older. They are brainwashed with the mentality that they have to be this rugged, strong, fit persona. And most boys will do anything it takes in order to achieve that attribute to feel some sort of acceptance by society. Having these ¨manly¨ attributes is not always what determines a boy from having the label of being a man.

Masculinity is slowing killing men; with all the pressure and expectations that man have to be a certain image, this can cause many negative effects which can lead to many dangerous and serious situations. Due to all these expectations many bad habits can form such as alcoholism, violence and workaholism. This peer pressure can cause men to have depression or engage in many risky activities that will effect there life in many negative ways, such as injuring themselves. In the article it states that “little boys are, in fact, slightly more sensitive and expressive than little girls” (Kali Holloway). Even though

The complex idea that is shown with my mask is loss of innocence. Loss of innocence is shown in Lord of the Flies especially when the boys kill Simon, the only truly innocent one on the island. His whole time on the island, he knew that the other boys were the beast, the savage ones. He always knew that their innocence was lost. Another way loss of innocence is shown in Lord of the Flies is that as the boys were being rescued, Ralph cried for the first time and he cried for “the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy.”

Because many of the ideals in the man box are mostly about "not being like a girl", men can break free of the man box and feel free to live their own lives without being held down by a set of standards. In addition, women would no longer be stereotyped because while the man box is targeted towards men, it also indirectly targets women and stereotypes how women behave in society. If I were to make changes in socializing children, I would try to encourage boys and girls that it is fine to express emotions and that not everyone has to be strong or aggressive. Some people choose to be that way, but that should not mean everyone has to follow a set example. Another way for children to develop healthy qualities would be to not stereotype gender roles since they will always meet different people who live by different standards and not just one set

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.

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.

People put on mask whenever revealing their genuine identity or behavior can cause issues. They are afraid of the aftermath that their actions might cause. This is the situation one can see in The Canterbury Tales, Piers Plowman, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight prologues. All of these literary works present different valuable societal issues. First in The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer gives us a description of characters and their flaws.

Masculinity was the root purpose that as allowed male to constantly remind women that they are inferior to them. That they are not willing to give up that birthrate to be superior because for generations they were taught that men are the bread-winner and women are just seen house worker and mothers. Because of this stigma it has implanted a certain dominates that affect the way we view gender roles and expectations of those roles. That why when we view a playroom, young boy are seen as leader and girls are just following the leader. Those society roles soon translate in adolescence and caused to devalued and mistreat girls in general.

Unfortunately, toxic masculinity plays a role in every society, therefore many people, mostly men, put on a “mask” to hide behind in order to make a false impression of their best selves. No matter who it is, everyone has a way that they want people to know them by, which is why it plays such an important role. The book Lord of the Flies is a fiction text about a group of young boys whose plane crashes after it was shot down during a war. The boys turn from civilized to savages on their long journey on the island as they become less and less of a society. Toxic masculinity affects society in more ways than one and often is used to get ahead or to be seen as superior.

People act differently when they are with certain people than when they are alone. Some will call this act a “mask.” This metaphor is used because people cover up who they truly are or what they really feel with their actions; similar to the way a mask covers up a person’s face. This idea of a mask is explored in Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem, “We Wear the Mask” and readers can see examples of “masks” in Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. People often wear masks to hide something about themselves that they are not proud of or hide their emotions and fears they do not want others to know.

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.

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 Mask You Live In, show all the pressure from the media, their friends, and the grown people’s life. All the boys and man faced with some messages provide them to hide their real emotions, built up the idea that women are only for sexual conquest instead viewing women are friends, and allow men to communicate anger with other by violence. All the controversial about gender associate with race, class, their situation, creating a confusing of problems all men and boy must to be a man.

It is, obviously, a symbolic one, that is meant to hide the suffering of people. It hides everything, “our cheeks and […] our eyes”, and “the eyes [being] the mirror of the soul”, the mask hides the inner you. (Dunbar, l. 2) (Paulo Coelho, Manuscript Found in Accra). But, in addition to the hiding, there’s also the lie about the emotion. Indeed, the mask isn’t only meant to hide the emotions, but also to create new ones on the surface, as we can see when the author said “We wear the mask that […] lies” (Dunbar, l. 1).