Critique Of The Common Perception About American Men Summary

Analyzing A Critique of the Common Perception About American Men From an early age in our society men are taught that is it an acceptable practice to objectify women. In order to challenge this common perception of men, Orlean uses word-choice, metaphor, and tone to convey criticism towards the feministic perception on how men view women in American society. Orlean uses word-choice to critique the American view of masculinity. In American society it is commonly assumed that men objectify seemingly inherently and often using a vulgar tone. Although Colin does this, by “slut-shaming” Madonna, he follows this statement with stating that the most beautiful woman in the world is his mother. Orlean choses to include that he thinks that his mom is the most beautiful woman. If she wanted to convey perhaps the notion that American men are “pigs” even when they are little boys, she would not include that last part of the dialogue. The contrast in Colin’s response softens his persona in a way and makes him less like a “pig” and give the reader a sort understanding that he really respects women especially his mother.

Highlighting that they think the prettiest girl in their class is a blond cheerleader type (like they are supposed to according to American beauty standards towards women), but including that she is still gross to them because she is a girl. This is seemingly breaking the “norm”. If Orlean were writing a critique about how American masculinity is all about objecting women, and it starts when boys are as young as 10 years old, she would entirely leave out this part about them still thinking a pretty woman is