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Media and gender stereotypes introduction
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In Robert Jensen’s article “The High Cost of Manliness”, he states that the idea of masculinity is a bad thing and they should get rid of it. This article debates on the common stereotypes of men, as he states: “That dominant conception of masculinity in U.S. Culture is easily summarized: Men are assumed to be naturally competitive and aggressive, and being a real man is therefore marked by the struggle for control, conquest, and domination” (par. 4). Nonetheless, there are some traits that men and woman share, such as, caring, compassion, and tenderness. These traits often depend on the situation, since a man cannot always be this way, whereas, a woman is often expected to have these traits.
Response The documentaries Tough Guys and Killing us Softly, really brought to light the way masculinity and femininity are represented in our society. The characteristics and associations that are made when these words are thought of are bizarre and not natural. I strongly believe that both masculinity and femininity are learned characteristics from the human environment. I often wonder if people would even have these ideas and characteristics that are associated with gender in the beginning of time, or if people have slowly began to define and differentiate the genders throughout the evolution of time.
A Lifetime of Sacrifice Nine million soldiers, dead. Twenty one million soldiers injured. The soldiers in World War I knew that ultimately deaths and injuries would be a result of the war, but they never could have guessed the extent of this war’s damage or the challenges they would face that would change them forever. WWI began in 1914, triggered by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, after years of global political tension. Though the war began between Austria and Serbia, an entanglement of political alliances soon drew most of the major world powers into the conflict‒ thus creating the first World War.
In the film “Stagecoach,” there are a wide range of characters: Mrs. Mallory, high class army wife; Hatfield, a shady Southern gentleman; Curly, the marshall; Gatewood, an embezzling banker; Doc, the town drunk; Dallas, a whore; and Ringo, an outlaw who just wants to live the American Dream. They are representative of the diverse society that occupied the American West in the late 1800’s. Through these characters’ interactions, and specifically through the relationship between Mrs. Mallory and Dallas, Ford explores class relations and how appearance often dictates our perception of a person’s character From these initial descriptions, one would assume that the two women are going to be at odds with one another, and they are for a large portion
Extended essay response Jonathan Scriva Hollywood films have influenced our values and beliefs of socio-cultural groups within a film. In the context of race and gender the films Cowboys and Aliens (2011) and the searchers (1956) both share similarities. These two successful films are 55 years apart the both convey the perspectives of race and gender through the reflection of American Indians in these films. The films The Searchers and Cowboys and Aliens show that Hollywood has changed the way we see the status of Indians. In the earlier film the Indians are represented as killers and mongrels as in this current day and age we have grown to accept them and appreciate their culture.
Richard Ford’s short story “Communist” is a commentary on the many ways American culture has evolved since the time of the American West. Ford primarily alludes to the West and its influence on modern American culture through the setting, themes of family, manhood, and hunting, and various symbols, including geese, olive trees, and Glen’s car. By juxtaposing Western storytelling elements with modern social problems, Ford analyzes how Americans have perverted and misapplied traditional cowboy masculinity and how that misapplication has negatively impacted modern society. Several themes Ford examines through a modern lens were social issues that Americans were concerned with during the time of the American West. For example, Ford portrays stereotypes of hunting as a masculine activity and contrasts Les’ mother’s emotional reactions as a feminine experience.
In Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses the ruthless, hypermasculine frontiersman of Blood Meridian has evolved over a period of one hundred years (1849- 1949) into the restless, domesticated cowboy ignorantly nostalgic for the days before barbed wire industrialization and suspicious of the social and political gains of women. John Grady Cole, the sixteen-year-old protagonist in All the Pretty Horses, aspires to embody a cowboy code of behavior, stemming from a strict tough-guy rural hypermasculinity defined by intense self-reliance and recklessness. Ultimately, his failure to do so renders him ironically heroic since success would perpetuate the reckless myth of the hypermasculine cowboy hero. In large part, John Grady’s notion of cowboy hypermasculinity rests in fiction and cinema, where Western writers like Owen Wister and directors like George Stevens created the popular culture Hollywood cowboy, itself based mostly on an abstract notion of the frontiersman. All the Pretty Horses simultaneously affirms and
Texas Stereotypes Texas is well known for a lot of things, to being one of the biggest states in the US to JFK Assassination. Many people believe that Texas is probably one of the violent states because of many people owning guns and many prisoners being on death row. Numerous individuals has came up with a lot of stereotype for Texas and Texans. One of the most famous and favorable stereotypes are that Texas consist of many cowboys and cowgirls. Yes many of men and women are but, little do they know that more than 85% of the Texas population lives in urban areas.
By examining the gender stereotypes that Tom believes to be true in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, the reader can understand how those beliefs shape Tom’s interactions with females throughout the book, by causing him to try to guard and comfort girls, which in turn improves their view of Tom. One day in class, Becky Thatcher tears a page of the schoolmasters book, and she begins to worry about being whipped for the first time at school and Tom thinks to himself, “What a curious kind of a fool a girl is! Never been licked in school! Shucks! What’s a licking!
“Masculinity as Homophobia” an article by S. Kimmel, that talks about how men these days have the fear of being judged and ranked based on their manhood. There are some arguments that the Professor mentions and uses in his article that supports his argument and some experiences from other people 's perspective in life of men over the years. The author’s main argument is about how men these days are being watched and judged closely based on how they walk, talk, eat, dress, move and look like. The author explains how the world is judging men and how it tries to take that power and that pride of being a man.
The ideology of masculinity, and the guidelines surrounding its validity, is one of the many societal norms constructed by the media. Over the past fifty years, men’s physiques, weapons, and vehicles, among other things, have undergone a massive transformation in published works.
A masculine person can be seen as someone who takes charge and suppresses any kind of weakness. During tough times, a “man” is seen as someone who steps up and takes charge. In Ernest Hemingway 's Indian Camp, Nick Adams learns what it means to become a man. Nick’s image of “ideal masculinity” is shaped through the examples of strength through suffering and violence by his father and the Native American husband. Nick’s father displays true masculinity because remains authoritative and displays an indomitable attitude through times of suffering.
Introduction In the Western world, majority of the movies are normally preoccupied with the notion of masculinity that depict men as being the dominant gender with roles requiring them to exhibit male behavior, such as providing for family and fighting, while the women the inferior gender with roles requiring them to exhibit female behavior, such as supporting the husband despite his shortcomings. Anne Lee in his modern Western movie Brokeback Mountain (IMDb, 2015) represents masculinity in different relationships: masculinity as depicted by men who want to be in a relationship with women and masculinity as depicted by men who want to be in the same-sex relationship. In this movie opinions divide significantly concerning masculinity especially when looking at Ennis and Jack who are two gay cowboys trying to be in a secret homosexual relationship. In what follows, we will examine the representation of relationships of traditional Western masculinity in the movie
In our progressive world, we are failing to recognize an important issue of sexism. Men are constantly expected to be ‘manly’ and strong, mainly seen in their attitudes and fashion. This strong cultural expectation of men is the core reason behind the bullying of those who don’t conform to gender stereotypes. Acting outside the boundary for males causes ridicule and becomes a taboo. Things considered manly are societal conventions.
Modern Family is a popular primetime television show that airs Wednesday nights on ABC. This hit comedy presents the daily lifestyles of three separate but related families who reside in the suburbs of Los Angeles, California. The Dunphys are shown as the traditional white American family while the Pritchett-Tucker family are a homosexual couple with an adopted daughter named Lily. The Pritchetts are the last family who are an interracial couple with a large age gap. On the surface, this show seems to be one of the most diverse on television.
