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More handpicked essays just for you.
Pop culture and gender
Pop culture and gender
Pop culture and gender
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“Are you a girl?”, “Do not be such a wimp”, “Be a man”; have you ever heard these words uttered to you at least once in your life? Probably not if you are a girl, most definitely yes if you are a boy. As a boy grows up and enters the journey of his life, phrases that question masculinity and discarding femininity are common everyday phrases in boys’ lives. Stereotype remarks which nurture the concept of a “Man” that people know of; toxic words that come out from people’s mouth without even realizing how dangerous it is. This paper is written mainly from a man’s perspective, adhering to the concept of manliness and male role belief system being talked in the film Tough Guise II.
This court case was brought to attention by Ken Wiebe, the creator of a website called “B.C Fathers” for fathers who have had their children removed from their custody due to, in their opinion, no reason. Dr. Pierrete Bouchard, the defendant, wrote a report called “School Success by Gender: A Catalyst for Masculinist Discourse” and had mentioned the plaintiff twice throughout her report, once by website, and once by name. Throughout this report she makes a number of recommendations to the law such as monitoring internet websites and amendments to the criminal code to properly deal with things directing towards women hate, such as this website. A photo was put in the report stated to have come from the plaintiff’s website presenting a photo
The stories of Junot Diaz feature various elements of social and personal issues that are highly prevalent in young Latinx men, primarily the compulsion and adverse effect of machismo, the poignancy of being an outcast in one’s community, and the lack of a father figure in a boy’s life. The first set of short stories prominently feature Ysrael, a Dominican boy whose face was disfigured by a pig when he was an infant. In “Ysrael”, he is the object of Yunior’s fascination, and the victim or Rafa’s (Yunior’s brother) torment.
Charles Dickens explores multiple attitudes towards masculinity. The male characters depict different aspects of masculinity and these aspects contribute to the acts they commit in the novel regarding love, sacrifice, justice, and redemption. Doctor Manette, initially, is depicted as a distracted, broken man that constantly relapses into trembling memories of his incarceration. In order to distract himself from the tortures of prison, he spends his time making shoes. After he overcomes his past with the help of his loving daughter, he becomes a man of great worth.
Pascoe explains the teenagers use of the fag discourse by stating that “becoming a fag has as much to do with failing at the masculine tasks of competence, heterosexual prowess, and strength or in any way revealing weakness or femininity as it does with a sexual identity” (Pascoe, 54) The only reason these teenagers feel this way is because they have been socialized to believe that masculinity is the cornerstone of being a male. They grow up seeing this reinforced on all levels and they witness firsthand the range of repercussions for not following this model. It only takes a moment to fail at being masculine, and when you fail at being masculine you are and should be bombarded with judgement and
The videos “Tough Guise 2” and Jackson Katz’s TEDTallk are both extremely similar in that they both discuss the masculinity of males and how it is being used negatively in society today. There are many reasons and theory’s for why men do what they do but one factor that always seems to occur is trying to prove one’s masculinity. Whether proving it through strength, gender norms, personality, and sometimes even violence, it seems to be prevalent among every male. Victim blaming then happens after these incidents occur and women or children are looked at for causing these actions to happen to them. Both these videos were very informational and eye opening to the issues of male masculinity and “women’s issues”.
Critical Reaction 1 What does it mean to be a man? The question of masculinity was a topic heavily discussed during the Franco dictatorship. An image was made for men to follow, a way they were supposed to act. If a man did not follow this idea or view then they were looked down upon, looked as a failure or something wrong with them. Two films that perfectly demonstrated the idea of masculinity are La Gran Familia and Furtivos.
“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.
“A vague chill had descended on him and his head had seemed to swell... Then something had given away inside him. It descended on him again, this feeling, when his father walked in, that night after killing Ikemefuna”(Achebe 62). In the book, Things Fall Apart, author Chinua Achebe describes Okonkwo a man who lives in Umofia, where hard work is the building block of a good life in the village with marriage being an important factor in the tribe as well. In Umuofia, having several wives and several children is very common and a sign that a man has made it financially as there is a bride price to pay when there is a desire to get married.
The theme of masculinity plays a big role in the novel Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. Throughout the novel Cal learns that he is not the same as everyone else and realizes why many times he felt uncomfortable living as a female. Once Cal discovers that he was actually born a male his whole life and identity change. Many times in the novel when Cal starts to gain more of his masculine identity something happens to one of the male characters. The deaths of prominent male family members in the novel foreshadows to Cal’s discovery of his male identity.
In Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Okonkwo is self made, powerful, and violent. Contrary to his external masculinity, the man’s life is dictated by internal fear. Okonkwo is emotionally damaged by his father’s life. Consequently, he acts in the opposite manner of his father in fear of becoming like him one day. Okonkwo’s father, Unoka, was gentle and peaceful, causing endless anger in Okonkwo and violence towards every person in his life.
In The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, the main character, Jake Barnes, is experiencing life post World War I. In a war that denounced faith and integrity, Jake becomes troubled by the concept of being part of a world without purpose. As a result, he starts drinking heavily along with his friends, who are also experiencing the same problems. However, no matter how much these characters drink, they cannot escape their sadness. To add to this purposeless life, Jake also struggles with male insecurity which all the veteran males struggled with after the war.
High School Concept of Masculinity and Sexuality: Intro The idea of what constitutes masculinity is something worth exploring. Many people equate masculinity with heterosexuality and this idea is greatly reinforced by the way that boys are treated at a young age, especially in high school. The term “fag” is used to insult boys for any number of reasons.
To profess their heterosexual identity, boys enact the ritual of performative sex talk. With a profusion of sexual bravado, boys fight to one-up each other in their stories of sexual prominence and prosperity. Pascoe states that “expressing heterosexual desire establishes a sort of baseline masculinity” (87), in part to distance themselves from the feminine identity of a “fag,” but also to establish masculine dominance. These discussions center around how these boys are able to enact their subjectivity and control on the world around them, with women as the objects of their control and puppets of their desires. Furthermore, the masculine dominance is established through compulsive heterosexuality when boys engage in specific patterns of opposite-sex touching.
Masculinity versus femininity This dimension doesn’t correlate directly with gender roles or behaviours. Instead this is more orientated towards specific traits that Hofstede has defined as masculine and low masculine (femininity). A high masculine culture is characterized by focusing on money, possessions, and traditional family values. Feminine cultures are said to be relationship oriented, focused on quality of life, and failing is generally more accepted. This is best describe by the commonly used phrase “Americans live to work, while Europeans work to live.