Atkinson's Definition Of Masculinity

“Man is by nature a political animal,” Aristotle once said. Most tend to focus on the word “political”, but what does “by nature” mean? What is considered “all natural” in current society (Ojeda)? Craig Wilkinson, published author and father of two, believes there are three things that lie at the core of a man’s masculinity; a battle to fight, an adventure to live, and a beauty to pursue (“Masculinity”). These three things that are the core of a man’s masculinity all feed and draw meaning from each other. The battle to fight is a need to strive towards an impossible ideal which defeats most. The battle is the reason a man gets out of bed in the morning, the purpose that drives him in life. An adventure to live is the thrill one gets out of

Generally, prison sentences for men are longer than they are for women, even if they have committed the same crime (Kindlon et al). “How many guys do I know who have broken hands from punching inanimate objects?” Eighteen-year-old Walt, a teen from a suburb in New England, puts it (Pollack et al).
Male stereotypes and the outdated concept of masculinity affect men’s mental health by establishing and shaping a “cruel culture” that boys live in fear of. They have to adhere to society’s requirements because they see it as an inevitable test of their masculinity. Men lose empathy, trust, and relationships to the culture of cruelty every time they are forced to be dominant, which then leads to fear and betrayal (Kindlon et al). Boys learn from society how to fit the unrealistic mold of “masculinity”; it’s not something that they’re born with. Biological models often say that sex determines gender, but when children, like the Dominican pseudohermaphrodites, are raised like the other gender, they can easily change

Many men turn to alcohol or drugs to either fulfill the stereotype, or to help cope with the daily pressures of society. Boys drink in order to be released from the shame of being “little” or “weak”; if a boy is behind his peers in “the race to prove masculinity,” then he might turn to drugs or drinking which he thinks will turn him into a real man (Kindlon et al). Two-thirds of all male high school seniors have been drunk, four out of every ten high school boys will drive a car while under the influence, and three out of ten will pass out due to heavy drinking; males under 18 years of age are ten times as likely to get arrested for and alcohol and drug offense than females (Kindlon et al). Boys also drink to “drown their fear with liquid courage.” “It’s a feeling of power. Of being kind of indestructible,” a recovering alcoholic teen told psychiatrists Dan Kindlon and Michael Thompson. “You can be anything, do things you could never do otherwise, and you don’t have to think about the consequences” (Kindlon et al). In a world where society governs how males should act, the only justifiable time for boys to show emotion and to let go of their “masculinity” is when they’re intoxicated. About four out of every ten male high school seniors have smoked marijuana within the last year, and about nine out of every ten alcohol and drug law violations are