Comparing Kimmel's View Of Masculinity With Homophobia

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When Kimmel talks about the great secret of American manhood he is talking about how men can be very insecure abut how other men view them. All men want to appear manly to their peers. Men are always looking to impress both males and females. They don’t want to be made fun of for not being as tough as their friends. Even if he doesn’t act manly when no one is watching him he wants to make sure when he’s around his friends he is as manly as possible. All males have feelings and are trained to keep them to themselves.
Kimmel makes sense of masculinity with homophobia when he says “Homophabia is the fear that other men will unmask us, emasculate us, reveal to us and the world that we do not measure up, that we are not real men”. Most people …show more content…

Hurst thinks gender and sexuality are constantly being influenced by human experiences and so they can change. According to Hurst, “The wide variety of self-identities, gender practices, and even biological differences found in contemporary society have led a growing number of scholars to urge replacement of the traditional dichotomies of male/female and masculine/feminine with more complex classification systems of sexuality and gender” 150. Hurst notes that the Western culture sees male and female as two separate categories while some other countries acknowledge more than two sexes, sexualities, and genders. An example of this is the hijras in India, “ while male at birth, define themselves as neither men nor women but as a third gender. They wear women’s clothing and may marry men.” 149. Hurst feels that as a Western culture we have such a limited acceptance of what masculinity and femininity look like that it leads to discrimination and inequality of …show more content…

These men are my dad and my grandpas. The characteristics that they have shown me that define manhood are hard work, honesty, taking care of your family and helping others. My perception of manhood isn’t influenced by sexuality , but by the way a man lives his life and treats other.
I think age does matter in how men understand gender and sexuality. I think the older and more mature a man gets the more he has knowledge of gender and sexuality. My understanding of gender and sexuality has changed in a major way since I was in middle school. The older you get you realize how complex the world is. I don’t think race-ethnicity play a role in how men understand gender and sexuality.
I do think femininity is homophobia. I think these two are often associated with each for very different reasons. This can be found in Kimmels article when he says “a significant use of Western sport in the 20th century has been to reproduce what Connell (1995) describes as hegemonic masculinity by turning young boys away from qualities associated with femininity or homosexuality.” Parents were raising their boys up not to act like a female beacause that would turn you into a homosexual. Young boys were afraid to do female things because of the fear that they would turn out gay. An example of this is most boys parents would rather them play baseball or football than ice skating or be on the dance team.

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