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1. The Guy Code is a set of unspoken rules that all men are aware of. Men take these rules into account subconsciously with every action they take. The Guy Code dictations how men should act, how they should speak, what they should wear, etc. I without a doubt believe it actually exists. Because most men truly do behave by this set of made up rules and they are very predictable as a result.
2. Language is a powerful tool when it comes to maintaining the Guy Code. It is how men teach each other what it means to be a man. This is evident in the list of ten phrases considered defining traits of being a man. Kimmel says that “all these aphorisms involve never showing emotions or admitting weakness.” If a man is able to measure up to all of these traits, then his manhood is safe and others will see that.
3. If a man violates the Guy Code he would be considered unmanly and possibly even gay. Other men might assume that he wasn’t as manly as them and they would question his authority. The violator would be considered weak and possess undesirable traits.
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Kimmel implies that the Guy Code has been created. He states that “if it were biological, it would be as natural as breathing or blinking.” Which clearly it isn’t, because every man has to consciously consider his actions and words. Kimmel makes a compelling statement, claiming “the Guy Code fits as comfortably as a straightjacket.” I think this line really captures his point and reveals the truth that the Guy Code is unnatural. This question is important because if something has been created, that means it can be altered. The Guy Code only seems biological hard-wired because it has been resistant to change for so
In Kimmel’s essay “’Bros Before Hos’: The Guy Code” he argues that the influence of society on masculinity is equal to or greater than biological influences on masculinity. In the essay, Kimmel uses various surveys and interviews to validate his argument. He points to peers, coaches, and family members as the people most likely to influence the development of a man’s masculinity. When a man has his manliness questioned, he immediately makes the decision never to say or do whatever caused him to be called a wimp, or unmanly. Kimmel’s argument is somewhat effective because the readers get firsthand accounts from the interviewees but the author does not provide any statistics to support his argument.
In her article “But What Do You Mean” Deborah Tannen, claims that there is a huge difference in the style of communicating between men and women. Tannen breaks these down into seven different categories; apologies, criticism, thank-yous, fighting, praise, complaints, and jokes. With each of these she compares men to women by explaining the common misconceptions that each of the genders do. The different style of communication can cause some problems at the workplace and even affect the environment. The different styles of communication has been around forever and almost becomes a “ritual”(299). Tannen is effective with mainly women and not men. She is primarily successful with women due to the fact that her tone targets women, also the organization
It would seem that the words “guys” and “men” would be defined in the same way, as they are thrown around in conversation in generally the same way. In fact, Google defines guy as “a man.” Writer, Dave Barry, puts a spin on these two words in his essay, Guys vs. Men. Guys vs. Men discusses the difference between a man--a masculine, aggressive male--versus a guy. Barry is essentially giving the term “men” all of the negative characteristics associated with males, while giving “guys” the cool and fun traits of males. Throughout his essay, Barry explains how a “guy” is different from a “man”. For example, for each subtitle he gives an anecdote about what guys like, do, or have, and how that is different from what men like, do, or have. Barry’s use of humor influences the tone of the piece by making it seem lighthearted and thus allows him to target women readers as his key audience while at the same time maintaining the interest of men readers.
Guys vs Men is an essay written by Dave Barry on the difference of guys and men. In paragraph six, Dave Barry lists three characteristic to help support his belief about guys. The first characteristic is “Guys Like Neat Stuff” which expresses the captivation he has with his brand new computer. The next portrayal is titled “Guys Like a Really Pointless Challenge.” In this section, he describes a circumstance in which his resolve to beat another man in a forty-yard sprint resulted in being mocked for losing the bet he had made. The final representative states that “Guys Do Not Have a Rigid and Well-Defined Moral Code.” Barry talks about guys as not being bound by a rule book. Many guys know of the unrecorded code but refuse to accept by it. The
All over the world Masculinity has many different cultural definitions. Depending where someone is from, and what they were brought up to believe, defines what the term “masculinity” entails. Different Social institutions all over the United States, such as the military, sports, clubs, and fraternities, have been constructing their interpretation of masculinity. One major social institution that is active in thousands of Universities across the United States is campus fraternities. Campus fraternities create their own sense of masculinity by generating certain requirements and characteristics a man must hold in order to represent them as a part of their fraternity.
As young men grow up, they would generally learn and integrate within a box of codes which shows them how to be a man, known as the Guy Code. The Guy Code is a set of rules prevalently applied among men groups about how a man behaves with other men and his girlfriend. It mainly teaches guys to be dominant, aggressive and fearless. In Michael Kimmel’s “ Bros Before Hos: The Guy Code”, he indicates that men disguise their emotions and inner beings to be like a man, particularly among their peers. It imposes a consciousness that timidity is not a characteristic that men should have.
In the text, The High Cost of Manliness, writer Robert Jensen discusses the harmful effects of having male specific characteristics such as masculinity. It has come to his attention that men’s actions and ways of living are judged based upon the characteristic of being manly. Jenson argues that there is no valid reasoning to have characteristics associated with males. Society has created the notion that masculinity is the characteristic that defines males as males.
As Simpson puts it: “It’s not about flip flops or facials or manbags or manscara – or even about men becoming ‘girly’ or ‘gay’. (Copy-and-pasted from http://bit.ly/NEoEF0) It’s about men feeling more at liberty to become what and who they want to be. A collapse of more repressive, stoic ideals of masculinity - ‘real men’- and their replacement by more sensual and sometimes self-centered ones.” (Again, how new is male self-centeredness?)
After reading an article by Dave Barry entitled, “Guys vs. Men,” which is an article that is about, well, guys and men and how much they differ from one another. While reading through the article I found that Barry provided quite a few male stereotypes, which was what his entire article was about. “Guys Like Neat Stuff, Guys Like Really Pointless Challenges, Guys Lack a Rigid and Well-Defined Moral Code, and Guys are Not Great Communicators,” were the titles of his four short stories about how guys differ from men, and within these four short stories is where my curiosity for stereotypes arose.
Sexism serves as the constant reminder that, although in our history there have been many changes, we still have much to work on. The equality of all people has yet to be achieved and while the progress made should be noted, there are facts of our culture that demonstrate we still haven’t reached where we need to be. As for how The Bro Code comes into play, Director Thomas Keith explores the aspect that society still harbors and in most ways promotes the inequality between men and women. Director Thomas Keith clearly states in the beginning of the documentary that even he grew up believing that “women were here for our sexual enjoyment” (Keith). His documentary serves to focus that our society has allowed for men to objectify women and to believe that they are better. These thoughts that he presents are not foreign or stretches of the imagination but simply observations of the society in which we live.
Boys are influenced by many of their coaches in life; brothers and fathers telling them they must be tough and show no pain, teachers who expect them to work hard at everything they do, and in the back of their minds are their mothers who worry about them over extending and getting hurt. Kimmel asked a few men in their 20’s, “where do young men get these ideas” (the Guy Code), they all gave the same answers: their brothers, fathers, and coaches. One mentioned that his father would always be riding him, telling him that he must be tough to make it in this world, another said his brothers were always ragging on him, calling him a “pussy” because he didn’t want to go outside and play football with them. He just wanted to stay in and play Xbox. Yet another said that whenever he got hurt his coach would mock and make fun of him because he was showing his feelings. The world is a very competitive for men, they believe they must always prove themselves to other men. Men get pressured into doing things they don’t want to do. Men shouldn’t be pressured they should be able to do what they want to
As one looks through society, one starts to see many cracks and loopholes where one set of standards does not apply the same way for men as it does to women, and vice versa.
and Dr. Whitehead, male behaviors and masculinity are not just a simple product of biological predispositions or genetic coding. All societies around the world have the cultural concept of gender, but some of them do not have the idea masculinity. The modern usage of masculinity usually describes the behaviors that result from the type of person someone is. This means that one who is un-masculine would behave differently. For example, “being peaceable rather than violent, conciliatory rather than dominant, hardly able to kick a football, uninterested in sexual conquest, and so forth” (42). The presented concept of masculinity presumes that one has to believe in individual difference and personal agency. So, it is based on the concept of individuality
behaviors, and social conditions that we call masculinities are “hard-wired” into males through biology (see Thorhill & Palmer, 2000) and/or the heritability of human psyche (see Jung, 1959/1989; Bly, 1990). They view masculinity as static, transhistorical, cross-cultural, and cross-situational. From this perspective, gender change is either impossible, or it involves the use of powerful force to constrain what is seen as “naturally” male. (Masculine Self pg. 19)
We shape how masculinity works with our individual selves and with our public selves. The roles that we play on and off the courts dictate slowly mold the fluid that is understanding what masculinity actually is. Taking a new look at gendered norms on an intuition level will help create safe places where people can explore, without repercussions, a new identity, whether that identity is sexual or social, that is left up to personal choice.