Hyper Masculinity Analysis

When we first began watching this film I did not expect anything emotional or deep. Hyper-masculinity and what it means to “be a man” is a hard pill to swallow for most young men. I think that the hardest moment was watching this film is the realization that many of these perceptions were true and that I participated in them regardless whether I wanted to or not. The portion with the teacher and his students was tough to watch. Many people in my high school were filled with frustration, anger and were unable to show their emotions because of societal standards. I had many friends, including me that were raised with this language of hyper-masculinity. I know for a fact that I had the one of those coaches that the film talked about.. I could

still remember the word he used. For instance, he would occasionally call players “pussy”, “wuss”, “fagot”, but it never affected me because I knew he truly cared for us and wanted us to succeed in school and on the field. While now I realize that maybe he could have been more calmed and showed his anger and aggressiveness in another approach.
I was astonished that this way of thinking and behaving about masculinity had on boys from such an initial age. As watching the video I pondered the things that I had done, I played video games, listen to music and watch movies and this film just add made me realize how I perpetuated to this sort of philosophy. The film was tough to watch at times because it was really stressful and emotional to watch. For instance the part with a Hispanic teen who joined a gang because he could not express his emotions to his mom was heartbreaking. Overall, I think it's very important to talk about this issue because not only does it harms boys and men but also does it at the expense of women.