Reflection On The Mask You Live In

This week’s gender observation is a response to the 2015 documentary, The Mask You Live In (TMYLI). The negative implications of hegemonic masculinity and associated behaviors are the focus of the film, which features the narratives of numerous boys, men, social psychologists, and others. West and Zimmerman explain that gender is not who we are, but what we do, and it is defined by our interactions (SOURCE). In TMYLI, filmmakers take a closer look at what it means for men to “do gender” – how they engage and interact within the context of culturally-defined standard of masculinity. Here, I hope to recount the primary points of the documentary, reflect on my thoughts after watching the film, and connect these things to our course material.

Here, masculinity is comparable to Sigmund Freud’s ID. However, the boys and men featured in the film weren’t inherently aggressive or violent, but nearly all recounted being socialized to define masculinity by toughness or stoicism, non-femininity, aggression, and violence. This disjunction can be explained using Sandra Bem’s research on gender schemas, in which she describes the role of culture in shaping our gendered learning through gender schema, or cognitive categories of gendered information, and that these, in turn, come to influence our perceptions and actions. Through interaction (primarily with other boys and men), boys begin to understand how to do gender and how it affects power relations through domination. The “do’s” of masculinity (i.e., fighting, being a “womanizer”, acquiring wealth, being a “provider”, and demonstrating absolute stoicism) demonstrate various methods of achieving dominance over women and other men to prove one’s masculinity.

Characteristics such as caring, vulnerability, creativity, etc. are identified as positive throughout the film, and some subjects discussed the ways through which they practice, value, and celebrate them. Cody, for instance, describes how coaches and mentors taught him that he did not need to define himself by violent, unemotional, domination-centered behaviors that did not come naturally to him in the first place. Another example of a positive role model is Steven, who spoke about raising his son to be secure in his emotions, and how this taught him to redefine his masculinity. So while toxic masculinity continues to be a problem in North-American society, there is evidence that attitudes are changing, and that some are taking steps to redefine masculinity and the process of becoming a