The Negative Effects Of Masculinity

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Early feminist studies of gender often depicted the expression of masculinity as solely meant to subordinate women. Upon further research and understanding of gender and its role in society, gender theorists have realized that masculinity is not only a patriarchal regulation against women, but that it also has negative effects against men. Masculinity has different characteristics in different cultures, but masculinity in general presents a hierarchy of traits, with femininity as the lowest, least desirable trait. In American culture, masculinity is defined within multiple structures, such as race, class, and sexuality, where a man’s masculinity can be lessened by his traits as well as these identities. Often, normative expressions of masculinity …show more content…

The male-dominated institution that is the U.S. military, through daily practice, has shown its implementing of hegemonic masculinity among ranks. As this institution relies on rigid masculine qualities, it feeds from the history of hyper-masculinity. Warfare and hegemonic masculinity go hand in hand, “for ages throughout countless societies the final initiation rite from boyhood to manhood has been an inclusion in the practice of war” (Morgan 125). Through this idea, “boys who aspire to manhood, and men seeking to express theirs, follow masculine scripts generated in and for particular milieus, but they must also negotiate their course in relation to the hegemonic forms of contemporary masculinity and femininity” (Nye 1940). This ideal of a strong and aggressive leader is emphasized through American war politics as well “where our major response to the indirect tactics of guerrilla warfare has been to rely upon more and bigger ‘strikes’ and ‘assaults’, despite all the evidence of their long-run ineffectiveness” (Mansfield 351). Essentially this idea that to prove oneself through the strength and refusal to retreat, regardless of the effectiveness of the strategy “seems to reflect a psychological reality” within the military: “to lose will be to unman us all” (Mansfield

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