My sister Sydni and I watched the documentary Tough Guise 2 together, and we both really liked the movie. It hits hard to see how societal expectations drive men to escalate violence to prove their manliness and affirm their identity. Sydni and I already knew that men are more aggressive due to our psychology classes, but it was new to hear it described as "redemptive violence" to reclaim manhood. Sydni found it interesting and noted that "we can't please everyone" and there is a male identity crisis, men re-evaluating what it means to be men. She also used the term "toxic masculinity," and I agree with her that men face unreasonable expectations of how to live. Sydni and I liked seeing the layers of this violence issue and the changes in masculinity as society changes. The film did a great job breaking down the …show more content…
Although my brothers were tough on judo and Boy Scouts, I did not feel that they fit the aggressive manly stereotypes and I liked them so much more than the “dumb jock” characters I would see in the media. I also saw the vulnerable sides of them and their empathy, and our parents always encouraged us to share our feelings, ask for help, and support each other. I think that more families should be like this, so frankly I get annoyed when men are villainized or objectified, and I have a big problem with the idea that men should hide their feelings and suffer in silence. People want to act tough to prove that they are manly or assert their place in the world as a racial or socioeconomic minority, and I want to show them that peaceful conversations can be honorable and productive. Similar to concerns about class, race, and immigration, people want to affirm their gender and be respected as the person that they are. We all want to feel supported and know that we will not be bullied for things outside of our
The War Against Boys is the story of our cultural attack on the modern male. Twenty-first century men are looked down-upon, laughed at, and many times emasculated in our day-to-day lives. In her book, Christina Hoff Sommers does an excellent job reminding us that men are responsible for a lot of good in the world: “This book tells the story of how it has become fashionable to attribute pathology to millions of healthy male children. It is a story of how we are turning against boys and forgetting a simple truth: that the energy, competitiveness, and corporal daring of normal, decent males is responsible for much of what is right in the word.” Our culture has promoted a skewed view; most people believe that women are treated unfairly, that
Tough Guise also backs the point that gender performance is a very culture heavy. The main point to tie in with the class would probably have to be that the way these men act is because of a cultural construction of gender that states that all men are supposed to be violent or aggressive. This then sweeps the main issue of cultural conditioning under the rug. All in all, Tough Guise 2 was an enlightening and interesting video. I would strongly suggest that everyone watch this film at least once because it provides such heavy insight into how we shape each other’s
In today’s American society there seems to be an ever-growing pressure for young males to adopt the “tough guy” persona. The want to adopt such an identity can be rooted to the way media portrays male masculinity to young boys and pre-adolescent males. With an ever-increasing message of violence, hegemonic masculinity, and inferential sexism, being rooted in Television and films it seems young males are being wired to be view these characteristics as normal because of the cultivation theory. As Jackson Katz from “Tough Guise 2” argues, our epidemic of male violence is rooted in our inability as a society to break from an outmoded ideology of manhood.
Men are looked at as brave, selfless people and are perceived as heroes all throughout society. Johnson addresses this point saying, “The idea of heroism, for example, has been appropriated almost entirely by patriarchal manhood. From movies and television to literature to the nightly news, our ideas of who and what is heroic focus almost entirely on men and what they do” (548). Since men have power in this world, they have generated a society that pleases them. Superhero movies are a huge money maker in today’s world. But, the most popular superheroes are exclusively men such as Batman, Superman, Captain America, The Flash and The Hulk. This media only feeds into the ideology that men are the heroes in the world and they are the ones making sacrifices for others. They see a world that appeals to them and do not see a reason to mess with the system. Kilbourne writes, “When power is unequal, when one group is oppressed and discriminated against as a group, when there is a context of systematic and historical oppression, stereotypes and prejudice have different weight and meaning” (499). Men now see patriarchy as natural and how life should be. They can look back at previous generations and see that they succeeded with patriarchy and feel they should do the same. Men see absolutely no reason as to why they should relinquish their position of
Jackson Katz is the founder of Mentors in Violence Prevention which is an education program that has been focused on military and sporting organizations in attempts to put a halt on gender violence. Other than being an educator, Katz is also an author and filmmaker. In 2013, he produced the film Tough Guise 2. In this film, Katz reviews the normalization of male jurisdiction in America. The film looks at the messages of gun violence, sexism, and bullying that are sent to men throughout their entire life. Tough Guise 2 argues the statement that male brutality is a rooted back to our cultural standards of manhood. A pivotal point of the film is that a male’s masculinity is not just handed to them, it must be earned. During the course of the film, this point is supported by examples such as gun violence, homophobic messages and mass shootings.
As a society there are a lot of qualities that men have been socialized to uphold when it comes to how they act or react, what they support, and what they suppress. This movie produces a harsh critique of male socialization early on and continues
The part exhibited the patterns of gender authorization as well as gave a basic comprehension of the impacts of gender brutality. Expositions like Kristin Anderson and Debra Umberson 's "Gendering Viciousness: Manliness and Power in Men 's Records of Aggressive behavior at home" strengths men to investigate how they are performing gender and the impacts this has, on the ladies they cherish as well as all alone comprehension of themselves and the part that sexism plays in keeping up patterns of sexual
Three key points that stood to me in “Tough Guise” are: Men are putting on a tough guise charade to survive, men are conditioned to be tough by the media and culture norms, and that violence is the great equalizer for men. We notice that in the streets men are tough and project the aura of “don’t mess with me.” But in the comfort of home men are very different. I personally have seen my tough boyfriend do a complete 180 on multiple occasions. In the streets he is getting into fights and breaking his hand. He then refuses the idea of needing medical attention to the point of me having to drag him by the ear to the car and make him see a doctor. He barely took any pain medication and continued going out with the boys. When my boyfriend got the simple common cold he was the biggest baby I had ever seen. He literally whined about his clogged up nose, pounding headache, and could not seem to get out of bed because he thought he was dying of the small 99 degree “fever” and called me to do everything. In the street he was perfectly fine and barely sniffled, but once we were alone he shed the tough guy act and wanted me to wait on him hand and foot. He was even to “weak” to lift a five ounce cup of hot tea to his lips (which I had to blow on first because it was too hot) and drink it. The other recurring theme in the video was that men are conditioned to be tough. If a man is not considered tough by the world around him he will be ridiculed and will not be respected. Even in
Violence is the way men gain control and they use this in many different areas. They are wrapped up in a vicious cycle as Johnson stated. Men fear being controlled and they assert that control by using violence to create a fear. When men feel emasculated, which they often do in relationships, things take a turn for the worse. The most interesting part of the whole thing is relationships are supposed to be a place where one another connect. They are supposed to be vulnerable to each other but yet many men are still unable to do this. This shows that the idea of being the most masculine is embedded deep inside and is almost like a disease whose symptom can become domestic violence.
And as he tries to reassure his kingdom of what he is doing, he seeks comfort in having relations with his queen. Kimmel argues that manhood is a constant fight of proving you have reached the highest level of man there is (63). Since women don’t find the need to prove their womanhood, men always take a very macho approach so that they can be accepted by their fellow males even during times of need (63). Throughout the movie, it is clearly seen that masculinity and violence have a direct correlation.
“Be a man”, is on of the most destructive phrases to tell boys and men. The Mask You Live In explains the struggles boys and men have growing up in a patriarchal society. I chose to watch this to understand how men feel oppressed. All year, I became aware of females and their struggles in the patriarchy. It is interesting to see that men are affected too. The documentary should have had more personal stories because it allows the audience to connect with and have empathy for men. On the other hand, the movie thoroughly demonstrated the inner conflict boys and men face in society. Men feel they must be strong and dominate. They feel they need to hide emotion and empathy in order to fit in. They must be manly in order to
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
The documentary is mainly about the perception of what the definition of masculinity really is. Our society has developed schemas as to how men should express their emotions, which is practically not at all. Since we as a society have set these schemas for men, they have to constantly try to prove their masculinity over other men. Likewise, boys in this society also have to hide their softer feelings and
In the United States, males are socialized to adhere to masculine norms starting at a young age (Stanaland et al., 2023). Within the prevailing cultural framework, these norms dictate that men must embody traits such as dominance, aggressiveness, and stoicism, while also adhering strictly to heterosexual and non-feminine behavior, and limiting their display of emotions (Stanaland et al., 2023). The criminological theory that I thought would best represent the documentary “Healing from Hate” is the Social Learning Theory. According to Albert Bandura's Social Learning Theory, people learn from one another by observing, imitating, modeling, and reinforcing. SLT, an original behaviorist theory, has evolved considerably over the past century as
"Tough Guise: Violence, Media and the Crisis in Masculinityy." Perf. Jackson Katz and Jeremy Earp. 1999. Film.