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Gender-based violence in one word
Masculinity in american society 20th c
Masculinity in american society 20th c
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Recommended: Gender-based violence in one word
“The concept of toxic masculinity as used in the social sciences indicates that traditional American and European society tends to promote a certain set of masculine behaviors that can be harmful to men, women, and society overall”. It is associated with detrimental social and psychological effects. This norms includes dominance, devaluation of women, extreme self-reliance, and suppression of emotions. We all know that the gender based violence is a systemic problem that has historically conformed to masculinity norms in the society. But according to the theory of toxic masculinity no one can claim that all men are rapist or abusers; rather it states that men have the capacity to become violent if they are pushed into a role of masculinity
The concept of masculinity is considered as the qualities and characteristics of a man, typical what is appropriate to a man. In this article, A Community Psychology of Men and Masculinity: Historical and Conceptual Review, The author Eric S. Mankowski and Kenneth I. Maton, analyze four main themes: "Men as gendered beings, the privilege and damage of being a masculine man, men as a privileged group, and men’s power and subjective powerlessness. The second and fourth themes are described as
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 allegedly competitive, aggressive, dominant, and strong and if these attributes are not acquired a man is not a man. When other men recognize a man failing in those four areas of “manliness” they compare him to a female with negative connotation as expressed in the following quote, “The worst insult one man can hurl at another-whether its boys on the playground or CEOs in the boardroom-is the accusation that a man is like a woman.” These actions create perceptions that women are unworthy and pitiful. Jensen mentions that because of masculinity men are thought to seek control over women resulting in an increase of physical violence towards women. However, masculinity has harsh effects on men as well. Men are constantly trying to prove their dominance to each other, while competing against one another for ultimate dominance. This creates a never ending cycle of competition and unease for
McMahan’s article “Heartland: Symbolic Displays of Aggression and Male Masculinity in Rural America” stated “how masculinity is understood, defined displayed, identified, and positioned within a social system is created by and reflected within the interactions of social group members.” This indicates that masculinity started and created by the number of people interact in the environment. Masculinity can also lead to judgements when it is performed successfully or not. Despite of masculinity being judgmental, men must play the act of their “culturally specific, symbolic behaviors if they wish to construct a masculine identity in a given culture”. In this article, it gives a study to observe masculinity in a rural setting and how the community members view masculinity. The author who works as a bartender/bouncer found that there is violence that occurred, in which “it is impossible to avoid problematic interactions with bar customers, who might well be drink or under the influence of drugs, and it became to just sit there and observe” (Heartland, qtd: pg. 543), according to Winlow, Hobbs, Lister, and Handfield (2001). This indicates that violence can lead to dramatic problems when handling masculinity in
A finding in the study conducted was that women who were placed in suppressed situations provided increased stress and aggression for men. In a different study, it was discovered that along the six facets that were constructed “feminine avoidance, status and achievement, toughness and aggression, restricted emotionality, nonrelational sexuality, and dominance,” all of these were associated with carnal aggression committed against women (Zubriggen, 2010 as cited in Smith et al., 2015). It was then envisioned that each of these dimensions, or paths of sexual aggression and gender role stress could be followed in compound, numerous ways. However, there is an evident relationship between subordinate women and sexual aggression committed by men. Males who tend to encounter frequent masculine gender role stress are likely to have increased vocal aggression, negative responses, and rage when their masculinity is seen as threatened by a woman. As a reaction to this threat, men feel the need to make up for their lack in masculinity by participating in attitudes (like aggression) that oppress females and make them feel inferior (Moore et al, 2008 as cited in Smith et al.,
Domestic violence has been plaguing our society for years. There are many abusive relationships, and the only question to ask is: why? The main answer is control. The controlling characteristic that males attribute to their masculinity is the cause of these abusive relationships. When males don’t have control, they feel their masculinity is threatened and they need to do something about it.
The movie, Tough Guise: Violence, Media and the Crisis in Masculinity produced by Jackson Katz and Jeremy Earp, deconstructs the concepts that create the social constructs of masculinity. Masculinity, a set of behaviors, roles, and attributes correlating to men, is earned, not given (Conley 190). Starting from television shows to children’s toys, the idea of masculinity has infiltrated their minds starting at a young age. Moreover, the concept of masculinity has physical attributes, such as muscles, a deep voice, and be able to protect themselves. Masculinity, for boys of any races, socioeconomic classes, or ethnicity, has grown up with the same stereotypical image of what a man should entail. Since many media outlets show that a form of masculinity
In the past century, America has made great leaps in terms of equality. With the efforts made by the civil rights and suffrage movements, all people gained the right to vote. We are even moving forward with marriage equality, and currently fifteen states recognize same-sex marriage. But regardless of all of our progressive institutional movements forward, we continue to socially oppress women. Men’s violence against women has grown to be an internationally recognized epidemic, and will continue to grow unless measures be made to stop it. Domestic violence continues to be prevalent in the lives of many families, and is the primary cause of homelessness in half of cases for women in children. Many women have been forced to alter their behaviors out of fear of being sexually or physically assaulted. One out of every three women is sexually or physically abused in their lifetimes. The first thing that comes to mind is, there are a lot of people abusing women out there. Many people with opposing ideas may claim that men can be victims of violence perpetrated by women, but in instances not used for self-defense, it is rarely part of a systematic pattern of power and control through force or threat of force. In fact, 99% of rape is perpetrated by men, but when confronting men about the issue of violence against women, it is often combated with denial. Jackson Katz writes in his book, The Macho Paradox, “We take comfort in the idea of the aforementioned child-rapist murderer as a horrible aberration. A monster. We’re nothing like him.”(Katz 30). The sad truth is that most women who are raped are raped by men they know, or even men they love. Many men have a hard time believing that saying that most violence is perpetuated by men does not...
The "others" do not want to demonize men, yet are not taking an active role in eliminating the occasional poison that masculine expectations inhibit. Hamblin 's opinion, as well as several respected experts in psychology, criminology, and sociology, believes that toxic masculinity is an accurate term that can further both discussion and action on how to stop the aggressive and destructive notions of
If a man possesses the masculinity that society claims he should have, he may still experience many emotional issues within himself. After a man has been taught that domination is the key, they may develop a sense of aggression. Aggression may also follow the fact they men hold all of their feelings into to protect themselves from the schemas. Men have been seen to use violence in their past to solve their issues. In the documentary, one of the prisoners in the group session spoke about how he was in jail because all of his emotions that had been bottled up become uncontrollable in one instance. If a boy or a man does not contain the masculinity expected, he may become bullied and out-casted. The continuation of discrimination toward a boy may cause suicidal thoughts. On top of being bullied for not being a powerful man, he may still be trying to hold in his emotions to prove that he
It seems that hegemonic masculinity does a great deal in explaining male-perpetrated familicide, but it fails to explain female perpetrators. There is a great lack of gender symmetrical explanations of interpersonal violence. However, as the 21st century continues, and there is a continued strive for gender equality, there is good chance that there will be an increasing amount of gender based research on violence.
Men are taught to be apathetic at a young age; don’t be a sissy, boys don’t cry, and man up are rules that are deeply embedded in men’s minds as they are acknowledged as “masculine”. Mainstream masculinity promotes domination, and power abuse which affect isn’t solely on those who are being dominated against, as men are perhaps the first victims to such toxic thinking. Mainstream masculinity breeds toxic masculinity which boosts violence against women, LGBT people, and those who are “less” powerful, so are men the problem? No, patriarchy is; the system that sets these rules and regulations. In this paper, I will discuss masculinity’s negative affect on men, and how feminist masculinity can free them.
Often times in feminist research, there has been a major focus on women. This makes sense, being that in most cultures women still don’t hold an equal standing with their male counterparts. Yet in the patriarchal society seen in most western cultures, there are still extreme setbacks for men. Though the patriarchy tends to favor men in many aspects, it holds them back in what is seen as an essential part of being human; expressing emotions. These emotions are bottled up and often turn into rage. When men try and express themselves, they are often ridiculed or harassed until they go back to bottling their emotions. This toxic masculinity can lead to violent outbursts, either to those around them or to themselves. I will be exploring the expression
According to scholar, Daniel Gross, the term that was used to define men involved in rape culture is known as ‘toxic masculinity’. This is a gender stereotype which is a burden to men in society which describes men as sexually driven and violent beings (Gross, 1990). The consequences of toxic masculinity are that most male rape victims would not come forward to the authorities due to the feeling of shame. This suggests that men are supposed to be the strong, yet tough enough to prevent and avoid being raped. Men are less likely to report their rape, because they felt that it would diminish their masculinity.
Dr. Jim O’Neil’s historic issue of TCP described how men’s psychological problems are related to masculine gender role conflicts. It was further hypothesized that men are oppressed by rigid gender role socialization processes that limit them from being fully functioning human beings (O’Neil, 1981a). More than 230 studies have been completed using the Gender Role Conflict Scale (GRCS; O’Neil, Helms, Gable, David, & Wrightsman, 1986), and more attention is being directed to men and the so-called “crisis” in men’s health (Gough, 2006). However, little is known about how men’s gender roles relate to depression, anxiety, violence, suicide, poor health care, homophobia, academic failure, bullying, racial and ethnic oppression, and dysfunctional relations with women, men, and children (O’Neil,