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Gender and masculinity
Gender in the Media
Social media and its impact on children
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“A four-year-old boy had a big dilemma: he loved butterflies. He also loved being a boy. His teacher’s unfortunate statement about ‘butterflies are for girls and cars are for boys’ was the source of his internal conflict” (Ozkaleli 567). When a child is born, we as a society, decide how they should dress, what they should like and more importantly how they should act. Without any knowledge of what this child wants or needs we decide to control their feelings and shape them in a way that seems acceptable in our society. Our society tells our girls to be pretty and like butterflies and it tells our boys that to be strong and to like cars. Liking or wanting anything else besides what we are told is considered to be normal is not appropriate and often causes children to become outcasts. We divide actions and preferences into two categories: girly and manly.
In this paper I will be discussing what it means to be a man and what happens when that masculinity is threatened. Firstly, I will be looking at what a man is supposed to be, how he is supposed to act and what his role in society is. How a male goes from being a boy and then turning into a man. Then, I will be looking at two age groups teenage boys mostly high school boys and grown men somewhere between 30’s to late 60’s. I will be covering how teenage boys react to bullying, gay baiting and their masculinity being threatened. Why these teenage boys respond with violence and what does being violent have to do with being a man. I will also be looking at older man and how they view what a man’s role is in society. Also, what is it about guns that make them feel like a man, as they get older? “Jeff felt proud that his officemate feared him. Though he is older now, and not able to d...
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... Journal of Emotional Abuse 7.4 (2007): 43-67. Print.
• Willis, Danny G., and Catherine A. Griffith. "Healing Patterns Revealed in Middle School Boys' Experiences of Being Bullied Using Roger's Science of Unitary Human Beings (SUHB)." Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing 23.3 (2010): 125-32. Print.
• Feder, Lynette. "Bullying as a Public Health Issue." International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 51.5 (2007): 491-94. Print.
• Reuter-Rice, Karin. "Male Adolescent Bullying and the School Shooter." The Journal of School Nursing 24.10 (2008): 350
• Klein, Jessica. "Book Review: The Bully Society: School Shootings and the Crisis of Bullying in America's Schools." Rev. of The Bully Society: School Shootings and the Crisis of Bullying in America's Schools, by Mark Cohan. Gender & Society 27.10 (2013): 438-40. Print. -59. Print.
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
Whatever we see in movies, television, video games, or any other source of entertainment, there will always be a male figure who symbolizes masculinity to the fullest extent. All that masculinity represents empowerment is what seems to appeal to men nowadays. In Michael Kimmel’s Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men, the novel presents the irresistible desires that men seek in order to receive the approval of other men. An approval where men gain access to the concept of Guyland, where young men become masculine in order to fit in socially and to feel empowered. However, achieving absolute masculinity leans toward the use of violence that is presented in the media, presenting a message where violence is used for the purpose of getting what one desires.
Most acts of bullying are dealt with, but not always in the correct way of doing so. Bullying Policies in many schools state that bullying is not tolerated and has consequences that will be used if bullying occurs. However, Jodi draws our attention to the issue that not all schools have a policy that states the consequences of bullying and practically just tells the victim to fight back and stand up for himself. This generally makes things worse for the victim by allowing the bully think that the victim is trying to "embarrass" the bully. With repeated attacks on one, it will have him/her believe they are either "useless" or think that they have to do something to prevent the next attacks, and this may not always be pretty or the "right" way. The results of these intense, repeated attacks can cause the victim Just like this book, shootings are a result of bullying, derogation, and ignorance and end ultimately end with many
In an excerpt from his book, Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men, which was first published in 2008, sociologist Michael Kimmel shows us how the teaching of masculinity in America begins to form at a very young age and goes far into adulthood. He focuses on how boys are molded from a young age to be men, by forms of harassment, teasing, and peer pressure from parents, relatives, friends, teachers, and society. In this specific essay, Kimmel explains the pressures young boys experience and the expectations as they grow into manhood. Kimmel vividly describes men who are pressured by their own peers to prove their masculinity. Furthermore, there is a relentless sense of having to show ones ' 'manly ' ' behavior. Masculinity is expected, and needs to be shown in-front of others at all times. For most men, being able to do
... E Glenn, and Nancy B Sherrod. The psychology of men and masculinity:Research status and future directions. New York: John Wiley and sons, 2001.
Bullying has become a major problem facing the United States today. The American Psychological Association reports that roughly 40% to 80% of children are involved in bullying on some level during their time in school. (APA, 2014) The magnitude of the problem can be observed in the statistics. In the United States, a total of 4,080,879 children between the ages of five and 18 have been the victims of bullying compared to 3,892,199 who have reported that they have engaged in bullying someone else. Additionally, 851,755 said that they have been both the victim and the bully. That's a whopping 8,824,833 people in the United States that have been involved in bullying behavior on one level or another. (High, B., 2000 Census)
In conclusion, School Violence is a widespread issue that must be addressed. School shootings and bullying are some of the biggest issues in today’s school system. Many times the seed of the issue begins with bullying and ends with consequences like suicide and school shootings. They affect people as early as elementary school all the way to the college level, some even ending with death. Only together can we stop school violence if we take a stand and change the world.
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
School shootings and suicides result from continuous bullying. As a result, after time some side effects of...
Bullying, often dismissed as a normal part of growing up, is a real problem in our nation's schools, according to the National School Safety Center. One out of every four schoolchildren endures taunting, teasing, pushing, and shoving daily from schoolyard bullies. More than 43 percent of middle- and high-school students avoid using school bathrooms for fear of being harassed or assaulted. Old-fashioned schoolyard hazing has escalated to instances of extortion, emotional terrorism, and kids toting guns to school. It is estimated that more than 90 percent of all incidents of school violence begin with verbal conflicts, w...
As a child develops, their surroundings have a major influence on the rest of their lives; if boys are taught to “man up” or never to do something “like a girl”, they will become men in constant fear of not being masculine enough. Through elementary and middle school ages, boys are taught that a tough, violent, strong, in-control man is the ideal in society and they beat themselves up until they reach that ideal. They have to fit into the “man box” (Men and Masculinity) and if they do not fulfill the expectations, they could experience physical and verbal bullying from others. Not only are friends and family influencing the definition of masculine, but marketing and toys stretch the difference between a “boy’s toy” and a “girl’s toy”. Even as early as 2 years old, children learn to play and prefer their gender’s toys over the other gender’s (Putnam). When children grow up hearing gender stereotypes from everyone around them, especially those they love and trust like their parents, they begin to submit themselves and experience a loss of individuality trying to become society’s ideal. If everyone is becoming the same ideal, no one has a sense of self or uniqueness anymore and the culture suffers from
Bullying has been a part of schooling for as long as children have been congregating. To some it seems like a natural, though uncomfortable, part of life and school experience, while to others it can mean terrifying experiences which spoiled and characterized otherwise happy years in school. Dan Olweus, a pioneer in bully behavior research documented that 2.7 million children are affected as victims, and that 2.1 children act as bullies (Fried, 1997, as cited in Aluedse, 2006). With bullying cited as the reason for violent, gun-related crime in the past few years, school districts as well as national governments have put anti-bullying policies in place. Bullying is a complicated phenomenon, involving more than one child demanding lunch money from a smaller child. It is a worldwide epidemic hitting schools everywhere. Virtually everyone has seen or experienced bullying. With technological advances, bullying is even hitting the internet. Parents, teachers, students and governments agencies alike are attempting to put a stop to bullying practices.
Bullying is a growing concern in a society where status and exercising power over another human being are increasingly important in developing one’s social circles. Dan Olweus (Norwegian researcher and founder of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program) defines it as an “aggressive behaviour that is intentional and that involves an imbalance of power. Most often, it is repeated over time” (Violencepreventionworks.org). School victimization is an especially delicate matter that has only really been in the public eye for the past half century, as more and more researchers and psychologists pointed out its short- and long-term negative effects on targeted individuals. It has since been widely investigated and numerous programs have been developed in an effort to address and prevent the many forms of bullying that exist today. The negative effects of such an abusive behaviour are various and can greatly differ from individual to individual. However, there are three main consequences that can be associated with school bullying, which are: school avoidance, depression/anxiety and even suicidal attempts.
Neimen, Samantha, Brandon Robers, and Simon Robers. “Bullying: A State of Affairs.” Journal of Law & Education (n.d.):n. pag. Print.
Shootings and physical violence are only part of the problem in schools. More than twenty percent of students have encountered bullying whi...