Tough Guise is a documentary about how the media constructs how the male masculinity is formed and how it is to be a man in our society today. The man speaking throughout this film is discussing how there is a crisis in today's masculinity. Arguing there exist a crisis in today's masculinity and how everything that bad usually happens is because a man did it. The media advertises and portrays how men should act, but often how men are portrayed in the media are of violence acts and the degrading of women. Some of the examples in the film included WWE wrestling, going to a school and asking students what they would be called if not acting tough such as soft, fag etc. Music from such artists boys from the hood shows African males acting like thugs and getting money is how boys should act. Another part of the film it showed how all students that shot up a school were men. But in the media it would never say men is responsible for all the negative things that happen in the world such as war. If women were in charge I really doubt there would be so much violence in the world. To my conclusion it's not only the media and video games that shape boys but everyday society. Violence seems to be a normal everyday thing that happens all around us and it's a normal masculinity for men. This video enlightened me to rethink my own participation in masculinity.
Ocean's Eleven
I picked the movie Ocean's Eleven, this film was one of my favourites growing up I looked up to these stars and I felt like they were what a real man should be like. It's about a group of con's and ex-cons who work together for a big heist to rob 150 million dollars from a vault in Las Vegas. The main character is Danny Ocean he's fresh out of prison and looking ...
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...cho men, I have yet to see any films where a non macho man is the film star. All these slick cool guys have the best timing as well, they always accomplish there goal with the perfect timing if they were a second off everything would fail.
To my conclusion the media plays a big role in how men's masculinities are, if the media decided to choose that to be a man, was to wear pink and do ballet than that would be okay then. Since the media says to be a man you have to degrade women and objectify them and be really strong, that's what you have to do in society to be even considered a real man. They make it seem like they have no emotions or feelings and they are careless what they do to other people. Are we to blame for this male lifestyle? Masculinities are constantly changing who knows what will be the norm of male masculinities in the next ten years.
me time
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 representing 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
As described in the film “Tough Guise 2”, the U.S. is both obsessed with and is a victim of its own culture. On one hand, movies and video games that glamorize violence and books that argue that violence. Additionally, many other films and books highlight that violence is a core aspect of male masculinity and argues that men are losing it through the empowerment of women and the loss of employment. At the same time, the United States has suffered through countless gun-related deaths and the mainstreaming of media such as Bum Fights, where actual homeless people are assaulted on camera. But due to the politicization of the issue of violence and the news media to properly explain the issue to the U.S., many people are taught that violence stems from the youth, which is only part of the broader picture. Instead of identifying and preventing the largest source of violence in the country, young white males, the focus is instead shifted toward the potential of violence of young men of color in poor urban
George Orwell quotes, “He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it.” The documentary, “The Mask You Live In”, directed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, shows different ages of males who struggle to be themselves while battling America’s limited meaning of manliness. George Orwell quotes, “He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it.” Influenced by the media, among their age group, and the grown-ups in their lives, adolescents dissociate their emotions, disrespect women, and are aggressive. Society gender stereotypes affect young males to change to fit into the societal norm as they characterize “real” men.
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.
Tough Guise 2 began by illustrating the issues of de-gendering in news stories, articles and headlines regarding violent crimes. This would include stating “The shooter” or using some other generic phrase to describe the person who was the main cause of these crimes when, in fact, men are the leading cause of most of these crimes. De-gendering brings the issue away from just one gender and instead places it as a crime of a specific group, usually of age or race. The fact that we are constantly glossing over that most violent crimes are played out by men is probably one of the most important things touched on in this video.
“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
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
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
In our society today, the view of Masculinity has changed a lot where it almost
Myers mentioned in his article that this generation of young discouraged, angry men feels abandoned with the today’s norms. Male movie stars and athletes have further influenced the masculine norms. In males perspective, liking a feminine color, doing feminine actions, listening to specified girl music is considered to be less manly. These have greatly affected the likes and dislikes of many men. The entertainment industry has created a big gap between what is masculine or feminine. This has caused a big separation and it's getting worse. Male are taught to be man of the house, strong, and powerful, but sometimes they’re belittled by society that they can’t do certain things and all the power is
The problem, as I see it, is that we have not re-defined masculinity for the modern age. In the old days, masculinity was measured by (1) physical abilities, particularly strength, but also skill, (2) power/success/wealth, and (3) sexual prowess. The first can be developed through education and hard work, the second could be acquired through the application of the first, and the third, well, either you got it or you don't, but locker-room bragging can always make up for any lacks, especially if you got the first two. Boys growing up in such a society work to develop their physical abilities and learn how to apply them most efficaciously, thus becoming a "man". This makes sense when a man might be faced with the challenge of building shelter on the prairie or raising crops, but us modern urban men are unlikely to face such challenges. Of course, we are not unprepared for the challenges of a modern urban lifestyle. Our education generally provides such life-sustaining skills as linear algebra, the performing arts, and information systems management. The educational system is successful enough to allow most of us to get jobs that pay us enough to afford all the requirements of a modern urban lifestyle: housing, food, clothing, entertainment, transportation, etc. The trouble is that while education has more or less kept pace with the advance of civilization, our notions of masculinity have not.
Action movie takes a great part of Chinese cinema, and masculinity is the major issue of this genre which reflected traditional Chinese culture and values. According to Yu's idea of Chinese masculinity in cinema, it mainly represent male-dominated action genres. However, masculinity tradition has been changed since the founding of new wave wuxia films from 1960s to 1970s. Yanggang opposites to the traditional view of 'weak male', which means masculinity and macho in modern Chinese society that indicated by Zhang Che, Ideology of Zhang's yanggang aesthetics includes the determination to sacrificed for friendships righteous, bravery to confront with violence and death, persistence and indefatigability. Indeed, Hong Kong cinema tends to represent
On a daily basis people are exposed to some sort of misrepresentation of gender; in the things individuals watch, and often the things that are purchased. Women are often the main target of this misrepresentation. “Women still experience actual prejudice and discrimination in terms of unequal treatment, unequal pay, and unequal value in real life, then so too do these themes continue to occur in media portraits.”(Byerly, Carolyn, Ross 35) The media has become so perverted, in especially the way it represents women, that a females can be handled and controlled by men, the individual man may not personally feel this way, but that is how men are characterized in American media. Some may say it doesn’t matter because media isn’t real life, but people are influenced by everything around them, surroundings that are part of daily routine start to change an individual’s perspective.
Men of the millennial age are trying to change the stereotype of men, and what better way of spreading the change then through the internet. Some popular posts on the internet regarding men are pictures of them wearing flower crowns, dressed in floral/pastel clothes or writing about their favorite Lush Bath bomb. These men are trying to change the way we associate hyper masculinity with being a real man, they’re letting other males know it’s okay to embrace their femininity. Although with all the articles and facts out there it still won’t change the minds of what a man is to most people. Keohane says, “Facts don’t necessarily have the power to change our minds…In fact, they often became even more strongly set in their beliefs” (1). The facts are the...
Women have made progress in the film industry in terms of the type of role they play in action films, although they are still portrayed as sex objects. The beginning of “a new type of female character” (Hirschman, 1993, pg. 1). 41-47) in the world of action films began in 1976 with Sigourney Weaver, who played the leading role in the blockbuster film ‘Aliens’ as Lt. Ellen Ripley. She was the captain of her own spaceship, plus she was the one who gave out all the orders. Until then, men had always been the ones giving the orders; to see a woman in that type of role was outlandish.