The Use Of Masculinity In Michael Kimmel's Guyland

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

Kimmel elaborates on fantasy through gender stereotyping where he depicts men as having “biceps…upper torsos are so massive, their waists so small, and their thighs so powerfully bulging” (Kimmel 157). For the depiction of women they are “a sort of recently sexually ravaged look—with breasts so large and a waist so small” (Kimmel 157). Kimmel is implying that how we view gender-specific ideal beauty standards influence the way we imagine a fantasy world through the use of appearance. Since mostly men engage in video game media it seems that they dominate the video game world where they get to play a character that depicts what they want to look like. This is because it is common for males to freely express their own fantasy that they lack in reality. In addition, they play video games to be their ideal self. If they were to play a female character it would lean more towards the fact that it depicts what they want their dream girlfriend to look like. In Video Games and Gender by Michelle Zorrilla, video games have long been known as a male-dominated media. There would mostly be male characters than there are female characters because female characters are usually depicted as the subordinate character. Statistically “there were still more male characters (60%) than female characters (40%) on the Web site” (qtd in Zorrilla) in games such as Guild

Kimmel uses his own experience when he talked to some of the young men engaging in video games at the Alpha house by asking questions. Questions such as “but when do you guys study? And don’t you have to go to classes?” (Kimmel 147) No response was given except for “braniac” (Kimmel 147), a defense mechanism in order to feel as if they are not at fault. Such a tone demonstrates that the Alpha house boys do not wish to deal with the stress coming from schoolwork. Their study habits show that they may not be in control of their lives as video games tend to be a distraction. This demonstrates that the media is in control of people more than people being in control of their lives. I believe that young men choose not to discuss schoolwork as they place their concerns about them at the last minute. To elaborate more on violent video games in this scenario, Dr. Christopher J. Ferguson from Ryan Dube’s article, said that violent video games could be used as a form of therapy to help people find a way to “work through their frustrations” (qtd in Dube) in real life. Kimmel views this as a negative way of coping with stress due to the fact that video games tend to be addicting as if they were drugs or alcohol. Although video games isn’t necessarily an appalling form of reliving stress it is true that they can be