Michael Kimmel's 'Masculinity As Homophobia'

When you’re small, you often either get a pass to do wrong things or you don’t. Typically, that depends on whether or not you are a boy. For as long as its been humanly possible to hear things, mother’s across the world have held that their precious sons could not and should not be accountable of their actions because, “boys will be boys”. It was a way for men to grow up acknowledging that that just simply could not control themselves. Which ultimately allowed the rest of society to accept that same behavior from them. Media always encourages this type of male cluelessness by always giving the male lead the opportunity to do as he pleases so that his role as male can never feel threatened. In Michael Kimmel’s essay “Masculinity as Homophobia”,

Boys are told to not cry when they get hurt and are given the greenlight to pull a girl’s braids or push another person around. Manhood is seen as an eternal and essence that resides deep in the heart of every man (58). As men, they are not expected to comply to sissy stuff. Manhood means the constant rejection of anything associated with femininity (62). This idea is seen throughout the movie as King Leonidas prepares for battle along with his men. The King is constantly puffing out his chest and showing his strength and that not even a God-king could dare threaten him and his kingdom. Along with being a man that is ruling a kingdom that is facing defeat, Leonidas is expected to remain calm, cool, and collect throughout the whole movie. And as he tries to reassure his kingdom of what he is doing, he seeks comfort in having relations with his queen. It 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 he can be accept by her fellow males even during times of need

Throughout the movie, it is clearly seen that masculinity and violence have a direct correlation. For a man to die in a battle is the most noble way to die. The queen even explicitly tells King Leonidas to “come back with your shield or on it”. But if violence is something that is not expected in the real world, why do movies feel the need to demonstrate it to the degree for which they do? Kimmel explains that men are under constant scrutiny of other men (63). They are ranked, watched, and compared to all the others. And violence is often the single most evident marker of manhood (65). As young men, they are constantly being monitored by their fellow peers waiting to see what they’ll do so that they can be exposed as sissies. So a man’s desire to fight is perceived as being the farthest thing to being seen as feminine (65). The domination of women also comes into play here. The abuse of women often times enriches the masculinity of men and sadly enough, movies represent women as knowing this for a fact. The queen is seen being raped during the movie so that the king would have a better chance standing against the council. Although she has the highest position a woman could have in the kingdom, she still feels that she must be violated so that one man could feel a stronger sense of manhood and so her husband’s story could advance.