For women to succeed in American culture women must conform to masculinity to show power and the ability to lead. In American culture women must act like men to gain positions of power and become respected in a man’s world. The way women dress and act plays a large role in how men view them. To join the men’s world, women must become accepted by the group of men she is trying to join. High paying and important CEO positions are typically held by men, and by acting like a man a woman can inch closer to that status. Hard work and intellect are still a viable option to succeeding as a woman. To become as successful as the most important men, women must take on the characteristics of a man. The largest occurrence of women taking on masculinity …show more content…
No skirts, high heels or strange fashion trends, just classic suits that show power and the ability to use it when needed. Embracing masculinity is not just an act to show power and gain respect, it is also a way for women to escape stereotypes. Levy describes tomming as “conforming to someone else’s – someone more powerful – distorted notion of what you represent” (Levy 273). Women want to grasp masculinity in order to escape what men and other women think they should be. …show more content…
These stereotypes are degrading to women and it becomes understandable that some women would want to get away from the branding ANTM put on them. Ponzer stated that “Tiffany was turned into ANTM’s symbol of the irresponsible ghetto chick who isn’t willing to work hard to care for herself or her child.” (Ponzer 401) This case is directed towards African American women but the outcome is the same. Women don’t want to be put into these stereotypes that are broadcast nationally. By accepting and conforming to masculinity a woman can escape the grasp that stereotypes and pretenses have over women. Society has characterized both male and female sexes into stereotypes. Some women can break the stereotypes placed on them by showing characteristics of masculinity in the work place and their daily lives. This presentation of masculinity can alter how men respect women in the work place and allow women to be viewed as leaders or entrepreneurs of the business
Realistically, when someone is more powerful, they have the ability to set the rules. Men have historically held power in society, which means that women did not have as much stance or freedoms as men have had in the past. For example, Canadian women did not have the right to vote until the year 1916. This factor has continued to trail into the present day, creating the ‘weak’ image towards women, overall forcing and pushing men to become the opposite of this factor. Thus, cultural ideals of masculinity rely on the ideas of femininity through patriarchy and gender binaries. The emphasis on characteristics of men are being exaggerated, as society is pressuring men with unattainable standards of masculinity such as being tough, muscular and buff. Men continue to conform to these characteristics, in the fear of being oppressed through exclusion, which only strengthens society’s standards even more. This leads to more societal pressures on men, thus leading men to experience more societal pressures in the fear of feeling excluded. These “systems of inclusion and exclusion are divisions or barriers that prevent people from joining and belonging.” (50). For example, if a man wears nail polish, they may be oppressed and excluded through facing ridicule and bullying, because wearing nail polish is considered “girly”, therefore this boy is rebelling against society’s socially
... E Glenn, and Nancy B Sherrod. The psychology of men and masculinity:Research status and future directions. New York: John Wiley and sons, 2001.
I think every man between 20 and 40 needs to read Elizabeth Gilbert's "The Last American Man". Without going into details (like I said, you should read the book), this is a biography/profile of Eustace Conway - a man who is, among other things, capable of and prefers to (or would prefer to) live the kind of frontier lifestyle we have read about: hunting and gathering his food, living in a house he built using his own hands, making his own clothes from the skins of animals he captured, etc. I suspect that for many people the story, at least initially, will arouse the sort of Romantic feelings that tend to come with fantasies of a "simple life" of rugged self-sufficiency. However, even for those who are quite certain that they prefer their modern urban lifestyle (air conditioning, direct deposit, grocery stores, ebay, cable TV, &c.), I think this book raises fundamental questions about what it means to be a man at the dawn of the twenty-first century.
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
Masculinity is a subject that has been debated in our society for quite some time. Many wonder what it means to be masculine, as it is difficult to define this one –sided term. Pairing this already controversial term with “feminist studies” can bring about some thought - provoking conversation. Feminist studies of men have been around for many years with regards to the feminist movement. It seeks to create gradual improvements to society through its main principle of modifying the ways in which everyone views what it means to be a man. Feminist studies of men bring forth the discussion of hegemonic masculinity; how this contributes to the gender hierarchy, the radicalized glass escalator and ultimately the faults of this theory.
In order to explain the crisis of masculinity, I think there are two significant aspects. One is Power; the other one is femininity. In the history, men were the dominant power of society and dare to say still it is. Men had to be strong enough to get the power to dominate the society and female. Actually, men are forced to be like that to survive in the society. Because of the power of dominance, the traditional masculinity has those aspects, self- centredness, defensiveness, a strong sense of entitlement, and a strong sense of pride. But often this is difficult for men to accept because individual men can feel so unsure and powerless themselves. They fin...
Let’s start with a negative example of masculinity that promotes it in all the wrong ways. In the color purple Mister is a great example of what men should not be but seem to be encouraged to do. He makes the money; he is the leader of the house; yet he abuses his wife; he treats her as nothing but a maid; it is sort of like she is subhuman; he is a man so he is obviously better. Once he even beats her for going to check the mail (Spielberg).That is nothing like what the expectation of men should be. Too bad society’s views of men influence the views on woman, and vise versa. Men should be encouraged to be strong by choice, not taught that they must to influence a sense of power over others. They should be encouraged to help provide for a family, not that they must be the only one to provide. Taught that he is equal to a woman, not that she is some sort of subhuman.
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
As one looks through society, one starts to see many cracks and loopholes where one set of standards does not apply the same way for men as it does to women, and vice versa.
Sometimes the circumstances of a situation do not permit for dominant notions of masculinity to persist. In these instances, dominant form...
The piece, “From Ways of Seeing” by John Berger, describes how a man’s actions are perceived and always focused on showing power. However a woman’s presence is opposite and that everything she does determines how people see her. Her choices and actions are what we go by to determine who the woman is. Whereas men want to be seen but women just want to be accepted (4). Aaron H. Devor in, “Becoming Members of Society: Learning the Social Meanings of Gender” argues that men and women both strive to obtain power (112). Devor shows how the means of how they obtain said power are vastly different and mirror the statements that Berger claims (114). Devor helps further our understanding of how we come to act the specific ways that are customary by divulging the ongoing thought process toward gender of children (109). Berger as well as Devor seem to agree on the topic of how the members of a gender act in society, the motive behind these actions are where differences between the writers
Society has females and males alike typecasted into roles which have basic characteristics that are the reverse of each other. Although this has begun to change over the past thirty years, typically the man was seen as superior to the female. This superior image is one that today, is slowly on its way to being reduced to one of complete equality between the two genders.
Men were taught to be superior to women since the dawn of time, whereas females were looked down upon. Ruled by patriarchy, it was hard for most of these women to do more than just be a stay at home wife. In some of the stories we have read, the women were portrayed as submissive, obedient, with no voice. Women have struggled to break out of this mold and find a voice for themselves. However, some managed to break out of these expectations and standards. Women and men have had to fulfill different set standards before anyone had stepped foot outside the womb. For both genders those standards came with different expectations.
Women seem to be categorized into a separate group, serving as supplements to men’s actions, characters and behavior. All of them seem to live in the realm of their own, built on the idealistic conception of the surrounding world, governed by fair rules and laws.
society. The importance of having significant role of women in the society is recognized by men also.