In search of: Representations of Masculinity
As explored in K. Road, Once Were Warriors, The Making of a New Zealander, and Working Up North.
Research Questions:
1: How important is masculinity to the society portrayed in each text?
2: How do the main male characters show or express this masculinity or manliness?
3: Is the perception of the classic New Zealand male changing?
RESOURCES:
Title: ‘K. Road’
Author: Ted Dawe
Date: 2/5/2006
1: Because this novel was set in the late 1990’s K Road, masculinity is important in showing what most males were like then. Showing toughness, joining gangs, playing rugby and drinking excessive amounts of beer were all attributes that a kiwi bloke must have to help them appear masculine and manly.
2: Characters such as Flash and Rabbit show their masculinity through rugby and surfing and camping on the beach (outdoors). Characters such as Sonny and the Te Pania boys show their masculinity through their muscles, tattoos and gang fights.
3: Because this is set in K Road as opposed to South Island farmland for instance, it shows a slight change in the perception of masculinity or the classic ‘Kiwi Bloke.’ Men no longer are required to play rugby and drink beer to be considered manly.
Title: ‘Once Were Warriors’
Author: Alan Duff
Date: 8/5/2006
1: Jake Heke, the main character, is easily provoked and extremely aggressive. He also liked to show off his masculinity to his mates. He would often be drunk and abuse his wife physically. This type of thing was extremely common in area similar to were ‘Once Were Warriors’ was set....
... middle of paper ...
...staunchness’ as the main factor determining masculinity. I believe that the perceptions of the stereotypical ‘Kiwi bloke’ are false and that the pride and respect within this sense of manliness has gone. Also I have found that this perception seems to be changing from the rural based, rugby obsessed men to more modern city based men with good taste and nice clothes. However the media are still presenting Kiwi men as being rough, rugby playing big-men that like to have a beer with their
mates.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
·Dawe, Ted (2005) ‘K Road’ Longacre Press, Dunedin.
·Marshall, Owen (1995) ‘Working Up North’ in ‘Coming Home in the Dark’ Random House New Zealand ltd, Auckland.
·Sargeson, Frank (1982) ‘The Making of a New Zealander’ in ‘The Stories of Frank Sargeson. Penguin Books ltd, Auckland.
·Duff, Alan (1990) ‘Once Were Warriors’ Tandem Press, Auckland.
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
The behaviors shown in this scene fall under toxic masculinity, boiling men down to being gross and violent in a way that inevitably gets them into trouble. The scene itself ends with a brawl between all the soldiers, getting them in trouble with Captain Shang.
The Way the Male Characters are Presented in Tony Kytes, the arch-deceiver and Alison Ashworth by Nick Hornby
Mackinnon, Kenneth. ‘Sport and Masculinity”, Representing Men: Maleness and Masculinity in the Media’, Arnold, Great Britain, 2003.
Harmon, William, and C. Hugh Holman. Handbook to Literature. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1986.
To be a man, one must be swift as a coursing river, with all the force of a great typhoon, with all the strength of a raging fire, mysterious as the dark side of the moon. These attributes are all featured in the quintessential man in Disney’s Mulan, and represent the ideal masculinity for the people in this culture, at this time. Just as femininity has morphed to best portray the current standards, masculinity too has evolved; it is socially constructed and socially perpetuated. Many types of masculinity have been defined by society, including playboy masculinity, 50’s husband masculinity, and high school popularity masculinity.
All in all, the importance of masculinity in the novel is seen through sex and bravery through masculinity in the indispensable bullfighting scenes. As well as demonstrates the social norms in the 1920’s since being masculine made you socially accepted. This masculinity continues to be an important topic today because how masculine you are shows your gender role. Now depending on if a female or male is showing masculine traits, it can either be relatively normal for men or depicted as quite repugnant and not a part of the social norm for women. The amount of masculinity someone displays can show how acknowledged they are in society, and social acceptance continues to be a key value in various people’s lives today.
In conclusion if it’s one thing I learnt from this course thus far and this assignment is masculinity is very difficult to define and there is more one definition which can encompass every man, as each man has his own definition of masculinity. Also being a man takes a lot “hard work” no pun intended, even though men are stereotyped as having to work hard to provide for their families the kind of work I’m talking about is not manual labor it is, emotional and psychological work to meet the ideals of what society dictates you should be, as well as your own ideologies of being a man.
They begin as nerds who can’t lift weights or get the girls they want, but after working out and getting some coaching, they take revenge on the black “gangsters” that are keeping them from getting what they want which was girls and populairty. Pascoe talks on the experience, saying how this superiority of masculinity defines many of these students. Sexuality, masculinity, and race play a huge part in many of these students’ lives. She said my findings illustrate that masculinity is not a homogenous category that any boy possesses by virtue of being male. Rather, masculinity – as constituted and understood in the social world is a configuration of practices and discourses that different youths (boys and girls) may embody in different ways and to different degrees. Masculinity, in this sense, is associated with, but not reduced or solely equivalent to, the male body. The boys achieved masculinity by “Repeated repudiation of the specter of failed masculinity” which in other words meant throwing homophobic slurs at each other and heterosexist discussions of girls, their bodies, and sexual experiences. R.W. Connell talks about the multiple masculinities and says that there is not a single masculine role but there is different roles or categories for masculinity. Hegemonic masculinity which supports gender inequality in general which is the top of the hierarchy.
The very existence of an individual is founded on the perception of the constructed world around them or in other words what they stand for, their ideology. Good morning/afternoon Ms. Taha and class. Henry Lawson’s 19th century short story, The Drover’s Wife and the poem ‘A man from Snowy River’ by Banjo Patterson utilises distinctively visual tools and literary devices, to magnify the distinctive experiences of isolation. Both composers celebrate Australian values of stoicism, resourcefulness, independence and freedom that grew out of the hardships of life in the bush by covering different perspectives of an individual’s life in the outback.
"New Zealand Culture - Maori." New Zealand Travel and New Zealand Business. Tourism New Zealand, 2011. Web. 23 Apr. 2012. .
Harmon, William, and C. Hugh Holman. Handbook to Literature. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1986.
In todays society everyone constantly fights on the gender role issues about breaking and/or rewriting them to accommodate the needs of everyone, yet when you touch the topic of men ad their “masculinity” it becomes a soft spot. Masculinity doesn’t defy your strength or make you feel any “less” of a man, but many aspects greatly affect the outcomes of the following beliefs.
Pacific peoples were welcomed to New Zealand as workers during the 1950’s to the 1970’s. In the 1950’s, there was a post-war economic boom, which resulted in having a large demand of labour, which increased the immigration from many Polynesian nations. During this time, there was also an increased population growth rate in the Pacific Islands with no growth in employment opportunities.