The Mask You Live In, was a very good and informative film. It brought back all the negative memories that I had in middle and high school, when going through puberty and playing sports. The film shows the audience how bad masculinity is turning and how it can damage many people’s lives. It shows the world that masculinity is completely messed up and we are not teaching are sensitive sons the right way to grow up. The movie starts off with a bang! Former NFL tough guy, Joe Ehrmann, says “ Be a man” is the most destructive words a young boy can hear. This movie emphasizes on how boys are continually told on how to be a man. “Grow some balls. Men don’t cry! Keep that shit inside and keep fighting.” This is where Joe Ehrmann gets frustrated, none of these are ways to make you a man. Boys are told Men are emotionalist and hide all their feelings. Well, what all young boys want, is love and confidence shined upon them while growing up. Which is funny, because boys keep all their emotions and feelings hidden under a mask that no one else can see. This damages young men, by making them emotionally disable. These boys keep all their problems built up inside them and don’t want to talk to anyone about them because they were told men handle them on their own. …show more content…
How are these boys suppose to grow into strong men for the society if they have been told the wrong thing about masculinity and have been told to figure out problems on their own their whole entire
The movie, Tough Guise: Violence, Media and the Crisis in Masculinity produced by Jackson Katz and Jeremy Earp, deconstructs the concepts that create the social constructs of masculinity. Masculinity, a set of behaviors, roles, and attributes correlating to men, is earned, not given (Conley 190). Starting from television shows to children’s toys, the idea of masculinity has infiltrated their minds starting at a young age. Moreover, the concept of masculinity has physical attributes, such as muscles, a deep voice, and be able to protect themselves. Masculinity, for boys of any races, socioeconomic classes, or ethnicity, has grown up with the same stereotypical image of what a man should entail. Since many media outlets show that a form of masculinity
Boys are influenced by many of their coaches in life; brothers and fathers telling them they must be tough and show no pain, teachers who expect them to work hard at everything they do, and in the back of their minds are their mothers who worry about them over extending and getting hurt. Kimmel asked a few men in their 20’s, “where do young men get these ideas” (the Guy Code), they all gave the same answers: their brothers, fathers, and coaches. One mentioned that his father would always be riding him, telling him that he must be tough to make it in this world, another said his brothers were always ragging on him, calling him a “pussy” because he didn’t want to go outside and play football with them. He just wanted to stay in and play Xbox. Yet another said that whenever he got hurt his coach would mock and make fun of him because he was showing his feelings. The world is a very competitive for men, they believe they must always prove themselves to other men. Men get pressured into doing things they don’t want to do. Men shouldn’t be pressured they should be able to do what they want to
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.
A raging, oncoming freight train is roaring down the tracks around a slight bend bearing towards a helpless, vulnerable damsel in distress that is tied to the railroad tracks with only seconds to spare. She only has one hope: Superman. Faced with this nearly impossible situation what does Superman do? Naturally, he jumps in front of the locomotive head-on, putting his life in danger, and stopping the train with a screeching halt just inches away from the young lady, of course. What could be more heroic or courageous than succeeding during a dangerous situation? Nothing. As Superman demonstrated, these situations present the chance for traits of masculinity to be displayed. Now, not all situations may possess the severity or extremity of the situation that Superman handled but in all situations that are somewhat perilous masculinity is often associated with the attributes brave, bold, muscular, virile, and forceful, as well as many more. Masculinity requires facing challenges head-on and defeating the dangers; no second guessing, no hesitation. Get the job done. In various short stories from Benjamin Percy’s book Refresh Refresh the male protagonist is always presented with dangerous situations to display his masculinity through his courageous actions. This is executed during multiple different situations, but is often the result of saving a female character. The male protagonist rises to the occasion when an opportunity presents itself, but often they are responsible for creating the dangerous situations. These stories seem to verify Germaine Greer’s view that she expresses in her work Masculinity that “Masculinity requires the creation of dangerous situations, actual or symbolic.” (898)
William Pollack, in his article “Inside the World of Boys: Behind the Mask of Masculinity”, discusses on how boy tries to hide behind the mask and the stereotypical of masculinity. He demonstrates how boy hide their deepest though and feelings and real self. Pollack open the essay with “a fourteen-year-old boy, he is doing badly in school and he might fail algebra, but when teacher or his parent ask about it, he said everything is just fine. He hide his true identity behind the mask, and let no one see his true self.” After read the story, I think the story is really useful source to write an essay about how boy become men and they are emotionless.
Masculinity in film create dominant social values and stereotypes for the men in society. One of the most common stereotypes is the ‘alpha male’, a man tending to adopt a dominant or forceful role in social or professional situations. In the movie School Ties (1992) directed by Robert Mandel, the character of Charlie Dillon (Matt Damon) displays this stereotype throughout the film, however it doesn’t take long for the audience to discover his real personality. A number of narrative, symbolic and technical elements have been used. Charlie Dillon is represented as an insecure alpha male because the audience sees him as supposedly having everything, always getting what he wants and having a pressure to succeed because of his family name.
Boys think that they must put on a persona that they are tough and no one can hurt them. I agree with the author that the boys are forced to hide their emotions and fears that’s why men become insensitive. Because the most important factor of how boys become tough men is how adults treat and teach them differently from girls. The boys start hearing messages that they need to be strong and tough from adults since they are just babies. I think this is the main problem that causes men to be insensitive and emotionalist. However, it is their parents, society, and everyone around them who affect the boys to become the men that they should be. If people treat boys same as how they treat the girls, I guess men will act the same way as
Looking Beyond Appearances in The Conformist, by Bernardo Bertolucci: Marcello’s Walk, A Question of Masculinity.
“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
The documentary is mainly about the perception of what the definition of masculinity really is. Our society has developed schemas as to how men should express their emotions, which is practically not at all. Since we as a society have set these schemas for men, they have to constantly try to prove their masculinity over other men. Likewise, boys in this society also have to hide their softer feelings and
An article entitled “How Boys Become Men,” written by Jon Katz was originally published in January, 1993 in Glamour, a magazine for young women. In this article the author claims that the men are insensitive because they have had to learn to hide their feelings during the stage of growing up with other boys. The author defines his claim by analyzing the process of boys growing into a man with the focus on the lesson boys learn that effect their adult lives. The author describes these lessons with the code of conduct imposed upon boys, for example “never admitting fear”. He explains these codes with several instances and by including his own example to convey to the reader the challenges of growing into a man. Through the various stories of young boys, he intends to explain why men seem so insensitive to help women understand why men sometimes seem “remote” or “uncommunicative”.
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.
In the book the Sun Also Rises the author, Ernest Hemingway, uses style to demonstrate how a man who has lost his masculinity can never truly be happy with a woman. Hemingway uses main characters Jake Barnes and Brett Ashley to make this point. Jake and Brett had a brief relationship that caused them to fall in love with each other. Unfortunately, during the war, Jake had a life changing injury. This injury made it so that Jake can never have sex with a woman.
The Avengers is a 2012 super hero film featuring multiple heroes from the Marvel universe. It features a range of stars from previous Marvel films including Iron Man’s Robert Downey Jr. and Thor’s Chris Hemsworth, among many others. When this film was released it was met with wide spread praise, and it is easy to see why. The film offers so much more to the audience than just action sequences and cool costumes, it is actually a well thought out and executed movie.
Masculinity and femininity are two terms, which have been interpreted differently throughout history. Both the males and the females have responsibilities and duties but these duties differ based on one’s gender. Gender has played a prodigious role in the economy, politics, and the society. Everyone starts making interpretations of the strengths and weaknesses based on one’s gender. These interpretations are not always based on his or her ability but is usually based on his or her gender. Males tend to be judged as extremely strong and unfashionable in terms of appearance. Whereas, females are judged as expensive and very fashionable. Males and females both differ in their abilities and their enjoyments. Fashion, entertainment, and strength are three topics, which are used to define masculinity and femininity in the 21st century.