The Importance Of Masculinity In America

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The link between violence and the dominant culture in the United States has taken many forms of making itself known. The U.S. culture seems to define masculinity as strong, powerful, tough, and is most often associated with males. Males are also the dominant species when it comes to gender in this society.
C.J. Pascoe ‘Dude, you 're a fag’, Victor Rios book ‘Punished, and the documentary ‘Beyond Beats and Rhymes’ by Byron Hurt all links back to trying to prove yourself to someone or something as a part of masculinity. There is always the rhetoric of proving your manhood by having lots of money, or having lots of women, being able to commit crimes and get away with them, you can even prove your manhood by hurting or killing other men. Pascoe talks about the word fag and how this word can be used against men to ‘demasculinize’ men (Pascoe:329. 2005). The term fag is associated with being gay and …show more content…

In this documentary we again see a definition of masculinity of manhood similar to society 's definition, meaning, violence, exotifying women, the strength you show on the outside your “hardness”, and your body as a man (presentation of oneself through clothing, jewelry, etc.). Our society has become desensitized to the objectification of women in hip-hop (Hurt 2006). This documentary points out that the worst thing a man can do is assume that another man is less than a man, which then leads to appointing these “less-than” men derogatory terms which are also used against women such as bitch, this then turns into bitch ass n---a. This shapes and configures the “model” of what makes a man and it calls manhood and sexuality into question, many men in hip-hop thus will never have even a small conversation with a gay man (Hurt 2006), which can be tied back to Pascoe ‘Dude, you 're a

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