Masculinidad

RUNNIG HEAD: SUPERIORITY AND VIOLENCE 2

“MASCULINITY”
Leslie Ortiz
Fresno City College

English 1AH
Mr. Roberts

SUPERIORITY AND VIOLENCE 2Have you ever thought how a man should act or what physical appearances must have to be considered as a “real men”? Would you like your future children to grow up in a society where there are ideas of inferiority and inequality between women and men? The most common answers in our society of what does a “ man” is or how he has to act are boys do not cry, not being weak, no showing their feelings,showing power, superiority, stronger than women, and not being “gay” . Masculinity is a set of characteristics associated with traditional male roles such as strength, courage, triumph, competition, and security. However, the media today is part of every society, characterized by being an information tool that allows us to stay current with political, economic and social policies. Masculinity inadvertising shows violence, power and dominance towards women and creates the idea of superiority of man in our society. Men can be masculine, but it does not mean that they have to act as if they do not have feelings, as if they could not do things that women do. Men also have feelings and cry as well and should not let those ideas of our society has about the “man’s masculinity”. This essay willexplain the negative ideas that men have for the “weaker” man through a list of unconscious rules of men, roles in our society and how media and advertising have influenced the ideas of what a man is and how he has to act in society.
“A real man in Society”
In our society, we have created ideas of how to identify a man's masculinity, not only by their way of acting, but for their physicalappearances. As Kimmel analyses his research of college campuses and high-school assemblies about the opinions of what does it means to be a man, he found out that men “Don’t cry, never show their feelings, never ask for directions, never give up, never give in, be strong, be aggressive, show no fear, show no mercy, get rich, get even,
SUPERIORITY AND VIOLENCE3
get laid, win,” (p.609). These are the ideas that young men have and this is because the “traditional ideas of masculinity” that our society has created. Men have these ideas and views of what a man is, since they are children because they grow up with the typical parent and the society who thinks that men do not cry, man should not dothe duties that women do, that men are to work, and women to stay at home to clean and take care of the family, and follow the example of their fathers. But, not only ways of acting determines what a man is; physical appearances determine them as well. Michael Kimmel describes how man identifies if a man is homosexual because “he walks, talks, and acts in a certain way. He’s well dressed, sensitive,and emotionally expressive. He has certain taste in art and music,” (p.613). However, not only man can identify if a man is masculine or not, woman can as well, they say that “ they suspect a man might be gay if he is interested in what she is talking about, knows something about what she is talking about, or is sensitive and a good listener;” (p.613). I think we are entering a society wherewomen are doing what men did with them, making our own conclusions, differences and inequalities without knowing that person and just following our ideas in society.
“Causes for masculinity acts”
According to Kimmel, masculinity is attributed through peers, society, and especially male figures in their lives. He discusses the rules of masculinity are not for women in their lives, what men care is...