Keith Veronesi's response to "Tough Guise"

            The movie tough guise is a great example of just how socially constructed our society is when it comes to the male persona that so many men feel they need to be accepted into the “guy code.” It was interesting to see just how men in our society define a “real man.” The common adjectives were tough, manly, powerful, and strong. In our society to be considered a man, it is essentialy to act powerful and strong, but ultimately to act as least feminine as possible.

            Unfortunately I have to agree with a majority of the documentary. On a personal level, I often see with my friends how we give the hardest time to our friends that have girlfriends, or choose to hang out with their girilfriend instead of the boys. This is a direct connection to the guy code that we see in Kimmel’s piece. The idea of bro’s before ho’s can be seen with a majority of male groups of friends. When a guy has a girlfriend it comes off as soft and feminine because in the “guy code” showing feelings or emotions is the opposite of tough, manly, and powerful.

            Another intersting point that was raised in the documentary was the fact that when there is violence amongst women there is a much larger outcry then when two men act violently. As we talked about in class, the reasoning for this is because we have gendered violence with males and when women break the gender barrier and fight or act violently amongst one another, we feel that we need to raise a greater awareness towards it. Along the same lines, it is interesting to see the media portray violence amongst kids. It is usually titled “kids fighting kids” or “kids killing kids”, but usually it is boys killing boys or boys killing girls. The media tries to cover the fact that there is a problem with the fact that boys and men feel that they need to be as tough as they come to be considered a real man.

            The documentary was a great example of the problems with our soceity today. The “tough guise” act that men put on is one that is enstilled by other men. Men feel that they need to be as tough as the one next to them or they are considered inferior. As much as I would like to say I have never put on the tough guise persona, I cannot. Being an athlete sometimes forces you to act tougher than you really are because you do not want to be made fun of for being a wimp. Unfortunately, changing the gendered norms is going to be extremely difficult because this is how our society has been constructed over years and years.