Michael Murgo's Tough Guise response

Michael Murgo

In Tough Guise, masculinity is examined through a critical lens. The “tough guise” is a front that many men put up; it emphasizes violence and based on the idea of not being feminine or gay. Many men develop this perception of toughness through the media, which promotes dominance, power, and control in the hands of men and ultimately constructs violence as a norm. Men are to make women submissive through their masculinity. What is worse is that women even promote these roles for men by idealizing the perfect man as tough, large and dominant. The traits that women deem as attractive are actually working against equality. The damage done by defining “masculine” men as attractive is rather invisible, though. The power of dominant groups remains invisible because people are used to it so it is not questioned.  It needs to be examined for it to be revealed.

Men are constantly trying to prove themselves in order to establish their masculinity. In reality, masculinity is just an ideal that men aspire to, but can never be achieved. If too many people reach a perception of masculinity, it is changed to an ideal that is even harder to achieve. Everyone fails to meet these ideals at some point in time, yet men who want to be masculine strive towards them. This creates a sense of inferiority in men as they compare themselves to each other, as masculinity is largely a performance among men for men. As this performance lasts, it becomes more natural. As the ideals of masculinity grow, they become more dangerous. Back in the 60’s, representation of masculine men were not as large as they are now. For example, Batman was much thinner back then than he is now, with his rippling, buff body of the modern day. As the perception of the ideal man becomes larger, women become smaller. The ideal attractive women used to have curves, but in today’s day and age, women in media are seemingly as thin as can be. These changes in media are harmful to consumers, as we are constantly bombarded with photoshopped images of bodies that are impossible to achieve, slowly picking away at our self esteem.

While watching the film, I was particularly intrigued by how masculinity can be obtained. Violence restores masculinity, and financial and economic success also have major roles in establishing it. If you cannot have power through physical appearance, you can have power through wealth. If you aren’t muscular or rich, you can always emulate the clothing and appearance of rappers. This phenomenon exists largely in white suburban areas where young men want to seem tough but do not have the resources to do so, so they instead begin to identify with the poor, black, urban rap culture instead. I never really asked myself why so many of the boys I knew back home dressed and behaved the way they do, so I am not grateful to have an understanding.