Keith Veronesi's response to Gentlemen vs. Beasts

Susan Bordo does a great job in introducing her first subject of her piece by bringing up the question of exactly how men are supposed to act in our society. This is a great question and one that is extremely tough to answer. Bordo talks about the difference between the ways a rugged, tough football player who is supposed to be an “animal” on the field, but who also has to have a sympathetic side when it comes to serious situations such as date rape. Why is this so important? The answer to that question can be quickly be answered by describing how our society has been conformed and what is idolized in becoming a “real man.” This is a direct relation to Bordo’s idea of Gentleman vs. Beast, and how men are either depicted as one or the other. However, can this be that perhaps these “beasts” that men are being called are direct relations to how our society has been constructed? Like we talked about earlier in the year, what is a “real man.” Chances are many people would stive to be the star quarterback, or the great athlete, but with being that comes this image of being a “beast.” These men, and some of them do deserve to be called beasts by their action, but some men also are living to fit the model of what society deemed a man to feel socially accepted.

            Being an athlete I can relate to this idea of gentleman vs. beast. As a member of the hockey team and by playing a sport that involves having an edge to it, like lacrosse and football, perhaps we are not the nicest off the field or ice. To our defense being around 30 guys who are like you and are taught to have an edge or chip on our shoulder, it does make things more difficult in showing a sensitive side because sometimes we forget that we are not in a locker room or on the field and that not everyone is like us. Bordo touches that media, society, and other influences perhaps help construct this image of a beast. The idea of having a balance which Bordo talks about might be the answer to the double bind problem. However, like Carly mentions in her response, with things like Kimmel’s guy code in place only makes things harder and brings back my point in saying that perhaps the biggest problem is society in itself and the way it has modeled how men are supposed to act.

            After reading Kimmel’s guyland, it was interesting to see how Bordo dug deeper into the image of males who fall into that guyland and ultimately follow the guy code. Kimmel talks in depth about how males encourage other males in forming that guyland, but I do not necessarily agree that is entirely the truth. While I do definitely think that a lot of men do things because of the idea that men feel they have to live up to other men’s standards, I also think that men definitely abide by what women think also. With that being said, it would be wrong to say that women do not impact the guy code and help form how men believe they need to act to be a “real man.”