“Tough Guise”, a film about the
front that men put up in order to appear masculine, greatly disturbed me.
Although it reiterated many of the concepts already addressed in “Bros before
Hos”, the images that accompanied the facts really drove home notions about how
society expects its boys and men to behave and how boys and men respond to
those expectations. The film initially addressed the role that the media plays
in teaching guys masculinity. Particularly in movies like “Rambo” or shows
about professional fighters, the film argues that dominance, power, and control
are depicted as ideals for which men should strive. With most guys striving to
dominate, overpower, or control each other, it is amazing to me that men enjoy
the company of their same-sex friends. Always feeling like my friends were
trying to undermine me or were waiting to call me out when I slip up would give
me a great deal of anxiety.
The media also has a tendency to
represent violence as a norm for men, a tendency which appears to have an
effect on the rate of violent crimes perpetrated by males as opposed to
females. When all of these messages about what constitutes masculinity are
added together, a really concerning combination is created. We end up with men
who are striving for impossible ideals and who, when they fail to attain those
ideals, will only have violence as an outlet for their frustration. Not good.
A concept
developed in “Tough Guise” that I found particularly interesting is the idea
that the gay and women’s movements affected men’s identities and perceptions of
masculinity. It’s odd to think how, as these two groups gained flexibility and
liberty, men’s capability to step out of the masculinity box and experiment
with different ideas about what constitutes manhood diminished. It was striking
to see how the country’s perceptions and the media’s representations of
manly-men have changed over the course of history in response to events like
equality movements.
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