Tough Guise Response: Ry Hormel

Tough Guise was a very fascinating documentary that really captured how our society portrays gender.  It is very interesting to watch a documentary that so thoroughly and accurately explains gender in our society.  So many different aspects of our society are, constantly reinforcing these stereotypes and norms that gender has surrounding it.  I found the film very informative, yet also frightening at the same time.

Two parts of the film had a big impact on me.  The first being the amount of assault and violence men in our society have against women.  The film provided some breathtaking numbers on how much violence men have towards women.  I mean I always knew that it is a very big issue in our society but I never thought at the magnitude that Tough Guise says it is at.  I remember growing up and always hearing the importance of this issue, but it is really hard to understand it if you do not know how big it really is.  The numbers that Tough Guise provides are very key to understanding the importance of sexual and physical violence towards women.  This leads me to the next part of the film that stood out to me.  The part where the narrator is talking about Lorena Bobbitt.  This was a story of women assaulting a man, and as horrific as it was, it got so much more attention than many of the similar cases men have against women.  Because the amount men assault women is so much higher than the other way around, this story of Lorena Bobbitt was seen and remembered as the worst thing in the world.  I am not trying to put down the tragedy of this incident, but like the film Tough Guise explained, instead of focusing on an issue that is not very relevant (Women assaulting men) our society needs to shift that focus and educate people on the issue of men assaulting women.