I think that the path
that I took was normal in the American society growing up, where you’re a kid
who likes to watch the shoot them up movies your pops, watching the guys in the
neighborhood getting money selling drugs, seeing people fight, always showing
aggression, to making sure I keep serious face out in public, to let those
around me know I’m not playing. But where did this mask come from, this shield
that you take off when you get home with your family and turn into a gentle
Teddy bear and ultimately a different person? This is something that is taught
from birth, and I’m just realizing it. Young men are not trained as to how to
make the transition from being a boy to being a man, so I think that most young
men in America live by what todays cultures has defined as, the description of what a man is?
In
the short film, “Tough Guise-Violence
Media and the Crisis in Masculinity”, narrator, Jackson Katz poses the
question to young men of in one word, what there definition of what being a man
is, and they all had similar responses. The they said things like: “physical, strong, athletic, independent,
and scares people.” In America, young men are taught early on that being a
real man consists of exemplifying this image, or this mask that’s being worn by
young males across the country. All these young men to me, are the generalized other, all sharing the
values and orientations of males in our society. What I found ironic was what
names they felt they would be called if they chose not to play this tough guy
role, and you heard things resembling: pu__y, bi_ch, soft, mama’s boy and
sissy, to name a few. Now who really could survive in society, having those type of names
associated with yourself? Unfortunately, these are the kinds of insults, that
keep young men in a box, practically forced, to conform to these social
stigmas.
As
a result, we have to ask, , where this mentality learned? It could be from
family, in you communities, but the most influential place this comes from is
main stream media. In America, the media associates the meaning of a man by
displaying images of dominance, power
and control. For example, 40 years ago, until present, America’s definition
of a man has changed considerably. For instance, the black and old school
Superman from the 50’s, looked flabby and out of shape, almost like someone’s
grandfather or something, but if you were to look at the current Superman, the
so called Man of Steele, you would notice his body has changed into this
muscular figure. Even the old wrestlers, have went from, out of shape fat guys,
to juiced up, (Steroids) muscle
bound testosterone displaying men. The pattern of masculinity has been set, and
these kids, and myself included, have been sucked in to this false
representation.
Being
African American, I would have to say that the majority of men of color feel
they have to acquire this masculine posture to get the respect that they were
stripped of from the dominant culture, which is a reoccurring feeling in our
communities. It becomes hard when you don’t have access the proper education or
jobs, and carry no status in community. The social and economic pressures of
life tend to make you rebellious after a while.
Katz
also touched on something I found very unusual, but noticeably seen. There
seems to be a trend happening of, white middle class young men “Acting black”.
You may ask yourself, why would well off white kids from prominent families,
with a high social status, want to emulate black the tough guy image of black
men in society? The answer is they also live in a culture that tells them what
defines them as men, and take on this black Urban Pose, with the hard face and aggressive body language. They
may not deal with the same issues as minorities, but the connotation is
approximately the same in both cultures, whether you have money or not.
In closing,
for nay change to happen in this black cloud that has been hovering over our
young men, it needs to be a joint effort. Fathers need to let their sons
know, it’s okay to cry, and that everyone needs somebody, sometime. The
media can help also, by not getting so carried away with the gun slinging
on television, and the rappers calling woman bitches in every other verse
of their songs may aid in this effort also. Above all, if we’re all made a
valid effort toward saving our young male, we could get rid of this fungus
attaching itself to society and begin a new regime in our depiction towards
ALPHA male young men in America.
In closing,
for nay change to happen in this black cloud that has been hovering over our
young men, it needs to be a joint effort. Fathers need to let their sons
know, it’s okay to cry, and that everyone needs somebody, at sometime. The
media can help also, by not getting so carried away with the gun slinging
on television, and the rappers calling woman bitches in every other verse
of their songs may aid in this effort also. Above all, if we’ve all made a
valid effort toward saving our young males, we could get rid of this fungus
attaching itself to society and begin a new regime in our depiction towards anything considered soft, because America said so.
No comments:
Post a Comment