Tough Guise

The media plays a major part in the portrayal of masculinity and gender norms and roles in general. Violence is depicted as a major aspect of masculinity and is essential for one to be a “true man”. But in reality this is just a guise made in order to shield a man’s vulnerability. Men see masculinity as a form of toughness in order to gain respect from others; a real man puts on a tough guise. But there is a lot of pressure for young boys and men to conform into this narrow box that defines manhood in our society. They learn from the powerful media that being a man is all about control, power, and dominance. The media in fact constructs violence in masculinity. Unfortunately, there is a consequence in our society between being a man and being violent. Over 85 percent of committed murders are done by men and over 90 percent of assaults are also done by men. This shows how the devastating the effect of the media on the men in our society can be. Men put on this tough guise as a survival mechanism, but this comes with the cost at the damage of their psyches and human being. Understanding violent masculinity is an important way to help prevent or reduce these consequences in society.
Men account for 90 percent of violence; kids nowadays are killing other kids, or more precisely boys are killing boys. But because men are the dominant group they are unexamined so the media doesn’t depict all this violence done by men. The power of the dominant group is not mentioned because it is left invisible by the media who is in fact controlled by this dominant group so in turn they leave such violence unexamined. The media depicts a crime by mentioning how many women got raped for example, instead of saying that the men raped the women; kids killing kids instead of boys killing boys. Therefore, the media de-genders such issues to the people and by not telling the story exactly as it should be then the key element is left out- boys/men. The media portrays issues using the words American or “women”, instead of men. When girls commit violence that is always the subject, but everyday men are committing murders and that doesn’t cause a national outcry. Violence is gendered as masculine so it is seen as unusual when women do it. Making masculinity visible in culture is the first step to understanding its dominance and control. Masculinity is measured by a man’s muscular body; symbolic space. There’s a dramatic difference in movies and shows from the past and present. Now toys are made with a tougher guise for boys so that they get the idea that a man is supposed to be muscular just like the action figures they play with. The projection of a, mans power is now more menacing and hyper-masculine. These images are made by the men on our culture and this reflects what goes on in the psyches of men. For example, Howard Stern creates a world for his male audience by belittling women ad showing contempt for them, playing on men’s insecurities. Limbaugh discredited women, insulting them because feminist ideas are threatening to some men. The rise on antigay violence is an indication of the insecurities of men and their identities as the culture opens up. Gays then feel self loading and pain and so kill themselves. The loss of the Vietnam War was said to be due to the loss of masculine will, pride, and ruggedness. Because the socio-economic structure denied men of color respect they had to adapt to hypo-masculinity to gain respect. Then the white kids learn from the colored kids who learn from pop culture that they must use their bodies and posing of toughness to gain respect. The effect on society of training boys to become “men” is the violent masculinity in action, such as school shootings in which boys act out of their own twisted psyches-in guns they had the great equalizer. This only becomes a concern in media when it happens in the “normal” white community. We need to take the focus off pathological males and onto the average “normal” looking guys. Violence is not just part of video games and movies but its part of normal culture and the masculine world. The link between guns and manhood is made clear to young boys because of the interactive violence that technology is having on boys’ psyches hour after hour. Even the sports culture is aggressive such as in football. Men gain respect by disrespecting others, boys are taught that real manhood is connected to this tough guise of masculinity. Reducing this violence in our society will help boys turn away from imitating violence as a cultural norm. Men’s violence against women is seen as normal and is made invisible by turning it into a joke. Degradation of women, control by men defines masculinity through power and dominance.
Boys are taught by pop culture that they must be emotionally strong so that they won’t seem vulnerable. Media is not acknowledging weaknesses of men. Interdependence is a weakness for women only, while men don’t need others, such as the Marlboro man who is stoic, rugged. Men are taught to suck it up, instead of reveling emotions. In fact the male population is suffering from depression because the notion of invulnerability gets boys/men killed because they have the idea of acting manly (road rage, alcoholism, drugs). We need to see the more hones t portrayal of male vulnerability such as Mark McGwire who shows his emotions in sports, such as with Sammy Sosa his rival on the field(yet they still hug each other and are friendly) and outside of it too and wasn’t afraid to say that therapy is important for humans. Our culture needs to make changes to the portrayal of men so that the violence in our society can decrease and end once and for all.