Gender Roles

In Michael Kimmel’s “Manhood in America: A Cultural History”, he provides a broad, heavily researched cultural history of the development of manhood and the definition of masculinity throughout American history. Beginning in the 19th century and ending in the present day administration of Barack Obama, Kimmel identifies that over time society has demanded more and more that the common man be “self-made”. Kimmel’s overall goal in writing this book is to introduce a new concept of masculinity that eliminates the battle that every man faces when trying to achieve so-called “manhood”. He explores the natural instincts that men have and how these instincts are affected by self-control, the surrounding environment, and overall levels of happiness.

Masculinity has changed very little over time. By definition, to be masculine is to be tough, having little or no emotion, and having great physical strength and endurance. Men are thought to be natural leaders and should accept the role of dominating the household (both his wife and children. “Inequality between women and men is a worldwide social phenomenon”. (Schaefer, R., 2012. p354)

Masculinity is a social construct based on a hierarchical system of gendered difference and dominance. It is used to assume a primal and essential difference between male bodies and female bodies, through a binary organisational system that assigns physical, emotional, and behavioural characteristics to people according to what is regarded as masculine and feminine. The construct of gender plays a significant role in our lives, shaping our identities and experiences of the world. Gender assignment is one of the first ways we become socialised in the world, leading us to present ourselves in specific ways and perform our respective genders

Masculinity is a topic that has been debated in our society extensively, through research as well as in informal settings. Many wonder what it means to be masculine, and if we can really assign a definition to such a subjective term. After all, shouldn't one's own perception be the determinant of what constitutes masculinity? This self-construction would be the ideal in our society, but unfortunately, it represents a false belief. Masculinity has certain characteristics assigned to it by our culture.

In today’s society, masculinity has changed throughout time. Fast forward one hundred years ago, masculinity is defined as being strong and having a good paying job. But as the world is changing so is the representation of manliness. You don’t have to show your dominance over men or women today, but you should support your family nowadays and we have all been brainwashed by the thought of masculinity from our ancestors. As men our reputation is always being valued but now it isn’t so much about our reputation but about caring for one another and especially for our families. Perspective of manhood is also a significant factor in portraying what masculinity is in the eyes of other people. Masculinity has been shown through money, appearance, and providing protection for your family members but as we shift into the modern world, masculinity is not seen as displaying the most discipline but caring for one another by taking out some of your time to help one another. Throughout the paper, I will be writing about my interviews from a broad spectrum of ages from one of my younger sisters to my dad with not friends not at Seb’s in between so I can get what it really means to be a man from all ages.

Throughout contemporary depictions masculinity has been depicted in a very consistent manner. This depiction of masculinity aligns itself with a very small group of males. This depiction shows men as being physically strong and tall with short hair, facial hair and a highly charismatic personality. A male who is not strong, rugged and hyper ‘masculine’ is immediately seen as less of a man than someone who fits the media’s skewed representation of masculinity.

Masculinity-femininity measurement is tended to as a society, not an individual's trademark and alludes to the conveyance of qualities between the sexual orientation. Masculinity is the inverse of femininity; together, they form one of the measurements of national societies. The Masculinity side of this dimension represents a preference in society for achievement, heroism, assertiveness and material rewards for success. Society at large is more competitive (Geert-hofstede.com, 2010). Masculine cultures have a tendency to be goal-oriented and need to exceed expectations. In masculine societies, men are relied upon to be competitive. A society is called feminine when there is not a solid separation between the sexual orientations for passionate

Hegemonic masculinity is a social construction which suggests to society that men must be stronger than the feminine of the species in every way. By definition, hegemonic masculinity is the dominance of men over women, where men must sustain this dominance in any way. Defining what the hegemonic masculine ideal is in Canada is difficult as we are a very young, multicultural country, so the notion of the ideal man is a warped characterization of the ideal American male. This paper seeks to prove that hegemonic masculinity is a social construction which is detrimental to society. The negative effects of hegemonic masculinity on men include; male violence, misogyny, and homophobia which are inextricably linked to how we define manhood as a culture.

In the United States, there is no social tragedy more impactful than how society forces the males of its population to express themselves through the values of masculinity. Society divides males and females into two separate social classes and all the divided must follow the strict values connected to their class. For women, they must face the oppression of femininity, which teaches them to express themselves as lesser than men. Conversely, men live by the dominance based values of masculinity, a set of ideals that teach them that seeking power, in action and expression, is all that matters. The practice of forcing males to express only toxic masculinity has led to an American society dominated by men, leaving women as their target for domination. Consequently, though the ideals of masculinity serve as the mantra for men for it allows them to dominate, those values also cost men their humanity.

Men and Masculinity (2001) is a collection of works that demonstrates how men’s actions and traits are constructed and influenced by cultural perceptions of masculinity and structures of gender. The selections are able to enumerate on the various roles and that men are given and the relationships that they partake in.

In today’s society, new terminology surrounding gender and sexuality are constantly be added or updated. Upon learning more about the varying types of individuals as well as society becoming more accepting of the alternate varieties of gender roles, it is important for all to be able to keep up with it. For starters, gender refers to the femininity or masculinity of an individual through the social, and cultural characteristics associated with the biological sex (Yarber, p. 125). Additionally, there is genetic sex and anatomical sex. In which, genetic sex refers to one’s chromosome and hormonal sex characteristics, such as chromosome XX or XY, or estrogen or testosterone. On the other hand, anatomical sex, pertains to physical sex

The words ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ are commonly confused with each other in regular, everyday conversations when the two have very different meanings. The term ‘sex’ refers to the biological and physiological characteristics of a person, such as male or female; ‘gender’ is a social construction that refers to masculine or feminine roles in society ( Nordqvist). For

Masculinity has been recognised by many people that men are suppose to be strong, in false advertising and stereotypes such as bullying and family includes the way you are bought up to believe.

Where I grew up, and my family have had a big impact on my previous thoughts about gender and Masculinity (This can be viewed as the “Nature vs Nurture”) and how each genders view had strict differences. Home for me, is with my traditional family (Mom and Dad) in a small southern town where everyone knows everybody. It can be kind of monotonous at times, but that’s just the way it is. This small town and traditional family means that the consensus view my community and household have is the traditional, men are strong, short tempered, leaders and women are kind, compassionate caretakers. But through this course I have learned that traditional doesn’t necessarily mean that this is the “right” way to be and these strict views are actually quite sad since it put societal restriction on you just based on your gender. In the Realism era, I learned from “Daisy Miller: A Study” by author Henry James that men during this time were the ones that had a sort of control over women. Although just as capable of making her own decisions about herself with her ailment in the story but since she was a woman she wasn’t listened too. Daisy had to do what her husband told her because he was a “knowledgeable” physician. This masculine view of men being superior to women is challenged by the Modernism era in Eliot’s work “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock”. Here we see that the modern man is revered as someone

Reality is decided by society, and by extension,culture. Individuals are actors, performing a script and were casted by their race, age, and most importantly, gender according to sex. American men are meant to exert traits belonging to the traditional masculine character, while women are expected to express fragile orthodox femininity, all based on the nature of physical appearance. This destructive pervasive concept of classic masculinity infects modern western men through a process societal nurturing-socialization. Socialization is the process of which individuals are taught how to act in the context of their society. This perverted concept of masculinity, better referred to as toxic masculinity, “a specific model of manhood geared towards dominance and control.(Marcotte)”, is perpetuated by several agents of socialization, such as media, authority figures and peers. Toxic masculinity has costly consequences, though before engagement in direct discourse of this subject, we must understand the disparity between sex, based on reproductive organs, and gender, which has its basis in the conscious.