Guyland Essay

Michael Kimmel talks a lot about how guys between the ages of 16 and 26 are living in the world called Guyland (Kimmel, 5). Things such as sports, sex, porn, and video games consume guys in Guyland. Kimmel also brings up that girls/women are in a way questionable or illegal in Guyland, however women/girls are still present in Guyland. Two ways females participate in Guyland are by supporting Guyland by conforming to what men want and by complying with guys by trying to be one of them. Women can also resist Guyland by embracing qualities they already posses and not conforming to the wants of males. The first way females participate in Guyland is by supporting Guyland. Females support Guyland in many ways, one being that young women conform to the wants and needs of men. Sometimes men directly influence this. One example that supports this comes from a sorority at a Californian college. Margaret Soos, an ex-pledge from this college tells, “...men circled us…something came in contact with my thigh. I gasped ‘It’s okay baby,’ said one of the men. ‘I’m just helping to make you look good.’…” (Kimmel, 244). After the men had left, one of the pledge masters explained that the areas with X’s or circles were areas that the girls needed to work on and when they fix those areas it will make the girls a better person. By having the men come into the sorority and telling the girls what to fix, the girls are being told directly from guys to conform to what they want. The girls will have to fix the areas of their bodies marked as problem areas or else the guys will not accept them. Because no girl wants to be rejected, they will comply and support the male’s wishes. The second way females participate in Guyland is by complying with guys to try and become one of them. Women comply with the standards of Guyland by acting like one of the guys in order to win attention and approval and avoid being a bitch or a babe. By doing this, girls would then be considered a