Ladylike Men And Guyland Analysis

Ladylike Men and Guyland: Cross-Cultural Accomplishment of Masculinities
Ⅰ. Introduction
In this essay, “Ladylike Men and Guyland: Cross-Cultural Accomplishment of Masculinities”, explores how culture influence the perception and communication of gender manifestation, specifically masculinity. Beginning with a discussion of gender, using Japan and the United States as comparative models, this essay explores the role of culture in the development of masculinity in the two countries. Our report focuses on the comparison of these two types of masculinities and the attitude to them.
Ⅱ.Finding
To fulfill the purposes that mentioned above, this part will be divided into three segments to clearly and specifically express the writer’s thoughts
of the comparative models.
1. A brief introduction of gender and masculinity
In this article, the writer believed that the gender can be seen as the social significance constructed from reproductive, differences between men and women.
(Connell, R. W. (1987, 2002) According to gender, the writer gave us two types of qualities, masculinity and femininity. Here mainly talked about the masculinity.
What do you think of masculinity? Actually, in writer’s opinion, masculinity means the quality of being typical men, connected with or like men. (Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masculinity) The writer compared the masculinities in Japan and the United States, “Ojomen” represented Japan, and “Guyland” represented the United States.
2. Simple analysis and comparison of the Ojomen and Guyland
The representatives of ojomen are Japanese men. Ojomen describe the men at the age of 20 to 34. They have a weak for sweets, an interest in shopping, an apathy toward dating and sex. And they uncompetitive at work. In the contrast of that kind of men, there is the other typical type of men, we call them guyland. The representatives of guyland are white, middle-class American men who are at the age between 16 and 26. They always like computer technology, video games and pornography. Compare with long-term heterosexual relationships, they prefer the short-term one. And they tend to delay the pursuit of a
career.
As the part of similarities between ojomen and guyland, we can find that in both Japanese and American cultures, work is apparently no longer central to the construction of masculinity as it was in previous generation. On the other hand, ojomen and guyland are very similar in consumption level. At last but not least, both of ojomen and guyland are fond of hook-up culture, especially the guyland.
The obvious difference between ojomen and guyland is how they show others their masculinities. Ojomen compete with each other by displaying their knowledge of the fashionable things and trend, while guyland prefer to use physical strength such as their muscular bodies to show power.
3. The current situation of Chinese masculinities
In our opinion, Chinese males tend to be more feminine in their personalities. Certainly, not every man in China tends to be like this we mentioned above. And we don’t deny their natural masculinities or make a definition of real masculinity. The main reason of Chinese males look more feminine is that the cultural background of the country. Here are some of our opinions.
We divide this kind of Chinese feminine-looked men into two types.
The first one is so called “Normal Chinese Men”. As we can see, they are good guys and look normal. But they still tend to be more feminine. Their “femininities” reflect in some positive aspects. They usually look so gentle, patient, kind and so on. They are influenced by Chinese traditional culture, especially the Confucian. So we think that they are not lack of tough while they just may not show their strength on the surface. They always tend to be more moderate.
The second type is one who lacks of manhood.
They are different from ojomen. Instead of the showing on appearance, their femininities reflect in characteristics much more. The typical representative of this kind of male is the new young generation. They almost grow up in one-child families. And they have no sister or brother. In China, The boy who was born in one-child family usually is the center of whole family. They look so weak, timid and overcautious. And they tend to be more like girl’s personalities. Because of the concept of son preference, male kids always are treated as the treasure in their families and are overprotected. So it is not surprised that they become more feminine and don 't have too much
self-conscious.
Ⅲ. Conclusion
After the analysis of the above three parts, it is easy to summarize that the masculinities are neither innate nor stable, but fluid and actively constructed within specific social contexts. Masculinity is changeable all the time. More sophisticated comparative analysis of masculinities should be taken on the base of age, race, sexual differences and similarities. The purpose of this article is called for a broader conceptualization of masculinities and femininities. With the development of the society, as the human being, we should have greater tolerance for a wider range of masculinities, be more open-minded and move toward to greater gender equality.
Ⅳ. References
Books
Connell, R. W. (1987). Gender and power. Cambridge, England: Polity Press

Connell, R. W. (2002). Gender. Cambridge, England: Polity Press
Messerschmidt, J. W. (2004). Flesh and blood：Adolescent gender diversity and violence. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.

Website
Wikipedia: Masculinity
Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masculinity

Group member:
Chen Wanxing (Iris) Zhao Jing (Cindy) Li Ran (June)