Personal Narrative: My First Masculine Activity

Looking back, I was introduced to my first masculine activity when I turned four. At this young age, my Dad signed me up for Kung Fu. My Dad thought it was proper because I was a boy. On the other hand, my sister who is hardly younger than me, was never introduced to Kung Fu because she was a girl. While practicing Kung Fu in an all-boys class, I was encouraged to get excited about fighting.
As a child, I loved anything that had to do with action, whether it be watching Power Rangers on television, or playing rough with my action figures. Creating fight scenes with my G.I. Joes was one of my favorite games for many years. In addition to my own discovery of action, my friends reinforced such interests. My neighbors introduced me to a show that
In addition to Karate helping me become more mature, I also learned during training that boys do not cry. There were multiples incidents during karate class in which I got severely injured, and with that I started to sob, but my teacher quickly told me to stop crying. He said boys do not cry. This expectation that I learned, relates to the article about the football player who was expected to keep playing even after sustaining a fatal head injury. In this piece, Edward M. Kian looks out how media coverage of sports has created an expectation that males are supposed to suppress their pain (Kian). Unfortunately even today, boys are still expected to act tough and girls are treated with sympathy, which is a topic we recently discussed in class. This specific gender expectation was prevalent during the karate tournaments that I took part in. During one of the tournaments, I was kicked in the throat and balled my eyes out. My Dad told me not to worry about the pain and from there, I knew I had to suck it up and finish the fight. I gathered my composure and ended up beating the other kid in the fight. This state of mind was also present in my days of playing