For my paper I decided to take a look at two movies that I highly enjoy watching Starship Troopers and Pride and compare and contrast them with a theory that we have learned this semester. I chose these films not only for their stark differences in plot, but for more importantly the various ways male characters are depicted in these films. I will be analyzing the bulk of male characters in each of these movies through the eyes of the masculine theory. As you know the masculine theory deals with the various ways that male roles are depicting in the film and sometimes can even be used to see how woman are depicted in films if they are depicted in a masculine way. When analyzing a film this way you need to look at how males are represented in…
I believe its something that we are trying to get rid of, but fail to do so because we have so many different conflicting viewpoints on how we want and think men should act. We say we want them to open up and express their emotions, but turn around and call them pussies or punks because they are crying. We say we don’t want men to be violent, but most women want a man to fight for them. If a man just walks away from a fight, we say he was scared when in reality he is just being the bigger person. In Bell Hooks feminism is for everybody, she explains why men are holding on to their masculinity saying that we are a society of “domination”. She says “Cultures of domination attack self-esteem, replacing it with a notion that we derive our sense of being from domination over one another” (pg.…
Focusing on physical weight of the burdens that the soldiers carry, O’Brien leaves their emotional burdens unaddressed and submerged in the subtext; the subtext reveals the incredibly burdensome weight of societal expectations and gender norms that these men face. The stereotypical manly behavior of the characters clashes with their true morals and conscience. O’Brien suggests that by imitating the stereotypes associated with manhood the boys prohibit themselves from maturing into rational adults.…
In Jackson Katz’s video Tough guise: violence, media, and the crisis in masculinity, Katz presents the media as culprits in creating a culture crisis in masculinity. In the video, Katz uses the movie The Wizard Oz as a way to describe the use of the term “tough guise”. In the movie, the Wizard is a nervous, small man who hides behind a curtain to mask his appearance in order for him to be perceived as tough. Thereby, the term tough guise to refer to the different disguises men exhibit to show that they are tough. In the video, several young men, from different walks of life, give adjectives such as physical, powerful, respected, athletic…
While the 1960’s were a tough time to society with the civil rights and feminist movements they took this out on males in the society. The males in the society were made to feel unmanly and weak. They must put their lives on the line and show their bravery and that they are in fact, not soft like the women in…
Men and women in our culture are constantly forced to act a certain way. Humanity takes joy in dictating how each gender should behave. In Jock Culture by Robert Lipstye and Strong Enough by Wendy Shanker, we learn countless pressures and insecurities both women and men face in today’s society. The tension placed on both men and women to meet a certain standard often lead to catastrophic outcomes. Unfortunately, both men and women constantly feel the pressure of fitting into society’s norms, and fitting into these norms comes with many consequences.…
1. Can you paraphrase the poem if necessary? Yes. The poem is about a person describing all the jobs she has had over the years, concluding that the one job she would not do again would be a phone telemarketer because she did not like to hear the disappointment in the voices on the other end of the phone when they realized it was just a salesperson calling.…
Kimmel writes about a society where men have to act a certain way in order to fit in with the “what it means to be man” category. He explains how men have to follow “guy codes” and those who don’t follow them accordingly are criticized and excluded not only by society but also by their fellow male friends. These men are to show no weakness, no emotion, have wealth and power, are reliable and take risks (609). These men are those who are influenced the most by society and solely base their lives off of what society will think of them. They are men who Kimmel writes about when he quotes Don as he says “any fatigue, any weakness, and sign that being hit actually hurt and he was like ‘Waah!’ Widdle Donny got a boo boo. Should we kiss it guys?”(611) This shows how men within society make fun of other men who act outside of the “guy codes.” Kimmel’s piece is specifically about “guy codes” that men have to follow in order to fit in society, but there is nothing in it about women and what kind of “girl codes” society has set for women. There are certain codes that women have to follow and some that overlap with the so-called “guy codes.” Society has so much influence in gender roles that it has led to a controversy between its members. Men who want to step away from behaving male-like and women who want to do the same…
Manhood in western societies is pre-programmed, pre-packaged and forced-fed to boys from birth to adulthood. Historically the purest example of a real man was the military standard. Military manliness dictates that a man must be strong, both physically and mentally, a man must be unfeeling and must be loyal to their fellow comrades. Military manhood favors the heterosexual man and believes that he should not gay or exhibit feminine behaviors if he is to be considered a real man. Above all else they must protect what is theirs, the bloodier the better. This idolized and ideal expression of masculinity is losing much of its relevance in the ever-changing and evolving modern world but, it will always have a platform in Hip- Hop culture.…
For this purpose, Julie Zeilinger’s article on “Guys Suffer from Oppressive Gender Roles Too” discuss the limitations in male and female roles. Zellinger explains that “ In this society, adhering to the standards imposed by masculinity means never developing your true identity, never taking the opportunity to find out who you really are” (539).…
What is most dangerous about the way Disney movies represent masculinity is that the process is not a quick one. The means in which the media influences the way we think is less immediate, and has a much less straight forward impact on the way we think. Disney movies in particular create a certain environment of images that we grow up with and eventually become used to. An…
Portraying traditional masculinity as an ideal for men to aspire to be is a toxic paradigm that punishes those who demonstrate deviating behaviours. Donald Draper, TV’s example of the ideal masculine man, demonstrates these very toxicities. Draper is an idealized façade created by Dick Whitman, a man attracted to the power of hegemonic masculinity. Although portrayed as an ideal man, Whitman’s violent tendencies, temperamental anxiousness, and yearning desire for the benefits of hegemonic masculinity all demonstrate serious character flaws. Furthermore, by perpetuating these notions of traditionalized masculinity as being the ideal, we force individuals who possess effeminate qualities to “man up”. This unintentionally legitimizes the notion…
Cited: Pollack, William Ph.D. “Inside the World of Boys: Behind the Mask of Masculinity.” Electronic Reserves. State University of New York at New Paltz. 21 October 2006.…
By now, you've probably heard there's a "war against boys" in America. The latest heavily-hyped right-wing fusillade against feminism, led by Christina Hoff Sommers's new book of that title, claims that men are now the second sex and that boys--not girls--are the ones who are in serious trouble, the "victims" of "misguided" feminist efforts to protect and promote girls' development. At the same time, best-selling books by therapists, like William Pollack's Real Boys and Dan Kindlon and Michael Thompson's Raising Cain, also sound the same tocsin, warning of alarming levels of depression and suicide among boys, and describing boys' interior lives as an emotionally barren landscape, with all affect suppressed beneath postures of false bravado. They counsel anguished parents to "rescue" or "protect" boys--not from feminists but from a definition of masculinity that is harmful to boys, girls, and other living things.…
This is a story of a woman who suffers a lot in her life trying to find her way to peace.Her name is Kitty Fane.The main characters of the book are Kitty an Walter Fane.They are married.Tuis is how their story started.Kitty 's mother was hard,cruel,managing,ambitious,parsimonious,stupid woman.She married her husband because he seemend then a yong man of promise and her father said he would go far ,but he didn 't. He was industrious and capable ,but he didn 't have the will to advance himself. Mrs.Garstin despised him,but she recognized that she could only achieve success through him,and she set herself to drive him on the way she desired to go. She tried to cultivate people, who might be useful to her husband.She nagged him without mercy.But this were vain efforts.So having been planned as a marriage of convenience it turned out to be a complete failure. As for their daughters (Kitty and Doris) ,they have never looked upon their father as anything but a source of income.It had always seemed perfectly natural for them ,that he should lead a dog 's life ,in order to provide his family with boards and lodgings, clothes ,holidays and money for odds and ends.It never occurred to them to ask themselves ,what were the feelings of that subdued man who went out early in the morning and came home at night only in time to dress for dinner.He was a stranger to them ,but because he was their father they took it for granted that he should love and cherish them.When Kitty 's mother realized that her husband had not been able to promote himself ,it was on her daughters she set her hopes.By arranging good marriages for them, looking for someone who would be well off and in a sutable profession ,she expected to make up for all her disappointments.As for Doris ,she gave no signs of good looks,Mrs garstin could not hope for her.But Kitty was a beauty.She had large dark eyes,vivacious,brown,curling hair in which there was a redish tint, exquisite teeth and lovely skin.Mrs.Garstin…