Tough Guise

"Tough Guise"

Through watching this short documentary I have learned and acknowledged how we are so easily influenced and shaped through a variety of things: family, community and media. Numerous kids around the world learn at an early age to put on a so called "front" or "guise" to show only the certain parts and qualities that a tough guy possesses. At the beginning there was a clip where young boys defined being manly as: being tough, powerful, athletic, muscular, and stud. If you did not fit into this category then the names that you were associated with were: wimp, fag, and sissy. The family and community have a huge part in shaping kids this way, but the biggest influence in the media/ television. For example, kids view Latinos or Mexicans as boxers and Asians as martial artists or even as criminals. This gives them an image of male dominance, power, and also control.

Another bit that I thought was interesting was the amount of change action figures went through in fifty years. Fifty years ago the G.I. Joe's and the wrestling dolls were kind of like bean poles, and then progressively through the years you see the biceps, chest, and abs getting bigger on the doll. So instead of looking soft in the earlier days, the doll's imagining is hardening up and looking tougher. This also ties into the wrestling that you now see on your television. If you put it back another fifty years ago just like the action figures, professional wrestlers used to be fat, flabby, and out of shape looking. Now push time forward and you see wrestlers being enormous, ripped, and looked like they eat steroids for candy. They look like modern day warriors, which buries an imagine into little kids minds and possibly might drive one to reenact that wrestlers moves upon another person cause injury or harm.

Violence is another thing that males are accountable for these days. Studies and surveys show that men are responsible for murder, assault, domestic violence, and rape. They are not only afflicting pain onto themselves, but others also. It is usually the men that were abused or beating in their childhood that eventually become these types of offenders. Women would not only benefit from having these abusive people near or around them, but men would to. Most males are abused, bullied, beat up, and killed by other males. Being bullied and teased while young and in school can also create violence. One example that the movie shows is the countless school shootings that have occurred around the country. These students go around and gun down people because they were teased and bullied in school and wanted to seek revenge on their fellow students. I think this obsession with being tough or masculine is sort of a public health issue. Media promotes it through hockey fights, wrestling, and movies. Radio has numerous shows such as Howard Stern that encourages and influences a bunch of absurd messages and things. I do not think that only males put up this front, I honestly think some females put up a "guise" of their own, whether it be on the streets, in jail, or in the workplace. I just do not see what is bad about showing some vulnerability and take down that front. It would better the community and our living space tremendously, possibly bring down the crime rates, and just make everything better as a whole!