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Gender is the cultural dimension of sex, which is a biological material dimension.Like anything in culture, there is nothing true or permanent about gender except it is a historical, dynamic, meaning-making system.Since gender culturally establish correlates of sex, the attribution of gender are based not on an inspection of the sexual organs of individuals but on the judgements of their performance in relation to the culturally constructed gender categories.If a society establishes a structure on the basis of sex and gender, males and females will be granted and limited at the same time to certain privileges.In the Western culture, the social construction of sex and gender has placed social expectation on men.The masculine world is expected to be non-emotional, loud, messy, money makers, math and science oriented and most of all, exhibit assertive behaviours that demonstrate power and authority. As a result, these social expectations on men have valorized and yet subjugated them at the same time, leaving them in a position of an unrealistic reality of masculinity.In this exposition, I will analyze the role that popular culture plays in the early stages of men's lives, household, workforce, educational system and athletics.In the end, I will conclude that although masculinity has its benefits to the masculine world, it also subjugates them because it creates an unrealistic expectation on men and it encourages men to be violent and aggressive in their behaviour.
Much of the ideas about masculinity come from the media.What we see on television or in the movies, what we read in the newspaper or in magazines, what we see on billboards or hear on the radio, reinforces societal expectations of masculinity.The images in popular culture represent men as heroic and strong.It also portrays men as violent and angry, leaders, problem solvers, confident, successful, athletic, lacking sensitivity, and authoritative in the public sphere.As a result, these expectations advance the notion that a 'real man' is one that is demanding or aggressive in getting his desires and goals.Hence, a man is expected to be in his proper sphere of action which is the economic and political arena and as well, he is expected to be the head of the household, for which he must provide for his wife and children.Furthermore, society looks forward to the masculine world to be strong and not admit to any uncertainties because if they do, it is perceived as a sign of weakness.Despite the fact that men are at an advantage in society, they are subjugated and brought under control by these social expectations.
The media images of masculinity are present in a male's life as early as the first stages of infancy.When a baby boy is born, he is distinguished and characterized by his gender before he can take his first breath of life outside his mother's womb.As well, when a baby boy is brought home from the hospital, he is dressed in blue clothes because it helps friends, families, and even strangers to identify the sex of the child.In the article "The construction of Masculinity", Michael Kaufman stated that "masculinity is unconsciously rooted before the age of six, and then positively explodes at adolescence" (Kaufman, 115).With that in mind, men were socialized at a young age by their fathers, mothers, teaches, mentors, friends, and other role models such as television and movies that boys are to play with guns, planes, engage in 'contact' sports, be tough if they get hurt and independent.As a result of ideas, attitudes, behaviours and beliefs that men learnt in their childhood and adolescence, they matured believing that they are to behave in a powerful, active masculine manner (Kaufman, 10).
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Consequently, the social construction of masculinity by the media and the reinforcement of their gender roles by parents valorize men to have an advantage over women in our society as the dominant sex.In society, men dominate institutions such as the church, family, and law.This domination by men has created a patriarchal society, in which it has oppressed and exploited women at every level of reality. Despite the fact that conflict has escalated between male and female, society believes that it is natural for a man to have power, aggression, and authority (Kaufman 110).Furthermore, since men are depicted as the logical thinker and discipliner, this logical framework has served to valorize men in the role of a dictator and control agent.In order for a man to continue to be logical in his life, he has been socialized into rejecting emotions and feelings from the external environment.This is a formula that men must follow in order to be separated mentally and emotionally from all things.With that in mind, men must abstract their world into something that seems disconnected from themselves or anyone else.The purpose of this is to dissect each segment of a problem and reformulate it into a disciplined logical order so it can be used to construct a value system and perform tasks for men.
Nevertheless, men have been valorized into the role as a provider. Society expects men to provide food, shelter, and care to his wife and children. This role valorizes men because it gives them an advantage in the home and the public sphere. Since men are to be the provider, they are encouraged to go out and find work and the women are advised to stay home and take care of the children.As well, men have control in the household because they are expected to be a good father that discipline and set down rules for his home.Since men maintain a patriarchal role in the family, it valorizes them as the driving force that ensures his children perform their responsibilities as he provides love and guidance to them. Hence, the dominant role assumed by men creates a pattern for male activities to be valued higher than female activities and as a result, popular culture images of masculinity becomes extremely difficult to overcome.
Men are also valorized in the workforce because they have tremendous power in the public sphere. As in all pursuits, men see business and other professions as a competition, a battle for dominance.They use their occupation as a means to engage in a competition against other men and female, in order to maintain their high wages. Men are socially responsible because they arrange their combative competition in business that organizes as a limited civil and/or private economic competition.As a result of the masculine world pursuit of power and dominance, men have been socialized into having the responsibility to temper their combative urges in the public economy and be dictators in the political arena.Since men have higher value in society, they enjoy high prestige jobs and job titles.This power and dominance that men have in the workforce has created a gender and wage gap between the sexes.Women who enter the public sphere are forced to compete with men for wages and prestige jobs and since they do not hold the same power and authority as men, they earn significantly less, even if they are more qualified that the opposite sex.
Nonetheless, men valorize the educational system.At university, males and females are channeled into different fields.For example, men are encouraged into the math and science field.In the article "Patriarchy, Scientists, and Nuclear Warriors", Brian Easlea stated that science especially Physics is a "'hard', intellectually difficult subject as opposed to 'soft' ones, such as English or history" (Easlea, 148).Easlea believes that there is a hard-soft spectrum within sciences, in which physics is the hardest, chemistry is in the middle, and biology is at the soft end (Easlea, 148).Men valorize the educational system because science and math are perceived as male orientated subjects since men can reason and intellectually solve problems as oppose to females. As a result, the "aspects of the masculinity of physics is that the men who inhabit this scientific worldparticularly those who are successful in itbehave in culturally masculine ways" (Easlea, 147).Easlea confirms that like "all other hierarchical male-dominated activities, getting to the invariably entails aggressive, competitive behavior" (Easlea, 147).However, if it was not for this institutionalized and socially competitive aggressive behavior, men would not be ranked higher in academics.On that account, men have higher value in the educational system because the educational system reinforces gender stereotypes and sex roles and teachers tend to set assignments which further reinforce masculine behavior.With that in mind, schools socialize males and females into different orientation of life.As a consequence, males and females enter university with gender-linked aspirations and it is these, rather than presumed innate characteristics that allow men to have dominance and authority in society.
The social construction of masculinity also valorizes men in ways of athletics.Since men at an early age are encouraged to participate in sports like football or hockey, they grow up into adulthood with athletic prowess.And since they watch their fathers dote and fawn over a game on television, men are instilled at a young age with the desire to excel physically.As a result, sports valorize men because it teaches them in their childhood to be strong, aggressive and competitive. Through sports, men learn what it means to be masculine and if they show signs of femininity, they are taunted with phrases such as "Don't be a sissy" or "Only girls do that". Furthermore, the valorizing of sports socializes men into having tones, muscular bodies.Health and fitness becomes a concern for men because having a toned and muscular body is seen and depicted in society as the ideal (Bordo, 6).In the article "Reading the slender body", Susan Bordo stated that 'muscles have chiefly symbolized and continue to symbolize power as physical strength" (Bordo, 6).As a result of this ideal male body, men who stay fit through sports and exercise gets their masculinity shaped and molded.
However, although men may have all the power in society, masculinity can be "terrifying fragile because it does not really exist in the sense we are led to think it exists" (Kaufman, 115). Kaufman stated that "masculinity exists as ideology; it exists as scripted behavior; it exists within 'gendered' relationship" (Kaufman, 115).With that in mind, men in society are subjugated by the social construction of masculinity.The standards set out for men have put them in a straightjacket that leads to anger, despair, and often violence.Due to the aggressive and dominating behavior of men, Michael Kaufman believes that 'violence is one aspect of our society's domination by men that, in outcome, if not always in design reinforce that domination" (Kaufman, 10). He also affirmed that the act of violence in the individual man is "acting out relations of sexual power; it is the violence of a societya hierarchical, authoritarian, sexiest, class-divided, militarist, racist, impersonal, crazy society" (Kaufman, 10).
Despite the fact that there is great social prestige with masculinity, many men do not match it or desire to.As a result, men feel subjugated because masculinity has put their traditional gender at risk since it is thought to lead to violence.Men rather than women are central to the symbolism of violence in mass media, sports, and political rhetoric.Since men have an economic advantage over women, they have been given the privilege to defend, which they may defend in violence or may make women vulnerable to violence.It should come as no surprise that men reinforce their domination through violence because at an early age, men were encouraged by popular culture to play with weapons and learn military skills.As well, violent behavior expressed from television and advertising also enforces violence because the images from advertising often use violence towards women.This violence against women is often pushed to the point of encouragement of rape (Kaufman, 116). Sexual harassment or rape occurs when a man feel that his power and status is threatened, for he is angered when he cannot achieve the entitlements of his gender.Therefore, although men rule and fashion society, the reactions to violence only "confirms the negative self-image and the feeling of powerlessness of the fragility, artificiality, and precariousness of masculinity" (Kaufman, 117).
In addition, the social expectation of masculinity also subjugated men because men are not allowed to express their emotion only through anger.If a man does not show his emotions, his sensitive side, he is berated for being detached from the essence of what society really constitutes a human being.If he displays his emotions, he is criticized for being "unmasculine", whereas emotional behavior in girls tends to be expected and accepted.However, if a male decides to expose his emotions, he is labeled as a "sissy" and viewed as not equal to other men who demonstrate more valor and bravery. Hence, to show emotions is a sign of weakness and society view this as abnormal or inferior for men.Furthermore, society links a sensitive man to homosexuality.If a man is overly sensitive or fragile, he is perceived as a "queer", who is at odd with the "normal, the legitimate, the dominant" definition of masculinity (Halperin, 144).In the film "Orlando", Orlando shows his feminine side when he shows compassion and love for his enemy.He forgets the cult of chivalry, in which he should have been honorable, courageous and bold since these are noble qualities associated with manliness. It is important to realize that men are emotional and they do cry.When a man suffers a tragedy or is going through difficult problems emotionally, the thing that he needs to do is to step back from them emotionally, to distance himself from his own emotions in order to gain an objective rational perspective on his emotions.Despite the fact that men may express their sensitive side, that does not mean that they are homosexual or less than a man.
In conclusion, the social expectation of masculinity demands aggression in males and promotes a hierarchy, competition, and dominance in society.Although masculinity has its benefits to the masculine world, it subjugates them because it creates an unrealistic expectation on men and it encourages men to be violent and aggressive in their behaviour.Therefore, it is important to change the oppressive reality of patriarchal, authoritarian societies because the changes in these societies will serve as a means to discharge the oppressive and violet behaviour men possess.
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