Week 12- Masculinity

This week in sociology, we read a very interesting article, "Adolescent Masculinity" by Michael Kimmel and Matthew Mahler. This article addressed the topic of school violence. In class when we discussed what we thought Kimmel's thesis would be, I wrote: Violence, an expanding issue facing our nation's schools, has often been linked to violence in the media, violent video games, availability of guns, history of child abuse, and/or racial/gender tensions. However, there is a stronger, more direct link between teen violence and masculinity and is potentially the main cause of young violence. Although violence in the media can be related to school violence, this article argued that there is rather a direct correlation with masculinity, which is a value influenced by the violence in media, and school shootings, rather than there being a direct correlation with violence in the media and school violence. Masculinity, which is a huge American value that we often forget to see, includes the idea that men hve to tough, brave, and strong, or else they are seen as weak and more feminine. THe idea that "men do not lose their voice, they can it" would describe why violence in schools has been a major issue. Growing boys feel like they need to prove their worthiness as a man, and see violence as an answer to this. Surprisingly, it is more often white suburban boys who are doing the shooting, rather than the assumed and stereotyped minorities doing the shootings. Kimmel argued that because so many minorities can fall back on that stereotype if they need to seem strong, powerful and intimidating. Many argue that racism has grown because many racist people fear the minorities. Becasue of this fear, minorities do not feel the need to prove their masculinity, for their minority already proves their toughness. This value of masculinity in our culture is an expanding value and has drastically affected the balance of our society, between genders, races, poverty, etc. The value in our American culture of masculinity is directly related to school violence in boys trying to prove their worth as men.

In my own life, many of my guys friends are seen as violent, or struggle with their personal identity because some of them are not muscular or appear to be manly. I have seen many wish to be more manly and try to prove their worth, and this has affected their relationships with people as well as their own self-image. Before this topic came up, I always wondered what had caused this strong desire for strength and power in my friends, and now I understand why they want it so bad- our culture wants them to have it. There have been many instances where I have feared their violence and worried about their safety in trying to defend themselves when someone pushes them past their breaking point. I have also seen many of my guy friends become more impulsively violent, reacting to the moment, and regretting it later. A few of my guy friends sometimes even wrestle "for fun", but then end up getting worked up, pissed off and hard to control. This insight on why males feel the need to be strong and powerful makes so much more sense now. I hope there will be social changes that stop this violence and the feeling that men need to be strong.