Tough Guise

                The video that we watched in class on masculinity, Tough Guise, brought a lot of little known issues to attention. I thought it was interesting how men obviously dominate the statistics about the perpetrators of violent crimes in the U.S., but we never think to see that as a problem with masculinity or culture. Like Jackson Katz said, usually the violence is blamed on the media and videogames – but of course girls are subject to the media and video games as well. The overwhelming statistics don’t make sense, even if you do include unreported cases of rape and domestic abuse perpetrated by women.              

                What I thought was particularly enlightening was how Katz discussed rape culture in the U.S. Rape isn’t really seen as the huge problem that it is, and though it is incredibly widespread, sexual violence is portrayed as okay in movies and in the media for the most part. It’s almost just seen as men being men, especially when it comes to athletes. Like Katz brought up in his discussion of the Glen Ridge rape case, athletes so often get off scot-free in cases of sexual assault because they’re “normal” and “good guys.” Many colleges have even refused to severely punish athletes who are accused of sexual assault because they don’t want to risk losing a great player. Sexual assault is definitely downplayed in the media and in our culture.

                I think a lot of these excessive ideals of masculinity lead back into the homophobic culture we live in. Like we’ve already brought up, the insults you can launch at men either feminize them or are jabs at their sexuality. It’s incredibly wrong in our society to be a man who has feminine or “homosexual” traits. This scares men into being overly-masculine and they try to assert their “maleness” in ways that are harmful not only to other people but also to themselves. I think part of the problem is that we so often try to find a third-party to blame, like the media, when in reality we need to look at the way we treat boys and girls and what we declare as “right” and “wrong.”