Call:
“’No Sissy Stuff!’ Being a man means not being a sissy, not being perceived as weak, effeminate, or gay. Masculinity is the relentless reputation of the feminine.”
Response:
This quote really speaks to the thought that being a man is something that young males learn. When males are born into this world we have no specialized way to act. We observe and change depending on our environment. The chapter “True Women and Real Men” was more interesting because it really focuses on gender roles in today’s society and how we have changed and how some of us are still discouraged at accepting the change that we as a society have to address and not just one select group or race. I will continue to try and read more articles in the book that talk about myths about gender and I will also try and find more credible sources that have pros and cons that talk about more recent conversations and debates about current gender roles and expectations. It is said that being a man in today’s society forces young males to be over aggressive, sexually dominating creatures who learn to never take no for an answer. The only way to measure your manhood is by wealth, power, status, and physical tone. We as a gender have let these ideas go too far into our heads and we treat women more like currency that is meant to be traded like material goods. We need to change before we risk more harm to our own gender than we have already.
Question:
Where did these rules for being a man come from?
I believe these rules are social constructs, dating back to early civilization where different sexes had to establish different roles for survival. The problem is that today, in first world countries like ours, we no longer need to fight for survival. We’ve progressed to a place where society allows freedom of choice, yet we cling to ways that are damaging to both genders.
I think that the rules of being a man is just something that society expects from male figures. Society has a way of giving everyone a certain role to play. Therefore, just think of life as role-playing.
These gender roles form because like he said, it the ideas have gotten very far into guys heads. To me, our society today doesn’t need a guy for work and provide for the family like it used to way back when. Our society today allows us to survive individually and make it own our own if we need to.
These rules for being a man came from society it’s, wanting to build a better society, thus creating a more masculine man. I think these rules came from other men, the ones who were tougher, more wealthy,and had more power. These men saw other men as weak, thus feeling they were a disgrace to being called men, that’s when these rules were established.
These questions came from our ancestors and they worked well in the older ages but as for us today, it does not help us very much. In older years, females were used to being submissive, being the primary caregiver of the house and the family. With this, males brought home the money and since they viewed womens’ work as subordinate they treat women accordingly. Today women have shifted and are no longer remaining on the sidelines. We are doing the same things males are doing, which forces us to change our concepts of each gender roles.
I totally agree with you. I feel that men are taught basically to be overly aggressive animals that don’t treat women like they should. I’m not saying that “all” men are like that but that’s how most are brought up when they’re young boys. Also, I hate that men’s sexuality is put to question when they act more feminine that man “should” act.
I think the rules for being a man came from society and the people in the household. People expect men to act a certain way due to how they see other men act. These roles for both men and women were created a while back, and we are born into them.
These rules for being a man has been this way for many years. I think that these rules were a lot stronger back in the day then they are today. In todays society they are more accepting of gays and different personalities. Although, I think a child learns these roles as boy from their parents when growing up. Told not to play with a barbie doll or walk or talk like that.
I believe that these unofficial rules were establish unconsciously and became a requirement. They become norms to follow but we are leaving the constricted ways of genders.
These rules have been instilled into young males brains by their own fathers for centuries. Being dominant and aggressive has been accepted by many, also due to the fact that society and media have put a strong emphasis on demonstrating men’s virility. Thus, most young males feel pressured to act in such way, even though they don’t want to.
I agree with you 100%. Males have taken things to a different level.Being so overly aggressive about things and not thinking about the outcomes. In today’s society, most males are growing up in abusive homes. Not being taught the basics of how to actually be a man, rather growing and developing in a household that does the totally opposite of how it should actually be. Not saying that all males are raised in this type of environment, but the influence of others can have a major effect on oneself.
These “rules” of being a “man” are from far back when these rules were for survival. Women tended to small farmed and cared for children and the men hunted, being manly, had to do with survival. As the times changed, the “rules” and lines of gender started to blur. With modern time women running for president, working, making more money than men and potentially being more dominant than the men, men are threatened. That is where the “over aggressive, sexually dominant” man comes from. His threat to his “manhood,” he probably grew up learning from his father his whole life to be the “rules” of society.
These rulings have been around since the beginning. It always said to be the man would be the provider and the protector of the family while the woman would be the caretaker and run the home and make sure it is stable. As generation has changed I believe so has the rules of gender. Now a days woman are becoming more powerful and although men are still in power and dominant, they aren’t as dominant.
I believe the role of males have just been passed down from the different generations in a family. If the male father figure in a young boy’s life acts very masculine and treats women like a piece of currency, then that young boy will grow up believing that is the right way of how to act. However, if a young boy grows up with a father that teaches him respect and love, then maybe that boy will grow up to respect everyone around them. There are also other factors that affect the way someone acts such as the movies, music, and tv shows.
I believe that the roles men are expected to uphold date back to when the man was the alpha male and he needed these roles for survival. I think that as time went on thats all people knew men of being, never once stepping back and thinking “hmm maybe men don’t have to be so aggressive, or dominant”. The way men are is definitely shaped by society, and when a man isn’t like his peers, he might be gay or picked on because he isn’t as tough as society would like him to be. For boys growing up, they look up to the father figure in their life. They learn from them, so if they see how they treat other people especially women they will follow in their steps.
I agree. Men are perceived as more dominant and powerful. There is a stereotype for men and women which is completely opposite. Men and women are seen as different due to the unestablished toughness regarded to the male gender.
I believe some of the rules have always existed in a more simple form. Men have always been stereotypically considered the strong and dominate providers of the family and household; however, in today’s society, this feature has been taken to an extreme. If men are not sexually active with so many females, they are considered less of a man. If their ego and pride isn’t at a certain level, they’re also considered less of a man. There is a lack of priorities when it come to the respect of manhood considering the way media now portray’s a mans status. A man cannot be standardized with what and who he does, but how he respectfully carries himself.
I wouldn’t say rules but its more of social standards that are expected of men. Society shapes the way some of our minds think, and society always limits every ideal into a right or wrong response or way to do it.
I think these rules for being a man came from a long history of how men are supposed to be treated. Women traditionally have always been housewives while the man is the head of the house and has to be the one to support his family. Everyone always says women have unrealistic standards to achieve, but I think men have those unachievable expectations as well. They have always had to play a role of being tough and and in charge and not all men are that way. When I was little boys were always told that they are not even allowed to cry because crying is a girl thing. Men have always had to be dominant figures and nowadays when a man wants to be a “stay-at-home” dad it is seen as weird or emasculate. Men face more judgement when they try to do things that are seen as a woman’s job.
I think these rules that males have for themselves have been collected and readjusted over a long period of time, these rules start off as one thing and turn in to something completely different after being passed down generations and generations. Kind of like the game telephone. I believe that these rules started off fair but escalated into a drastic change where men aren’t just supposed to be the providers for a family but they are supposed to wear the right things and act a certain way around women and other men.
I believe these roles for how a man should act were influenced through society. Latter America has implanted such stereotypical views of what traits correctly define a man’s “masculinity” (such as being dominant or aggressive). We all have our own interpretations of what “masculinity” is, and just because a man considers spending time with family to be more of a priority than the success of his career, why do we have to automatically demean his sense of masculinity? America today is emerging throughout various aspects to break through these gender roles that so greatly creative negative perceptions of masculinity and femininity.
I believe that these rules have been ingrained in our society for so long that we don’t know how to change them to find our modern day society. I also think that men are often more vulnerable to be ridiculed by other men about masculinity. These standards have definitely played a role in this.
I think these rules have always been around. Its pretty much pre programed into mens heads that we have to be masculine and “be a man” about everything. Its not society making men in aggressive, dominating creatures or whatever. It’s just the way men are.
The rules for being are not something that is set in stone, but it is almost like it has been embedded into our brains and our life’s that there are just certain things a man or boy does not do. For instance me growing up around my grandfathers who grew up in the era where the man is rock, you really don’t show much unnecessary emotion as that of a woman might. You are taught to handle things like a man would and that’s with maturity and dignity. Even the gestures one would make had to be certain way. Its just things that I was taught as a man growing up.
I believe these roles of manhood came from our elders. The way they acted carried down through time today so people just have “norm” characteristic of how a man should act.
https://www.google.com/search?q=vicious+cycle+of+dating&rlz=1C9BKJA_enUS660US660&hl=en-US&prmd=ivsn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiM1sS0wf_KAhXGvoMKHdaMBpoQ_AUIBygB&biw=1024&bih=653&dpr=2#hl=en-US&tbm=isch&q=vicious+cycle+of+dating+asshole+to+nice+girl+to+nice+guy&imgrc=x-3uPTRjbHJwwM%3A
Sorry for that, couldn’t post the picture^^
This picture in the link I’ve attached above, shows an encounter between a less masculine, ‘nice guy’ and the woman he is attempting to talk to and go out with. We see that, as I believe and this picture shows, that the female population, in its ever changing race to become skinnier, prettier, and more flirtatious, encourages the male population to be more masculine, less intelligent, and generally a brute, because we find that girls are viscerally concerned with guys, not with their intelligence or personality. This odds game that both genders play back and forth has become the environment in which the theory of evolution has done its work, consistently evolving the mindsets of each to know what the other values, and to promote those types of characteristics within the groups.
The rules for being a man been around for hundreds of years. Back in the day, it was the mans’ job to go out and bring home food or go in the yard to cut lumber. Men are stronger than women and they feel like women are not fit for half the things men can do. With that being said, men look as women as being weak which makes them become overly aggressive.
These rules seem to stem from a society that has put too much emphasis on conforming to what has become the normal or traditional way of a certain gender behaving, in this case male. With this emphasis it has over time become accepted as what is expected of members of society that are born as or identify with being a male in today’s society.
These rules come from ancient ages ago. Where the standard of living was much different. I believe these beliefs tie into the bible and a more religious way of life. Before a separation of religion and government. These things are unruling for young boys to live up tp and way out of date.