Essays on Masculinity

The harmful term otherwise known as toxic masculinity refers to the norms that govern not only men, but women and all of society as well; when discussing toxic masculinity, the goal is not to offend men, instead it’s to bring attention to the negative aspects...

In today’s society it takes a lot to grasp the change in how masculinity is “supposed” to be. To be able to truly understand the sort of expectations that men are held to by society there must be a detailed look into what R.W. Connell...

Toxic masculinity goes back to the early traditions of “manhood” that incorporates traits and behaviors that could cause harm to oneself and others. Men are endorsed on stereotypical masculinity norms that are associated with toughness and dominance. However, feminine traits in men that are viewed...

Throughout scenes 1 and 2 of A Streetcar Named Desire, playwright Tennessee Williams presents Stanley as extremely powerful and authoritative through the use of dialogue as well as stage directions. The audience immediately learns how strong Stanley is in a physical sense; however, we soon...

Gender roles unremarkably have deadly ramifications for people that battle to fill their allotted generalization. The Mask You Reside In, that spotlights on anyway society’s skinny which means of masculinity can cause further hurt than wise. The picture show Depicts a good exhibit of the...

“He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it”. This means that men have a stereotype by default and are supposed to fulfill the expectative. Men feeling like they are not real men, not feeing enough or feeling weak. Stereotypes create a false...

In the essay “Beauty and the Beast” by Dave Barry is describing how women care more about their looks than men do. Women judge themselves harshly, and want to replicate the look of celebrity or figurines they found over. Barry construes how men may visualize...

Gender roles commonly have lethal ramifications for individuals that battle to fill their allocated generalization. The Mask you live In, that spotlights on anyway society’s thin meaning of manliness will cause extra hurt than sensible. The moving picture depicts a decent exhibit of the inconveniences...

Sexual assault is a highly prevalent health issue in Australian society that is mostly committed against women by men. It is a grievous crime that impedes not only on the victim’s integrity, but also their human rights (Queensland Government, 2015). To understand why men commit...

This Novel by Michael Kimmel, Guyland, is solely about the life experiences of men roughly through the ages of 16 and 25. A handful of these young men where interviewed to see the way the handle the big transition into manhood. The transition to manhood...

‘Feuding families leads to senseless violence and the tragic death of six young people’, this could easily be the headline for a story in today’s newspaper but it is the plot for a play written over four hundred years ago. Romeo and Juliet (1597) by...

Masculinity revolves amongst most societies, and has been passed down from generation to generation. In Latino culture gender roles have been set by society and have ultimately held men as superior to women. In the novel Drown by Junot Diaz, the author portrays in two...

Many young men and women of our generation suffer from mental health issues that range from anxiety and depression to struggles with social acceptance. Although mental health problems are a universal issue among our nation’s youth, with young men it is somewhat more complicated. Many...

Written at a time where the conventions of marriage were being challenged and transformed, Le Bel Inconnu charts a tale of romance and self-discovery ultimately ending in the abandonment of true love and instead acceptance of a royally approved marriage. Given the relative power of...

First rule of Fight Club: “You do not talk about Fight Club. Second rule of Fight Club: You do not talk about Fight Club” (Fight Club, 1999). David Fincher has directed many brilliant movies in his career, including Seven, Fight Club, and most recently, Zodiac....

Sadaat Hasan Manto was one of the most consequential and controversial writers of his times. He has produced over 20 collections of short stories, a novel and a series of radio plays; despite such prowess, he was severely criticized for his erotic style of writing...

The Drummer Boy of Shiloh, written in 1960 by Ray Bradbury depicts the true story of a young drummer boy who fought in the Battle of Shiloh. This short narrative displays the hardships of war through the eyes of a fourteen-year-old boy. The violence and...

Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace presents masculinity through several characters throughout the book. In the majority of these cases, the men are portrayed as untrustworthy or dependent on a woman. A few characters that allow the reader to understand Atwood’s relationship and opinion of men include...

Depictions of the ideal male form have been reproduced throughout human history; each conforming to the societal standards of the time. One idea, that crosses cultural boundaries, is that of the man as the provider. There are certain qualities highlighted in the male body to...

James Baldwin provides several constructions of black masculinity through his two texts Everybody’s Protest Novel and Sonny’s Blues. Since this essay is comparing works from the same author, it is essential to look at what these constructions are and also the consistency of them within...

For this debriefing, I will address the global domain and how it is visible among men and the relationship it has with globalization. The process of globalization can be influenced by the structure of gender, specifically the globalized masculinity. At the collective level, masculinities are...

As its title suggests, “M. Butterfly” is essentially a play about metamorphosis. It is, firstly, the metamorphosis of Giacomo Puccini’s famous opera “Madame Butterfly” into a modern-day geopolitical argument for cultural understanding. Author David Henry Hwang shows, through a highly implausible love affair between a...

In “Shout,” Dagoberto Gilb focuses his story on the emotions and headspace of his protagonist, a manual laborer returning home from a hard day’s work. While he looks to escape the toil of his labor, this laborer realizes that his home life does not provide...

Barack Obama, former president of the United States, said, “They’re looking around like ‘I guess being respected means, I have to shoot you. I can make you back down. I can disrespect you and there’s nothing you can do about it.’ That is a self-defeating...

The Dark Side of Masculinity Many would argue that in modern society, women are expected to fit narrow and unreasonable roles in society. However, In Paul Theroux’s “Being a Man”, Theroux writes about the rigid expectations placed on men by society to conform to a...

Dude, You’re a Fag In C.J. Pascoe’s book, Dude, You’re a fag, she discusses how masculinity in high school is asserted through dominance and control within male and female interactions. Through decades of categorizing and labeling others, society has developed a system of lumping males...

For over 56 years, James Bond has woven his outdated and unacceptable traits into the 21st century, and with this, Bond’s masculinity has influenced the ideology that to be like one, they must be like Bond. The sleaze in a suit is an embodiment of...

Throughout the novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, written by Junot Diaz, sex and masculinity is the vital element in being a Dominican male. Dominican males according to Yunior, the narrator of the novel, is someone who has power and pizzazz, dominates women,...

How Hypermasculinity Appeals to Males Louis Michael from “huffingtonpost.co.uk” states that “From a young age, rather than celebrating individuality and encouraging uniqueness in whatever form it may present itself, the boy who veers off the path of machismo is the target of concept, isolated from...

The Talented Mr. Ripley, a novel by Patricia Highsmith, follows the life of a young con artist turned psychopath. The novel is set in a period characterized by repression and depicts many Freudian ideas and concepts such as masculinity crisis, toxic masculinity, homosexual panic as...