My eleventh blog post is similar to my previous blog “Miss Representation” but the roles are reversed. The film The Mask You Live In is about how men are treated and problems they experience due to their gender. In the first part of the film it says, “He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it”, this particular saying by George Orwell made me stop and think are boys being taught the right way to be a man? Is the “social norm” truly allowing men to be their own person? The answer is no. Any guy has heard the expressions, “Be a man”, or “Man up” in their life time. Being taught at such a young age how to be a man is essential. But how can a man be taught to experience or show no emotion. The men in this film were only taught to fight and dominate people and circumstances and only left people thinking they weren’t enough.
This film made me feel disappointed in how people are raising their kids telling them to be a man of no emotions. People can’t go through life not showing emotions. There is a right and wrong way of teaching and a man who was taught that they can’t cry are angry or bottles their emotions up. To me it doesn’t make sense. Most of the men in this film thought they could manifest hyper masculinity by being tough and playing sports that only a man could play, yet it didn’t give them the attention and love they wanted from their father or male figure in their life. Being taught this even till this day is a destructive to culture. After watching male figures in this film and even from my own experience I’ve heard people calling males names and being harsh when a man doesn’t act tough enough, but that just inhumane. There were students in high school that were killed and sexually assaulted because they aren’t acting man enough because they thought it would be “fun” to physically hurt someone who was more emotional then tough. It just makes me feel that people are getting hurt and dying for no good reason, all because of the way people raise their children. Being masculine isn’t worth losing a person. This film impacts my knowing because we have all seen this happen sometime throughout our lives or it has happened to you. However young boys, and men need to be able to talk to someone instead. Most young boys in this film stated they are sad, and feel like they can’t be their true self, but can’t say anything about it to their friends without being bullied or their family with out saying “Man up”. In a segment of the film kids began a sentence “If you really knew me” and had heartbreaking things to say yet could not express their feelings about their own life. The United States in particular has allowed the idea of masculinity to make men feel they are not comfortable to step down from a fight or to cry and show emotion. Every man in the film was taught to be dominate, powerful, never back down, using violence to solve problems etc. As well as associating masculinity with athletic ability, saying males have to play sports. This film made me stop to think has the world just accepted this as a “social norm” and in this time would there ever be a change to how we teach young boys to be a man. Instead of teaching them males are superior and tough they should really be taught the proper way to act, that its ok to show emotion, and that males are equal and should treat women as their equals. This film makes me want to make a change in how people raise their children. Kids are being sets up for failure because they are only taught masculine things. To all kids to grow up thinking its ok to be able to do things a female would do. If parents taught their male children to be whatever they want to be their wouldn’t be such a gap in today’s society between males and females.
3 Comments
Daniel Weaver-Cooke
4/1/2019 03:54:05 pm
I agree that people can not go through life without showing emotion.
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Ashley
4/1/2019 06:37:57 pm
I like how you said kids are being setup for failure because they are only taught masculine things.
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Sabatino
4/3/2019 04:36:12 am
I appreciate how this post provides a thoughtful discussion about masculinity, cultural norms, and emotion. This last piece sounds like the beginning of a possible research project (do you agree?):
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GabriellaI will use this blog to share more about me, and make meaning using the writing process. Archives
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