Blog 1: The Intricacy of Men

In the animal kingdom there’s a hierarchy that puts certain species at the top, the biggest most dominant males get first round at the best females and food. Similarities can be drawn to our own social structure in the short film “Invincible” by Vincent René-Lortie and the short story “Guys Club: No Faggots, Bitches, or Pussies Allowed” by Carlos Andrés Gómez. Men are constantly judged on their sexuality which takes a big toll on them even if they may seem fine, they deserve to express themselves how they please. I will be exploring how these stories tackle the ideas of masculinity both internally and externally.

Some people see masculinity as having a tough exterior that’s invincible to being hurt physically, but masculinity is also very mental. It’s more of a mindset at the end of the day, we see this in both the short film “Invincible” by Vincent René-Lortie and the short story “Guys Club: No Faggots, Bitches, or Pussies Allowed” by Carlos Andrés Gómez. Both of the young men face an internal crisis of not being able to express themselves and their definition of masculinity because society has a different idea, for example in “Invincible” Marc has trouble expressing how he feels being stuck inside with a yearning to escape reality, he turns to his writing for a small form expression but is reluctant to let the world in his life since they might not like how he expresses masculinity. If we turn to Carlos’s situation, he’s having a similar problem of being confronted by toxic masculinity when he is true to himself and decides to express himself through his nail colour, this may seem like more of an external expression, but I see it as him displaying how he originally feels internally and the nails are a representation. Sadly, he is bullied and leads a life of subtle homophobia without even realizing it, due to all the ideas that were put in his head at a young age, he developed this internal “disgust” towards the idea of being gay (one of the big problems with people like Andrew Tate, he poisons the minds of impressionable boys into negativity and toxic masculinity). I think that these are great examples of how masculinity is experienced internally and the constant pressure that builds up as a result of it especially when looking at both of these sources. I think that internal masculinity is very much affected by the environment you’re in and the people you surround yourself with. You can sense this with Marc as we see him with his family, all happy and free, then the sudden transition to sadness and aggression when he is cooped up in the institution. Carlos surrounds himself with the proper people but the environment he was placed in when he was younger led to negative impacts on how he sees masculinity internally. We need to be more open as a society and make stories like Carlos and Marcs more aware to help young men who have or still do feel this way or can somewhat relate to their situations.

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The expression of masculinity externally is what generally comes to mind thanks to stereotypes through the years. Both of the young men in these stories learn about these stereotypes and see whether or not they apply to the metaphorical check list of society and display their own personalities externally. Marc in “Invincible” checks more of the boxes of what it is to be masculine in my opinion, he displays a lot of the masculine tendencies when it comes to being reckless for example starting the fire alarm to cool off, ruff, playing sports, smoking, but he also breaks that cycle. He is nurturing to the little boy almost like a mentor, he is sensitive, especially through his writing and how overwhelmed he gets when he feels too “hot” in his cell which can be seen as being overly pressured by society to do better and be better in a sense. Carlos plays more of a curious/naive boy who is just entering this whole new masculine journey, he does silly things like play strip poker with his friends which in typical masculinity is just “gay” activity. We have to let boys explore and not shame them for being curious, Carlos and his friend take a peek at each other in the shower to learn. Curiosity killed the cat, but shutting off all investigation destroys the mind, at that rate we become walking robots that only engage when told what’s acceptable.

I feel as though after looking at these stories and seeing both internally and externally how masculinity affects these boys, we can determine one of the main roots of the problems I’ve discussed above. Traditional gender norms seem to always be somewhat prevalent even if they lay dormant in the back of the mind. The man always having to bring home all the money and be the protector is quite a well-known example which I’m sure comes with a ton of pressure on its own. The women are seen more as nurturing and the caregivers of the families, which puts them in a position of not being able to provide and work for themselves, the best example being the number of stay-at-home moms in the last century which we don’t see as much of in North America anymore. Gender norms are quite prevalent in Carlo’s story, men are supposed to be this fiery monotone beast and nail polish just “destroys” this image, like I mentioned early him and his friend peeking at each other in the shower is weird cause you should never want to see someone of the same gender naked. The gender norms are very outdated and represent the very conservative ideas that led to a lot of bad marriages and people cast in the dark for feeling differently.

Both these young men face the ups and downs of what it means to be masculine and what it takes to try to live up to certain standards. They’ve explored the ideas of how this idea of being    masculine has affected them internally and externally, which leads to them developing in their own ways perhaps differently due to the pressure they’ve felt to act more like a man.

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References:

Gómez, Carlos Andrés “Guys Club: No Faggots, Bitches, or Pussies Allowed.” Man up: Cracking

           the Code of Modern Manhood, Gotham Books, 2012, pp. 65–83.

René-Lortie, Vincent, director. Invincible, TV5 Unis, 2022, https://www.tv5unis.ca/invincible.