Blog 1: Challenges men face from traditional masculine values.

Within our society, people are expected to follow certain rules and norms. These could vary from social norms, moral codes, and even just straight up laws against criminal conduct. Although more recently, during our past millennium, opinions and expectations upon the topic of masculinity have surged upon the internet. Through these two works: Invincible by Vincent Rene-Lortie and Man Up by Carlos Andres Gomez, we will explore the expectations, stereotypes and backlash from standard masculinity.

In Invincible, Marc, our main character, is spending his week-end with his family, acting really childish with his sister at the lake. As he gets called by his parents to return, his mood seems to sour. This is because he is returning to his youth detention center. Within this center, Marc sneaks in a lighter and purposefully activates the fire alarm system which makes the sprinklers turn on. This moment is one of the few moments where we see Marc express himself in a childlike manner within the youth detention center. From there, he is brought to Luc, one of the advisors of the center, and he is then being punished. Luc says that he won’t be allowed to leave until further notice. One important detail though is that after the notice of the punishment, Luc starts lecturing Marc. He says that he is going to have to behave if he wants to be released. In a way, Luc is somewhat of a masculine authority to Marc and also he seems to be restricting the part of Marc which appears very often with his family, his comfort zone. Then at a moment within the film, the students are asked to write a poem about how they are feeling. Marc writes some sort of a cry for help, for freedom but the teachers just dismiss what they just read or heard and continue on with the program. This shows how men often do not get the opportunity to open up often but when they do, it’s easy to dismiss those feelings. This is because men are “supposed” to be tough, cold and be able to control themselves and their emotions. This situation led Marc to plan an escape and eventually kill himself. And this event isn’t so uncommon within reality, especially within our recent society.

In Man Up, specifically chapter 3, it is shown that very early in Carlos’ life, he is introduced to masculinity and the expectations of men. At the young age of 6 years old, he had his nails painted by his sister and his aunt after an unbearable tantrum. Afterwards, he went onto the playground to play soccer and all the boys mocked, humiliated and shunned him away by saying “What are you, a faggot?”. This exact event demonstrates perfectly the expectations upon men when it comes to physical appearance. Painting nails often has a feminine connotation attached to it which is why he got bullied for having his done. This is extremely present nowadays in the west ever since some influencers decided to preach about traditional masculine values where the man is supposed to be and look tough. During his teens, he was also confused about his sexuality during the time of his puberty where he’s trying to explore his limits and boundaries when it comes to him and the men around him. Normally within our society, attempting to try something that is considered ever so slightly sexual, such as observing a man, you are instantly brandished as gay, the same way how the boy in the locker rooms when Carlos was in high school was treated. Throughout his lifetime, he keeps questioning about why it’s so wrong to express himself in a way out of the “tough and masculine” norm that was established for men. He then has a realization that expressing yourself isn’t “feminine”, it’s just a person’s trait. He basically says that an action shouldn’t be judged based on gender and sexuality but rather as an individual. He says that to find out your true self, you have to distance yourself from the social norms and expectations of men. This realization happens because western culture has separated actions within both genders, where expressing oneself isn’t considered and is shameful thus the stereotype where men are supposed to be cold.

In conclusion, men are expected to act and behave a certain way, such as suppress their feelings and act tough the same way that Marc was taught or not paint your nails and show interest towards aspects of the other gender. And in a way, these expectations or social norms act as a limit on us as individuals. To make it past these restrictions on oneself, we could all get together as a group to get rid of gender stereotypes and expectations on men to learn about traditional masculinity. Our society should move forward together to create a safe space for men.