Blog 1: Societal Views on Masculinity

Masculinity in today’s day and age has been poised by stereotypes and stigmas. Where showing more feminine characteristics and traits are frowned upon and men who are not “masculine” are usually oppressed and told that their way of thinking is wrong. Men also tend to hide their emotions and are scared to show vulnerability because they fear they will be seen as weak and are afraid of how others will view them if they show emotion. Showing more feminine characteristics and showing emotions doesn’t make men any less masculine, although that is how it is seen in today’s world. These negative stigmas surrounding masculinity are not true and are seen in “Guy’s Club” a short story written by Gomez, and “Invincible”, a short story produced by “UnisTV”. In both works of art, the main characters’ emotions are oppressed by their surroundings and are kept from showing their true emotions because of external factors which unable them to be themselves.

            “Invincible” takes us through the last 48 hours of the protagonist’s, Marc-Antoine Bernier’s, life. Marc spends his week at a youth center, where he is not only kept captive from the outside world, but also from seeking the help he needs. The youth center is meant to help him become a better person, but as his struggle with depression worsens, he is unable to ask for help and is left isolated. Marc stays underwater during his pool sessions at the youth center because it temporarily frees him from his problems. When he’s underwater, he feels temporary relief from his problems and feels free from his mind. Marc shows his struggles with depression throughout the whole movie, but the scene where Marc ignites his lighter under his hand and tells his sister he is invincible, ultimately shows his lack of feeling and how neglected he really is. He is loved by his family but doesn’t feel it. His mind is paralyzed and left unsupported by people around him. He is mentally neglected, and he doesn’t know how to ask for help. His pleads for help are left unseen and his emotions are drowned out by his mental issues. The movie’s ending is shown at the beginning, where Marc drives a stolen vehicle into a lake after hearing his mother’s voice for the last time. The ending shows how men’s emotions and problems are often neglected and disregarded until its too late. Marc wrote a poem about his struggles with depression, and he will never heal from it. The youth center’s response to his poem was to disregard marc’s poem and moved on to the next class. This shows how Marc tried to express how he feels inside but his feelings were neglected. Marc took his life because he could never feel happiness, his pleads for help were unanswered. Today, men’s suicide rate has gone up tremendously because of their horrible mental health. Stigmas revolving around how men shouldn’t show emotions, should toughen up and how asking for help is shown as weak are all reasons that contribute to those high suicide rates. Marc plead for help throughout the movie and his pleads were left unseen and disregarded, which led him to feel completely isolated and beyond help, until he took his life. Situations like Marc’s in the real world often go unnoticed because men feel like they are unable to get help. They may believe they are not curable of their mental disorder and suffer in silence. In 2024, as a society have acknowledged that mental health disorders are sicknesses, and we are able to seek help relatively easily compared to before.

In “Guys Club”, the protagonist’s feminine characteristics and tendencies and exploration in sexuality are oppressed by his peers and his environments. At the beginning of the story, the protagonist paints his nails because he was mesmerized by his sister’s and aunt’s nails. His aunt warned him and said “I guess you’ll have to learn the hard way” (Gomez, 65) . He later gets bullied and mistreated by other boys while playing soccer, calling the protagonist derogatory terms, and was made fun of. This really hurt the protagonist because he didn’t fully understand what was happening. To the protagonist, he though his nails were pretty, and he just wanted to show off his nails. He doesn’t understand the line between masculinity and femininity, and his innocence is punished with negative repercussions. In today’s world, society has become more open and accepting to males showing feminine traits.    The protagonist also struggles to express his sexuality to his peers and his family reject his sexuality. He told his stepmom that he is gay, and she just dismissed it. When the dad was told he went to the nightclub on boys’ night, the protagonist had to quickly reassure his dad that it was on accident, in fear of being judged. Throughout the story, the protagonist constantly must dismiss and reject his own sexuality because it isn’t acceptable to those around him. In today’s world, expressing your sexuality is encouraged and social media has helped people know that they can identify as the gender and sexuality they associate themselves with. Society has grown to be more open-minded and to accept everyone as they are. If the protagonist’s society was like the real world’s today, the protagonist could have felt less alone and would have had more accepting peers to be with.

Both works of art have shown us struggles regarding masculinity. In Marc’s situation, his pleads for help go unanswered and his emotions we’re neglected by his family, youth center counselors and other kids. As for the protagonist in guys club, he hides his sexuality and rejects it in fear of being reprimanded and cast aside. Both stories express the difficulties men have to face because of the “masculine” image they have to be like. To show emotion, be vulnerable and express your sexuality doesn’t make you any less “manly”, it makes you human. These stories showed me how negatively society acts towards people who are different, and I don’t want to be apart of that society. Thankfully in today’s world, expressing yourself sexually is much more accepting than what it used to be. These stories made me reflect on how we shouldn’t treat anybody differently because they are different than us, but instead invite them into our lives as equals. Just because a man doesn’t fit the masculine image society has portrayed for us, doesn’t mean we’re any less of a man.