Rethinking Masculinity

In this portion of our class we were given 2 videos, a text and a talk on different points of view on masculinity and what different people think masculinity is. Some think that because they are a white man that they are superior to others while some think that masculinity is an idea given to people and it depends on them how they interpret it. In this blog we discuss how masculinity can be shown, expressed and interpreted by many people. We also see how they are viewed when they show themselves on the internet or in public. 

In the video “charlottesville: Race and Terror” we were shown how a bunch of white nationalists come together and protest to protect their rights as whites. Chris Cantwell being amongst these people is one of the most persistent on the idea that the whites need their rights protected and defended from anyone else but them. These people have the ideology that they are the superior race which in my opinion is an absolutely horrible way to think and seems pretty unreal when we listen to what they have to say about others that are not white. Chris Cantwell states that anyone who isn’t them shouldn’t be given rights as anyone else would. Watching this video, it felt almost as if I was on candid camera because the stuff that was coming out of these white nationalists mouths was quite jaw dropping.  These people would call African Americans by racial slurs (to their face as well) and did not have a care in the world about what they were saying or what the consequences would be. It is crazy to think how people in this day and age have the audacity to think like this and express themselves and think that it’s normal (which it obviously isn’t). In relation to kimmel’s text, we learn how from a young age are afraid of other men to the fact that they do not want to seem weak in front of them. The same way Cantwell acts all tough and tries to seem superior to everyone else because he thinks he is tougher. 

The second video we got to experience was “the fifth estate” was a story on CBC that showed us groups of young men and how they lash out on women because they were rejected by them. From shootings to making songs about how they hate them, these guys became very creative in showing their hatred for women. Again seeing this is quite mind boggling because it shouldnt make sense for a person to take their anger out on females just for being rejected. They don’t realize that going on the internet and speaking horribly about women will not accomplish anything besides embarrassing themselves. The only oyster people that agree with this ideology are the people who believe that “all girls should die” and who hate women too. James Will expressed this in his speech because the internet gives us a false idea especially when its= comes to masculinity and the idea we have on women. These men killing girls had a false idea of women and went on the internet and this idea became bigger and bigger and bigger. Other men on the internet were doing the same and now a large group of men have this completely wrong idea of what masculinity is and their new perspective on women. 

Many people have many different ideas of what masculinity is and we were exposed to it from completely different ideologies. From Chris Cantwell being a white supremacist and a racist to groups of men being rejected by women and lashing out on the internet, or worse killing them, we have seen that a large portion of these ideas of masculinity are related to asserting dominance. They are trying to show that they are stronger and better than who they are opposing. Chris was doing it by starting riots and causing mass destruction on the streets and these rejected men were doing it by lashing out on the internet and doing worse by killing them. 

We have discussed how different people try to show their version of what masculinity is. From proving to be the alpha or trying to express your emotions on the internet, these examples of masculinity that we have discovered clearly show that some people seem to be out of touch with reality and don’t understand the social norms of today’s society. These people need to have their ideology changed before it is too late.