Western Manhood: a Quest for Power

In Western culture, since childhood men are taught that violence is the ultimate way of asserting power. Violence – often masked by different ideologies such as racism, sexism, homophobia – is still a very concerning issue nowadays; the extremist ideologies gain a lot of support amongst western men. Some examples of violent acts of racism and sexism are demonstrated in the documentaries “Charlottesville: Race and Terror” and “Inside Incel”. In the essay “Masculinity as Homophobia”, Michael Kimmel explains why western men tend to adhere to discriminative ideologies, such as racism and sexism. Will James, in his presentation “Insights on Toxic Masculinity” also expresses his concerns about the repercussions of such discriminative ideologies. Kimmel and Will James prove that extreme ideologies supported by Western men – as demonstrated in both documentaries – are often caused by the normalization of violence as a way to assert manhood power. The documentary “Inside Incel” shows how sexism sparks from toxic masculinity and the documentary  “Charlottesville: Race and Terror” provides cases of violent racism caused by the Western manhood culture. 

Extreme sexism, as demonstrated in the film “ Inside Incel ” often splurges from men’s attempts to assert their “manly power”. The word “ Incel ” stands for “involuntary celibate”; incels are men who were rejected by women and started hating them as a consequence. The documentary provides the story of a few well-known incels, among which is Alek Minassian. Alek Minassian is 25 y.o. white male who drove a van into pedestrians in Toronto in april 2018. He killed 10 and injured 16 people, mostly aiming at women. Minassian’s classmate tells about his school years to the journalist, stating that he was bullied and laughed upon. He did not stand any chance with women. Kimmel describes in his essay the feeling of powerlessness of certain men: “they are the feelings of men who were raised to believe themselves entitled to feel that power, but do not feel it. No wonder many men are frustrated and angry”. The culture of western manhood still promotes the idea that men dominate over women; Alek Minassian did in fact feel powerless and weak as he was bullied and rejected. He tried to feel his power by killing and injuring people which he deemed as “weaker”. According to Kimmel, powerlessness is the birthpoint of male violence. Another example of violent sexism shown in the documentary is “Elliot Rodger’s Retribution”. Elliot roger is a white male who killed 6 people and injured another 14 on 23 may 2014. The documentary provides excerpts from a recording that he posted before the killing spree; he says in the recording: “I will slaughter every single spoiled, stuck up blonde slut. You will finally see that I am, in truth, the superior one, the true alpha male”. Elliot Rodger was never getting attention from women although he was convinced women owe him sex. He felt powerless in his attempts with girls, so he tried to gain back this feeling of power by acting violent towards women. He says in another excerpt of a video: “I’ve experienced nothing but loneliness and misery, and my problem is girls”. He blames his unrealised fantasies of domination over the whole female gender, and decides to take his revenge by exterminating them. Kimmel writes in his essay: “Men’s feelings are not the feelings of the powerful, but of those who see themselves as powerless”; his passage explains the feeling of powerlessness of Elliot Rodger. The documentary “Inside Incel” shows many cases of violence caused by men trying to feel their male power by committing massacres against women.

Another issue splurging from the desire of Western men to assert their power over others is extreme racism ; some cases of it are demonstrated in the documentary  “Charlottesville: Race and Terror”. A big community of white male extremists assembled their hate towards people of color in a rally in Charlottesville. Elle Reeve – the journalist for VICE news – talks with Christopher Cantwell – a white nationalist and “Unite the Right” speaker – and questions him on violence. While Cantwell was going on about the violence of the non-western people, Reeve asked whether he thinks white people are capable of violence, to which he answered: ”of course we’re capable: I carry a pistol, I go to the gym all the time, I’m trying to make myself more capable of violence”. Kimmel writes in his essay: “Violence is often the single most evident marker of manhood. Rather it is the willingness to fight, the desire to fight”. The echo of Kimmel’s thoughts is seen in how Cantwell propagates violence as a trait that all men should possess. He enforces his supremacy as a white male by excluding people of color to assert his superiority over them and their race. The documentary also showcases the actions and ideology of the “Unite the Right” extremist movement. This movement’s speaker voices the need to eliminate all non-western people from their country as they make the life in the country worse. Kimmel writes in his essay: “others still rehearse the politics of exclusion, as if by clearing away the playing field of secure gender identity of any that we deem less than manly-women, gay men, nonnative-born men, men of color-middle-class, straight, white men can reground their sense of themselves”. Following up on the “Unite the Right” movement, their ideology bases itself on the desire to elevate the Western manhood by eliminating other races that they deem unworthy, as Kimmel explains in the said passage. White men feel like they lose their power while racial diversity is becoming common; they want to exclude other races so their race remains superior. Those problems are also voiced up by Will James, who talks in his presentation about the power struggle between boys in childhood. As violence is normalized in western manhood, it is common that men’s desire for power results in violent attitude; racism is just another ideology used by Western males to assert power over others. 

In summary, both aggressive sexism – as shown in the film “Inside Incel” and extreme racism – as shown in the documentary “Charlottesville: Race and Terror” are caused by the desire of Western men to feel their power. Kimmel and Will James explain how extreme ideologies shown in both documentaries are the consequence of the normalization of violence as a staple character trait in western manhood. Even today, while western education starts to spread the ideas of acceptance, discrimination based on race, gender and sexuality is quite present. Nowadays, the discriminative ideologies arise not from education but from people that continue to enforce them on others. By eliminating the common stereotypes of the “superior male gender”, perhaps there is a chance or reducing many acts of violence caused by men who are scared of their powerlessness.