Indigenous values: why settlers feel endangered

When the first settlers arrived on the American continent, they discovered communities of people already present on land. As they wanted to possess the newly discovered territories, they decided to clear out their way by eliminating those who were already there before them. Indigenous peoples (hence they are called First Nations) had their own values that did not conform to european’s pre-set norms. Since then, the settler community is  constantly seeking ways to reduce the influence of indigenous communities on their own lands. In the text “Gender and Cultural Diversity in the Early Contact Period“, Keough and Campbell discuss the difference of the first settler colonialists from the indigenous peoples. Similarly, the documentary “Trans in Trumpland: Idaho” showcases indigenous trans peoples from the USA who recount the history of their culture. Lastly, In his  talk, the indigiqueer artist Glenn Gear highlights the culture of indigenous peoples and parts of their history. The text, talk and film prove that settlers aim to erase indigenous communities because indigenous people’s way of life challenges the whole structure of Western European society. They do so by showcasing indigenous peoples and settler’s difference in freedom, their difference in gender expression, and lastly how indigenous values endanger settler’s social structures. 

First of all, indigenous peoples value their freedom highly compared to the settlers’ society. In the film “Trans in Trumpland: Idaho”, Shane Ortega- a trans masculine representant of the indigenous peoples – told about the values of the indigenous communities. He said that they had way more freedom and fewer restrictions compared to the Western european way of life. In his talk, Glenn Gear said practically the same thing : he recounted the stories of his indigenous community, the Inuit, and said that they were organising their life how they wanted and each individual had all the freedom over his own life. That is why, when settlers came, they tried to take away the freedom of the Inuit peoples with acts of violence such as the dog slaughter and the residential schools, as they could not understand how people can live without limitations, and imposed them on indigenous peoples. Settlers had a very restrictive societal and hierarchical structure aiming to control people, whereas indigenous communities were relatively egalitarian and free; the freedom of indigenous societies challenges the strict structure of the settler colonies. 

It took a long time for settlers to obtain gender equality and freedom, whereas indigenous peoples had that from the beginning. In his essay “Gender and Cultural Diversity in the Early Contact Period”, kelvin and Campbell write: “But many aboriginal communities in North America had more inclusive sex-gender systems that also recognised a category of experience known today as “two-spirit”, in which, broadly speaking, masculinity and femininity were accommodated in one body.”. The excerpt shows that indigenous peoples had the freedom to défine their gender. The text also tells about indigenous women : “The power exercised by aboriginal women within their families was unfamiliar and disturbing to the French missionaries, who upheld patriarchal religious and family system that rested on god-given authority of men.” (16).  In the settler society, women were treated as slaves and their unique function was to give birth and serve to the man, whereas in the indigenous community, women were equal to men. In the documentary, shane Ortega also recounts the experience of the two-spirits in their indigenous communities and talks about the freedom that people had to define their own gender. Indigenous peoples were rather egalitarian societies and had fluidity in the expression of gender; they challenged European strict family structure which was based on patriarchy and gender roles.

Indigenous people’s values risk destroying the whole worldview of European settlers and break their social structure which is weakly holding on to a mindset of exclusion and mass domination – assimilation. For example, In his talk, Glenn gear was talking about the value of nature for indigenous peoples. It contrasts very much with the mercantilist  and materialistic way of life of the Western European societies. As for marriage in settler colonies: the text says: “rather, it was a social institution, promoted and supported by a state that saw the patriarchal family as the social, economic and cultural foundation of the colony (20). It shows once again that everything in settler societies was planned and concluded for materialistic goals and to keep the restrictions going. In the documentary, Shane Ortega – a war veteran and two-spirit, tells about oppression of trans peoples and indigenous peoples by americans. He Links it with the fear of American settlers that their conservative and limiting worldview might weaken when facing the different worldview of indigenous peoples. As settlers coexisted with indigenous communities, their worldviews and values were questioned by the completely different indigenous culture, and their coexistence influenced both the communities. 

To conclude, we saw how the difference in freedom and difference in gender expression are influencing the settler societies reaction upon indigenous communities, as well as how indigenous values endanger settler’s social structures. The text, talk and film prove that settlers aim to erase indigenous communities because indigenous people’s way of life challenges the whole structure of Western European society. 

As our mindset is beginning to be more open, we should look more into the indigenous culture and learn from them. They always lived in freedom, equality and were free to express themselves how they want without any judgment. In their social structure, which we as Europeans deem chaotic and undisciplined, they were living way happier than we are. And, If they were happy living the way  that they were, maybe their social structure is not that bad afterall.

Masculinity stereotypes in “The Terminator”

Movies and shows made a big influence on the perception of masculinity in our society. “The Terminator” – a film by David Cameron released in 1984 – made a huge influence on the perception of masculinity among young boys and adolescents. The film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger in the role of the Terminator, a cyborg assassin sent back in time with a mission: to find and kill a specific person. He was taken as a male sex symbol at his time and gained huge admiration among the male community. Men admired him because, according to the masculine ideals, he is perfect: he is strong and muscular, and the fact that he often appears shirtless is used to enhance his physical traits commonly identified as masculine. He carries guns and arms; he tends to create an impression of violence and dominance. He is always ready to fight and engages in combat without doubt, and is confident in himself and his strength. He is described by David Cameron as an “invulnerable fighting machine”. Because of our society’s dictated standards on how real men should look like and behave, the terminator was perceived as an ideal because he adhered to all of them. This justifies the fact that the film became a cult movie, especially popular among the male population. This image of an ideal man enforces the harmful stereotypes on masculinity, and creates more pressure on the male population to become similar to their idols. Young boys watch the movie and dream to become like the Terminator, and it creates a vicious cycle of harmful ideals which are used to hide the true self of men. Kimmel writes in his essay “Masculinity as Homophobia” about the perception of supreme masculinity as being the complete opposite of femininity. The terminator is a character which illustrates Kimmel’s statement, as he was made in such a way to avoid to the maximum all the traits associated with femininity. The exclusion of feminine traits in the masculinity culture promotes harmful consequences on women. Women are considered lower than men and because of that, are treated poorly. To conclude, “The Terminator” is a movie that played a huge influence on the society’s perception of stereotypical masculinity and provided the male community with another harmful example to follow. 

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.

The Pressure to Conform

The stories of Marc from the short film “Invincible” and Carlos from the text “Guys Club” are stories of two boys whose happiness was taken away by the societal expectations of masculinity. Both characters face a conflict between their desire to be themselves and the pressure to conform to the society’s expectations. Born into a world where gender roles are predefined, men feel the need to conform to be accepted. Although many men internally suffer from those roles, they trap themselves in it by compelling them. Both Marc and Carlos serve as an example of how the norms of masculinity break the lives of many men. “Invincible” and “Guys Club” made me realize that the way men express their masculinity differs from how they feel it internally; it also looked deep into the pressure that men experience due to the influence of institutions and people around them. Those works shifted my perception on the causes of toxic masculinity and its consequences.

In the works “Invincible” and “Guys Club”, both the characters try to abide by the standards of masculinity, but internally experience it in a completely different way. Marc, the protagonist of the short film “Invincible”, is in reality a highly sensible and emotional character. He is also very caring: take alone the relationship with his sister, we see how much he loves her. He is different from everyone else around him: in his youth institution, he is surrounded by aggressive and brutal, overall “manly” boys. He suffers as he does not feel comfortable in this institution with those people. I think that the story ends with his suicide because he cannot repress his emotions anymore, and he would rather die than feel alienated from the world he lives in. The story of Carlos from the text “Guys Club” shows us another reaction to the same issue. Carlos is experiencing similar issues, but his story ends in a different way. As opposed to Marc who feels like he can’t belong in this world, Carlos tries to conform to the masculine norms at first. Later on, he realizes that he became homophobic due to his surroundings being like that. He also discovers that he is gay but he cannot open his sexuality to the world, aiming to hide his true self as he is afraid that people would reject him. Our society dictates that real men have to be emotionally unavailable and cold towards each other, seeing each other only as a competition, and any sign of affection towards another man is perceived as homosexuality. When visiting other countries, Carlos discovers other cultures, where affection between men is not shameful; he really enjoys this open-mindedness that our society lacks. In his childhood he wanted to have his nails painted but got told that this is a feminine thing to do, which leads him to reflect on the pre-set gender norms and restrictions that follow them. Overall, our society imposes a lot of restrictions which prevent men such as Carlos and Marc to express their masculinity in their own way; men cannot live a happy life because they always have to fake an image of themselves.

People and institutions around the characters force them to be masculine and hide their emotions. These characters have to respond to the expectations that are set up by people and institutions. For example, in the text “Guys Club” Carlos feels the pressure from his family to be masculine enough. He writes about his father: “he’ll quietly encourage and enforce all of these masculine norms but still tell me to love and appreciate everybody”. This duality of expectations confuses him. He is afraid to tell his family about his experience with the gay club as he does not want them to reject him. From his childhood, he learnt to be homophobic because his school pers taught him that by their example. He copied their comportments: the way they insulted other boys calling them “pussy” or “sissy” for slightly different ways of doing things. As in childhood we adapt and imitate very fast the comfort of our surroundings, Carlos learnt to imitate homophobia and masculinity to fit in his community. As for Marc, he tried to adapt to the influence of his institution. He felt pressured by the way his camarades in the institution acted. They talked and acted in a way to discredit and objectify women, and were aggressive and competitive. When they had to write a poem, Marc wrote a really sensible one that expresses his emotions, and the class went silent, he did not get any reaction or support. His friend wrote a perverted poem about the teacher and his peers seemed to like it, as it is the way of thinking that is perceived as the right one for boys his age. Overall , the Youth Institution and Marc’s community was very judging, and Marc did not feel like he was included. He felt alien to this world, and because he could not express his emotions and felt alone, he committed suicide. He did not feel the freedom to express his thoughts.  As people, we naturally tend to fit into communities, and copy the other’s comportments to not be rejected. The community’s influence on us makes us involuntarily reproduce their way of acting, and this vicious cycle of continuously spreaded stereotypes never ends, causing multiple people to suffer. 

Both the works “Guys Club” and “Invincible” made me understand more in depth the problematic of men`s excessively stereotyped masculinity. Everyone heard about the feminist movements fighting stereotypes about women, but I never knew that men face the same problems. The power that men hold over the world leads us to think that they are free to do whatever they want, but the fight between their own gender`s expectations was a discovery for me. The stories of Marc and Carlos have really opened my eyes on how powerless men can sometimes feel; the image of masculinity that they produce can sometimes be just an illusion faked by someone who is afraid to lose control. 

All the unwritten rules that define how people should act based on their gender lead to a lot of consequences. Some of them include the propagation of homophobia, depression, and can even lead to suicide. One thing is clear: there are no good consequences whatsoever. The power that the institutions and people hold on us is crazy, and as it does not have a positive repercussion, the time has come to end it . Gradually, if the world will swap the politics of exclusion for inclusion of those who are different and choose to show their authenticity, the world would become a better place for all of us.