Blog 4: There is no #1 Best when it comes to Cultures

Aleah Murji

Depending on where and what generation you grow up in you have a completely different view on certain topics compared to someone else who grew up on the other side of the world or even just the opposite gender. Some groups tend to sometimes believe that their way of approaching things is superior to others, and so they try to push it onto everyone. If certain people don’t conform to these ideas then they receive backlash. This is seen with the indigenous residential schools and the colonization done by multiple groups, especially the Europeans. We are presented with the idea that all other cultures should conform to following the Europeans way of living life since its supposedly “the best way”. The works “Gender and Cultural Diversity in the Early Contact” by Keough Willeen G and Lara Campbell ,“Trans in Trumpland: Idaho.” by  Zosherafatain, Tony. and the talk by Glenn Gear challenge this idea with the comparison between gender roles and showing us the backlash that other cultures receive for not following their ways .

There are thousands of cultures that do things differently from one another. In the past we saw that the European ways of doing things and living life was dominant since they overpowered all the other ones, such as the Indigenous. As society evolved we notice that more and more people are seeing the flaws in these ideas. In turn, they are opening their eyes to new ways of doing things and getting influenced by different cultures. Willeen and Campbell give us an example of this where they show us the contrast of gender roles between the Indigenous and the Europeans. In the Indigenous culture they see gender expressions and roles in a positive way, where each person has their own strengths that would contribute to the benefit of the society: “There was a sexual division of labour, but men’s and women’s roles were complementary and equally essential” (Willeen, Campbell 17). In the Indigenous culture female and male roles were both described as equally essential. Females taking care of their children at home, making food and clothes were just as important as males going hunting. In contrast to the European culture where the male role was described as important, manly and meaningful, whereas the female role was passed off as doing menial tasks with low social value. Willeen and Campbell also mention the term “two-spirited.” These individuals had the social roles of ‘’healers,seers and bearers of oral tradition’’ (Willeen, Campbell 19). When the Europeans came along they referred to these individuals as “berdaches –  a derogatory term describing what they saw as unmanly softness and passive homosexuality among ‘pretty’ aboriginal men’’ (Willeen, Campbell 19). Being  two- spirited was thus seen as a bad thing and the notion of men carrying out traditionally female tasks was seen as a weakness, i.e., being effeminate . The Indigenous, however valued these people for their positive contributions to the groups; there was no set gender roles that one had to follow.  

Another example of differences between cultures would be the societal hierarchy between individuals. In the European culture, men are designated to make all the decisions and everyone in the household have to obey their orders. In contrast, the Indigenous allowed the women to give their input and bring new ideas,  as indicated in the reference text: “Major leaders tended to be male, but women’s opinions on important decisions affecting the group were sought and respected.” (Willeen, Campbell 17). Even though women were not totally in power they were still able to have a say in what goes into their society and were also heard with respect when they would bring an issue to the table. The Indigenous people were able to develop a formal political system and social hierarchies which led to settling most disputes and reduced warfare among themselves. Through this example we can see how the Europeans political values are not the best since there is always disagreements and inequalities between groups. Whereas, the Indigenous leaders governed differently and in a more equitable manner where “ Decision-making required consensus among various tribal councis and a larger Confederal Council, all of which were made up of men;but those men were chosen by senior women.” (Willeen, Campbell 17).

Most feuds are caused because a certain group wants dominance over the others who were resisting to conform to their norms. Even though the European ways of doing things weren’t always the best, they believed it was superior, and that everyone should do the same. Their ideologies were based around the idea of men having the highest power and being the providers for everyone. Throughout the whole text ‘’Gender and Cultural Diversity in the Early Contact Period’’ we are given multiple examples where the idea of masculinity of being dominant was present in mostly all aspects of the European culture. Not only were women suppressed but other minority groups that did not conform to this idea were punished as well . An example of this was with the slaves who received enormous backlash when they would not conform to the norms of the European.’’Men and women alike were harshly punished for ‘insubordination’ or for attempting to flee bondage; this form of resistance demonstrated that enslaved people did not accept the harsh conditions of slavery’’ (Willeen, Campbell 22). Europeans asserted dominance over them by making them their slaves and erasing their whole culture through residential schools, religious conversions,cultural suppression and even to the extent of genocides. We are told in the text that newborns of mothers who were slaves would automatically be born into slavery and would be separated from their families at any time. The idea behind this was to remove these children from their families in order to stop their culture from being passed down. They had no other choice but to inherit the European lifestyle because they had no other cultures to inherit.

 We can see that to this day, people who don’t conform to these ideologies still are facing a lot of hate and deal with consequences for just trying to be themselves. In the video “Trans in Trumpland: Idaho.” we are given the story of Tony Zosherafatain who receives enormous backlash for being a trans man in the army and not conforming to the traditional gender norms that the Europeans established in the 17th century when colonizing the USA. He was thrown out of the army because he was breaking the established behavioral norms;  the government also argued that paying for medical treatments to support trans gender personnel was too costly. While, we learn in the episode, that the same government was happy to spend a great deal of money on erectile dysfunction medication. In addition we were also told that he was performing as well as the other men in the army. This proves to us that gender doesn’t define a person’s ability to do something and that there is more to a person than just their gender.Building on each other’s strength, whether you are a man or a woman, or from a different culture, it would be more beneficial for our society than bringing down others for not wanting to change their own values for something might not even be suited for their environment.

In conclusion,instead of believing that there is only one way of doing things, the European way, we should adopt other cultures values. These pieces challenge one’s ideologies because it opens our eyes to new values that are found in other cultures. These values might also be better than the ones that we currently have whether it be concerning the gender roles or the social hierarchy. Since we were brought up with people drilling the same ideas into our heads we tend to think that this is the only way that it should be done and that it is the best way to do so. For example, as we saw with masculinity, when most men were younger they were told that they should conform to the norms of being manly, brave, show no emotion and be the provider or else they would face enormous backlash by their peers and so they always believed that it was the way to live life. However, when reading the text “Gender and Cultural Diversity in the Early Contact” by Keough Willeen G and Lara Campbell we learnt that the Indigenous had a totally different view on gender roles and stereotypes compared to the Europeans, as stated previously. This knowledge pushes us to start taking action to educate and widen peoples perspectives to improved ways of living life and the approach they take towards certain things like gender, societal hierarchy and our everyday life. Glenn Gear, a queer two-spirited indigenous individual has started doing so by showcasing his ancestors pasts and what they have lived through in the form of art. He does so to educate the world, starting with young kids in the indigenous school, to bring back the culture that had been lost due to the Europeans colonization in their own communities. His art is also starting to be showcased to the public so that everyone can appreciate the indigenous cultures and maybe adopt some of their good values. Maybe if we all come together and put our ideas and cultures together, instead of trying to force others to conform to our norms, then we will start seeing a positive change in our society and get one step closer to world peace.

Bibliography 

Glenn Gear, presenter. 29 Apr. 2024, Montreal, Vanier College.

Keough, Willeen G. and Lara Campbell “Gender and Cultural Diversity in the Early Contact Period.” Gender History: Canadian Perspectives, Oxford University Press, 2014, pp. 16–28

 Zosherafatain, Tony. “Trans in Trumpland: Idaho.” Kanopy, The Film Sales Company, http://www.kanopy.com/en/vaniercollege/video/11561418. Accessed 29 Apr. 2024

Blog 3: Awakening to Injustices

Aleah Murji

  Despite the fact that we believed racism had been resolved after slavery ended, it persisted through the next generations and is ongoing in the 21st century. The movie “Get out” by Jordan Peele and the text “The Skin We’re In” by Desmond Cole give us a glimpse of the type of inequalities that African Americans are faced with in today’s generation. The main ones being explored in these pieces are:  being put through dehumanization for the benefit of white supremacy; being dismissed or overlooked by others when being discriminated; and having to deal with police brutality.

Police brutality is something that we know is very present in our society, however not much is being done by the institutions to educate, train and sensitize police officers on proper behaviour and approaches in dealing with different races.  Police brutality isn’t always a physical act; it can also be giving punishments or passing « innocent » comments just because of the color of their skin. Peele gives us an example of this in the scene where Rose and Chris were stopped by the police after they had hit a deer with their car. The police officer asked Chris for his driver’s license after seeing that he was black even though he was the passenger. He had already suspected him to be a criminal and wanted to pass a background check on him «just in case. »  This demonstrates that police brutality has many faces, beyond the physical, where it manifests in other equally harmful and unjust ways, including through racial profiling.  Police brutality was also experienced in the text by Desmond. The narrator tells us of the incident of the young black artist, John Samuels who had been tasered and sent to jail for no valid reason.  Police brutality has only been brought into light at a more global level after the George Floyd US incident in 2020 where Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, literally chocked George Floyd to death because a convenience store worker suspected he had used a counterfeit 20$ bill. Since then, we can see that more and more people are fighting for this cause and trying to stop police brutality. Therefore, by bringing attention to the problem of racism and its negative effect on individuals, families, communities and humanity at large, we can change society’s view on racial groups.

A lot of minority groups are being dehumanized by groups like the white supremacist for self-benefit. For example, the whole idea of slavery was for black people, who were removed from their homelands, to do the intense labor work to develop the new lands benefiting solely the whites. This was the case for the African Americans, who were also treated poorly and given little food or compensation for their hard labor and who lived in very poor conditions. It was as though they were treating them like animals, as said by Cole, “In particular white supremacy designates black people as less than full human beings as disposable labor as chattel placed on earth for the benefit of white people” (Cole 8). This is a clear demonstration how white supremacists were dehumanizing the slaves because they saw them as animals that were created for the sole purpose of carrying out tasks and were distinguished from society by the color of their skin. This type of behavior was also seen at the end of the movie “Get Out” where Rose’s family attempted to hypnotize and perform brain transplants on the body of Chris so that they could replace the brains of their dead relatives in his body. This makes it seem as though Rose’s family thought the purpose of black people was to act as disposable vessels. Once a white person dies, they need to give up their body for that person to live a longer life. By doing so they are stripping the identities and lives away from the innocent African Americans. Making it seem as though they are tools to be used whenever needed by white people. This idea was also seen in the text “The Skin We’re In” where the main character talks about how the Indigenous had been stripped of their land and natural resources so that the British could benefit from it. The British felt entitled to take indigenous land since they were minority groups and were not respected. Throughout the entirety of history, little has mentioned how Indigenous have also suffered a lot. It was only in the late 19th century that this issue was brought to people’s attention. Nobody had questioned the British when it came to taking land from the indigenous people, and the Americans with using black people as slaves, stated by Cole ‘’Both were oppressed by a group whose legacy is so unquestioned today that we usually don’t even name it.’’ (Cole 13). Through these examples, we are shown how injustices that different racial groups have faced in the past are ignored and denied basic human dignity and rights.

Most of the time when people are racist or make racist comments, they do not acknowledge them. For example, when you ask a white supremacist if they are racist, they become defensive even will try to justify their actions. This proves to us that they see no issue in their acts, and it does not bother them when they make comments that discriminate against others. The movie “Get Out” demonstrates this when Chris was at the family party and everyone that came up to him either made racist or stereotypical comment about his physique or was asked about his athleticism since he was compared to Tiger Woods due to their similar skin tone. This points to how Rose’s family focus on his skin color and the associations with other people in the black community, rather than on trying to understand and appreciate who he really was. Desmond Cole also speaks about this topic in his text, when he tells us “People who refuse to acknowledge the fact that Canada has its race problem compare is a lot to America” (Cole 3). Through this he means that we are so brainwashed with the fact that Canada is a peaceful place, we accept any race or culture, and America is the bad place where all the racism and harm happens. Behind this stereotype there is the reality that nobody wants to acknowledge Canada also being a racist place and having its faults. As we see now, Indigenous groups are speaking up about the harm that has been done to them and how they have been stripped from their identities and land. Canadians have overlooked this part of history by saying that “Someone had to compel indigenous people here to sign treaties to “share” their land and resources” (Cole 13), meaning that indigenous were sharing their land because they wanted to and not because it was not stolen.

                  Multiple scenes from “Get Out” and “The Skin We’re In” introduce the idea of racism and how it is experienced by minority groups in many ways. By analyzing these works we’re confronted with the uncomfortable truth to our history and the enormous number of inequalities and racism in it. They show us the urgency of creating social awareness and need for change in societal norms through the examples of police brutality, being dehumanized and ignored when being discriminated against.

Bibliography

Cole, Desmond. “‘Negro Frolicks (January).’” The Skin We’re In, Doubleday Canada, 2020, pp. 1–17

 Peele, Jordan, et al. Get Out. Universal Pictures, 2017

Gender Stereotypes Seen Through Movies

Aleah Murji 

James Bond, a British secret agent working for the MI6, is a well-known character created in the 1950s that starred in many movies. He grew more famous as society loved his exciting spy stories along with seeing him as a perfect male figure to look up to. James Bond is presented to us as an alpha male who follows the male stereotypes of being confident, strong, a womanizer and charming.  

In the James Bond movies, women are mostly depicted in a negative manner, whether it be by being objectified, sexualized, being only a love interest for James, needing James to be saved or even just always being defeated by him. He is celebrated for his womanizing behavior and charm. This behavior demonstrates the negative stereotype of men having higher powers over woman and constantly having a sexual mindset towards them. This relationship towards women will become normalized. Men will tell themselves that it’s okay to treat a woman this way and will continue to do so. 

 Luckily, in the newer films, James challenges the male norms and shows us the more vulnerable and emotional side of his character. An example would be in the movie Skyfall where James reveals his struggles with his relationships with higher authority male figures, like Mr. M and his past traumas. He shows us that men aren’t always so strong and unemotional as perceived by society. The movie teaches the viewers, through James’s character that, as a man, you can be vulnerable and not follow each stereotype to be considered as masculine. James Bond challenges societal norms and shows us a more relatable view of men’s character, enabling society to slowly accept that these stereotypes are unattainable for anybody. In addition, in the newer films, women are also now portrayed as powerful, intelligent, equal to James Bond and are able to have their own main roles in the movies. 

Lastly, by portraying this type of behavior to males they might think that to be considered a man and accepted by society they need to act this way and follow the societal norms. In turn, this will reinforce these stereotypes and will keep getting passed down to future generations. Who knows to what extreme these will go to if we don’t stop this endless cycle. 

Blog 2: Men’s Biggest Phobia is Being Powerless

Aleah Murji

The societal pressure forced upon men from a young age to follow societal norms and traditions has led them to constantly search for acceptance and validation. This includes stereotypical acts like dominance and violence. Men feel as though they need to act out in certain ways to be heard, whether it be by being sexist, racist, homophobic or even just violent in order to regain dominance over others. These ideas were explored at length in the text Masculinity as Homophobia by Micheal S. Kimmel, the documentary Charlottesville: Race and Terror by Vice and Inside Incel by The Fifth Estate. These authors do so with the use of imagery, current events and real-life situations. 

Kimmel gives us the example of the image of a chauffeur to describe how men feel in society. Telling us that it may seem as though the chauffeur is in power, but in fact he is taking orders from others and is completely powerless. In consequence of feeling powerless, men tend to want to act out. An example seen in the documentary Charlottesville: Race and Terror was the incident at the protest where the car ran over innocent people. According to Christopher Cantwell, a white supremacist, the driver supposedly had no choice but to hit the gas to get away from the protestors. Since society has brainwashed him to having to follow the norms, to be seen as a real man, the driver felt as though he needed to be violent in order regain dominance over these people. 

The feeling of powerlessness, that comes from the idea that men always have to be in power, pushes them to support groups and leaders like Nazis, The KKK and the MAGA movement lead by Donald Trump; these highly negative influencers and organizations make them feel like they can regain their lost power. They give them the validation that what they’re doing isn’t wrong because other people have the same views and values as them. Their values being: racism, authoritarianism, violence, antisemitism and homophobia. For example, the main reasons that the KKK were fueled to act the way they did was the desire to have control over others and the fear of losing their power to minority groups. Men who felt this way were mostly accepted into this cult. They think this way because at a very young age they were probably told many times that real men are dominant and aggressive. One of the many things that they did to assert dominance was by being violent and intimidating minority groups through acts of terror like lynching, arson, bombings, and physical assaults. This ensured that they would have power over others by inciting fear and using violence. David Duke, former grand wizard in the KKK, tells us in the documentary Charlottesvile: Race and Terror that they are trying to ethnically cleanse America from minorities, who are seen as a threat to their existence. But, the reality is that these white supremacist men fear losing their power in society. Another example of a man acting out due to feeling powerless would be, Alex Minassian from the Inside Incel documentary by The Fifth Estate. Minassian’s classmate from high school told us that he was bullied and picked on due to the fact that he was very different from the other students. As a result, he felt very vulnerable and unempowered during these times. Through the pressure put on by his classmates to follow the societal norms that men need to act a certain way and not be vulnerable, Alex was pushed to prove his masculinity by being violent towards others, whereby fitting the male stereotype. After the van incident, where Alex drove a rental van down a sidewalk in Toronto killing 10 people and injuring 16, he was able to be empowered and no longer be the victim by becoming the bully himself. In addition, he finally received the validation from other men that he never got as a child, after a song that was published by a young artist making reference to the van attack and promoting aggressive behavior and provocative language. Unfortunately, after the release of this song, many young men who felt the same way as he did got inspired to act out as well. 

In efforts to prevent the next generation of men to act this way, we need to teach them from a young age that these societal standards are outdated and inappropriate. They need role models who demonstrate positive masculinity that allow them to be themselves without feeling ashamed. This is something that Will James emphasizes a lot during his talk on Online Influencers, Toxic Masculinity, and the Classroom. He teaches us how we can help young boys and future generations to get rid of the male societal norms and be more comfortable expressing themselves in a way that won’t hurt others, while fulfilling their potentials. Will James tells us about his experiment where we went to schools and asked young boys what they wanted to be. They all responded with jobs that are perceived as “masculine” and manly like being a cop instead of a nurse, which is seen as a feminine job. This proves to us that, to this day, masculine stereotypes are still very much forced on young boys. In order to help society get out of this endless cycle, educators can encourage young boys to critically examine if these societal norms are still desirable to succeed in life. Sooner or later, they will realize that the values behind these behaviors are harmful and simply wrong. Hopefully, the new generation of men will decide to change and spread awareness within society, thereby leading to a less violent, sexist, racist and homophobic world, while perpetuating new positive male norms. 

In summary, society has put so much pressure on men at such a young age that the ones that weren’t able to look past these are now acting like the stereotypes of being sexist, homophobic, needing to be dominant and violent. To avoid passing these undesirable traits onto their male offsprings, there needs to be open dialogues within families and schools that challenge the current stereotypes that have been perpetuated from generation to generation. Also, role models and influencers can promote positive masculine and non-aggressive behaviors through social media to shape new societal norms that will transform our youth to experience much brighter and fulfilling lives. 

Kimmel, Michael. Masculinity as Homophobia. 1994.  

Charlottesville: Race and Terror. YouTube, Vice News, 14 Aug. 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P54sP0Nlngg&t=5s. Accessed 28 Mar. 2022. 

 Inside Incel, CBC, The Fifth Estate, 27 Jan. 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqWjCHPg9gA. Accessed 25 Sept. 2023.  

James, Will, Online Influencers, Toxic Masculinity, and the Classroom, Vanier College, March 5, 2024 

HBO Video  

Blog 1: Breaking Down the Male Stereotype Walls

Aleah Murji                  

At a young age young boys are trying to explore themselves, find their identity and discover what their passions are. If society pushes them to follow and act in a certain way, they will never be able to find who they truly are. If we give kids the freedom of not being judged or not having to act a certain way then maybe there wouldn’t be such separation and sexism between men and women. We are presented with these themes through the show Invincible and the short story Guys club, where freedom was taken away from them- whether it be freedom of expression or having freedom to follow their passions. Eventually though, both characters were able to overcome these barriers and break away society’s rules while being able to express their own values and character.

In the short film the main character, Marc was constantly trying to get his freedom from being trapped at the youth centre. This exemplifies what most men go through when it comes to the idea of masculinity. Men must follow the strict rules that society has placed on them. They are forced to act a certain way and follow specific norms. This was seen in the text Guys Club by Gomez where the protagonist’s dad made sure he would go to the gym to build muscled or when his aunt told him not to paint his nails. Carlos had to follow the rules that his peers imposed on him to be accepted or else he would be made fun of and called a faggot, which was also described in the text as someone with disabilities. Carlos says in the text: “It is a suffocating bar that can never be met… Manhood has been a riddle for my own destruction. I was willingly playing a game I was destined to lose”(page 80. Gomez). Meaning no matter how they acted they would never meet up to the standards, whether it was being man enough, in Carlos’s case or being good enough to be let out of the centre, in Marc’s case.  In both cases, when the characters would try to rebel against societal rules, they would be looked down upon or simply rejected. These constraints impeded them from exploring their own personalities if they wanted to fit in.

Both characters were struggling with their internal emotions, which is something that most men in society are faced with. They want to be perceived as strong, brave and manly because that’s what has been drilled into their minds, but are prevented from expressing their emotions and feelings. This often results in the suppression of their emotions which in turn may result in inappropriate behaviour. The title of the short film ‘’Invincible’’ symbolizes this very well because throughout the whole film Marc repeatedly tells his sister he is invincible, conveying the message of strength and resilience, as he was waving the hot flame under his hands. In reality, he was deeply struggling with his inner vulnerabilities and ultimately led him to commit suicide. He was not able to access the right resources to be helped because he was stuck behind the norms of society of being ‘’invincible’’ as a man.We also saw this in the text by Gomez where the main character was continuously telling us that he was a vulnerable and sensitive person, but since he was a man, he was not able to show these emotions to others or else he was considered too feminine-like. As such, from a very young age he was never really able to explore and discover his true  nature.

At the end of both pieces both characters realized that they would only be happy and free if they follow their own rules and standards. Marc’s way of doing so was when he finally got the courage to run through the fence that he was constantly looking at, but had never got the courage to run past it. The fence, surrounding the youth centre prevented the kids from running away, and in a way symbolized the impediments to men from freedom. In this case, Marc got the courage to get away from the confinement and rules that didn’t allow him to be himself. After crossing it he was able to go back to his place of freedom which was the ocean. When Carlos went to Zambia, he was exposed to a completely different world where he was able to show affection to his male peers. Thanks to this experience, he finally found himself and was able to be okay in his own skin. He also realized that he was able to break these standards and rules when he had gotten into a relationship with someone who was lesbian. This woman supposedly “broke” the rules but nothing bad had happened to her. He felt daunted and exhilarated when he was with her. Carlos realized that to be a man, you don’t need to follow such rules and that each person should be able to express themselves in any way or form. Whether it be in a more open, vulnerable way or simply just holding hands with another person without being insulted. Both these young men had finally got the courage to break from the confinement that society puts us in.

While Carlos and Marc struggled, with their “forced” male identities, they were able to break out from these imposed societal norms through their challenges. It is heartening to see that men are able to express their emotions and vulnerability without feeling ashamed. Through this understanding, I will make sure that I allow my children to express their emotions and feelings, while educating them that society shouldn’t force them to be someone they are not. 

Bibliography

Gómez, Carlos Andrés “Guys Club: No Faggots, Bitches, or Pussies Allowed.” Man up: Cracking the Code of Modern Manhood, Gotham Books, 2012, pp. 65–83.

 René-Lortie, Vincent, director. Invincible, TV5 Unis, 2022, https://www.tv5unis.ca/invincible.