In today's society, most people expect men to be masculine. Men are portrayed as strong, athletic, and non emotional people. When men are anything besides this they are considered homosexual or womenly. I do not think it is right that this stereotype is still in action in todays society. When a family has a boy, the father wants to in roll him in sports and "manly" activities. If a father or even a mother sees their son doing something feminine, such as playing with barbies or dressing up, they put a stop to it right away because they do not want their son to turn out gay or seen as faggot.Theses are terrible terms and shouldn't be used to call a man who is feminine. Even at the young age of three, children are instructed by their parents and what they see in our society and even children programs of what a guy should be and what a women should be. This is shown in the youtube video at the top of my page where they interview children asking if they know if they are a girl or a boy. In my eyes it is OK for a man to be homosexual or just a feminine man. Men are still men no matter what and should not be made fun of the way they are. Wheres does it say in writing that a man has to be strong, play sports, and act the way they see "manly men" on Tv? Every man should be respected for who they are and what they do in their life decisions.
Reading post reminded of a song by the Barenaked Ladies;
ReplyDelete"When I was born, they looked at me and said
what a good boy, what a smart boy, what a strong boy.
And when you were born, they looked at you and said,
what a good girl, what a smart girl, what a pretty girl."
-Barenaked Ladies
This song give the image that our society has this idea that when a boy is born they will be strong, strength is something that our society associates with masculinity. Whether it is physical strength or emotional strength, men are meant to be strong. It goes on to say that when a girl is boy she is pretty. Furthering a stereotype and dividing men and woman. Woman are born to be smart and pretty, men are born to be smart and strong. These are expectations set my our society from birth.
This post reminds ne of the fact that the idea of being "masculine" of "feminine" is totally socially constructed. I feel that in society we are frowning upon a man being feminine. This has to do with the separate sphere ideology. That is, it is O.K. for a girl to do "boy " things, but it's not O.K. for a boy to do "girly" things, because that is the uncool thing to do.
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