“Men want a battle to fight, an adventure to live, and a beauty to rescue. That is what is written in their hearts. That is what little boys play at. That is what men’s movies are about. You just see it. It is undeniable.” John Eldredge
In the documentary “The Mask You Live In ” , men were illustrated as being weak , having emotions and the right to express themselves crying unlike society stereotypes which are that men should have no emotions using violence to solve problems and being dominant .
The 2 aspects of research that really jumped out at me and illustrate the results of society stereotypes pressure on boys and men are: 1. Everyday three or more boys commit suicide and 2. 93% of boys are exposed to internet porn .
These 2 aspects got my attention because I think that boys’ everyday suicide is a real problem caused by society traits and stereotypes towards boys that even from young age parents , schools and other social networks tend to trait young boys as men teaching them that you have to hide your emotions ( no crying especially in front of girls) , you are strong, you have to use your power to fight . This leads boys to overthink about their masculinity and how to prove it to not be ignored or bullied by other boys and all these things lead boys to commit suicide to give away their masculinity
It shocked me that 93% of boys are exposed to internet porn, this mean that boys are misusing the technology they were exposed to , and this is very dangerous because this is a harmful way to prove a boy’s masculinity and boys tend to do this as part of their attempts to discover themselves and this simply means that a full generation and society is at risk of losing themselves to prove their masculinity.
And to link the findings of this documentary with Carlos Andres Gomez book , the part which really got my attention from this book is , when he realized that he is homophobic even if he was behaving and thinking about himself like a gay , and the documentary helped me understand this view when saying that masculinity is about physical appearance and the thoughts about one’s self as a man influenced by society , that yes sometimes men behave and dress like women but sometimes this is a result of society traits and stereotypes .
Finally , “Being a male is a matter of birth. Being a man is a matter of choice.” — Edwin Louis Cole
Miryam Sioufi
Lovers and Fighters | Section 22 