On page 3 of “Masculinity”, the author Micheal Kimmel says, “Institutions accomplish the creation of gender difference and the reproduction of gender order through several gendered processes.” What he means to say is that how gender enequality or gender bias is automatically assigned in institutions. Where there is a specific gender standard or unconsious gendered roles in workplace instituions, which creates gender enequality between men and women. In the documentary, one of the men explained how his 15 year old son and his friends treat women through their communication, behavior in school and social media, he says after that whatever they learned when they were young about women, like superiority or undervaluying women. They use these “teachings” when they get older because it is embedded in them for such a long time, but not by purpose. Another person at the table mentions how the entertainment buisness is unconsiously built around the objectification of women and how that also unconsiously teaches young boys from a young age to be mysogonistic.
In the conclusion of Kimmel’s article on page 4, he says, “Understanding how do masculinities…opens up the unimaginable possibilities of social change.” First, Kimmel uses the term “masculinities” because many groups in society define masculinity in different ways, some define it as someone who does not express their emotions and fight them, become somebody who is strong, tough and does not need help from others. While others define it as somebody who has no shame in expressing emotions and showing vulnerability. For example, in the documentary, the men at the table have their own defintion of masculinity due to their past experiences and upbringing. Second, by relating to this to the documentary, the fact that these high socialite men are discussing about masculinity and how they can help women by discussing and disecting what’s wrong in masculinity completely relates in the quote on how changes can happen socially if we focus and discuss the understanding of masculinity.
Lovers and Fighters | Section 22 