According to the documentary School Violence, there is an enormous amount of physical bullying which happens and it is thrown under the rug. 77% of Ontario schools report no incident of school violence (school violence 9:10-9:13), which is ironic because it is inaccurate and false.  It is also ironic in the sense that “men who happen to have “low education and low job offers repeatedly turn to illegal activities”(“Fathers and Fathering” 184). Clearly, the kids who do the hurting, have some sort of education yet turn to bullying as an act of rebellion.

In comparison to The Code, fighting is considered a part of the game. It took awhile for the hockey players who are fathers, to realize they would not want their children in a fight. The reason behind this is because “from the earliest days of a male’s childhood, cultures bombard children with messages about how to be masculine. Meaning, they must act dominant, independent, tough, and unemotional.” (“Defining Men’s Studies 2”)

What shook me most was the story of the nine year old, who was touched and abused. I found this absolutely disgusting and the worst thing was, the institution did not take correct repercussions. Thus, “1 in 4 girls experience unwanted touching and sexual abuse and 1 in 7 girls say they were sexually assaulted by another student (school violence 11:26-11:41). This correlates with a phrase that was stated by Tony Porter in Man Enough. He said that “violence has evolved. Misogyny has evolved.” Therefore, violence is portrayed around the media as a positive thing, to fight for what you want. However, when it comes to real life, physical fighting will not do you any good. 

Aside from how violence impacts children, it also impacts a person both mentally and physically. Fighting in hockey causes concussions which eventually can cause dementia, depression as well as suicidal thoughts. We do live in a time and place where we have medication to treat many problems, but in this case, it is not reversible. The reason why fighting occurres in hockey is not only due to entertainment purposes, but also because this is the job of hockey players (The Code). 53% of workers happen to be a man according to 2010 statistics (“Men at Work” 233) . Therefore, men are considered breadwinners, for the most part. The fact that hockey players make money from playing and fighting, thrive hockey players to continue that habit. 

In conclusion, school violence and fighting in hockey occur due to numerous reasons, whether it is to be an ideal masuline figure” or to act as the breadwinner, men have little choice as to how they choose to act since, their personalities and behaviours are chosen for them. 

Works Cited 

“How to fight for safer schools.” School Violence. CBC, 24 Oct. 2019.

Kilmartin and Smiler. “Defining Men’s Studies.” The Masculine Self, Sloan Publishing, 2019, pp. 1-7, Cornwall On Hudson, Accessed 25 Apr. 2020 

Kilmartin and Smiler. “Fathers and Fathering.” The Masculine Self, Sloan Publishing, 2019, pp. 180-197, Cornwall On Hudson, Accessed 25 Apr. 2020 

Kilmartin and Smiler. “Men at Work: Jobs, Careers and Masculinity.” The Masculine Self, Sloan Publishing, 2019, pp. 220-235, Accessed 25 Apr. 2020 

“The Code.” CBC, 26 Mar. 2010.

Why CBC Started Looking into Violence in Schools | CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/school-violence-editors-note-1.5331402. Accessed 29 Apr. 2020.

One thing that shook me to the core was the fact that “the native only own 0.2% of their land while Canada owns 89% of stole land”. That being said, to my knowledge, amongst Indigenous there are no stereotypes regarding “male jobs” or “female jobs”. Whereas in Canada and the States, female jobs are examples of “nursing and teaching” whereas men are the engineers of society. (Kilmartin, Smiler 228) Thus, women are likely to be affected by climate change compared to men due to inequality. Throughout history, “women nearly always contributed equal or larger amounts compared to men”. (Kilmartin, Smiler 228) Yet, the men still take the credit for it.

As for Navqi’s and Laity’s presentation, it is not a surprise to my knowledge that throughout their lives, they experienced severe Negrophobia or Islamophobia. Nadia experienced racism way before Law 21 came into place. Growing up, Nadia saw her father get beaten for no reason, a teacher telling her to go back to her country, etc. Nonetheless, even after becoming a teacher she was bullied by students and their parents. Whereas for Laity, she stated skin colour, or her hair style did not matter back where she grew up in Senegal. She was looked down on differently when she went to Paris. Because of Law 21, she cannot move up to be a part of administration due to her hijab. That being stated, “it is proven that for white people, racialization happens differently because they are culturally a dominant group in our society”. (Kilmartin, Smiler 225)

In conclusion, people of colour, specifically women are oppressed because of the phobias people have to a certain race. Also, white privilege does exist and it undermines the experience and knowledge a person of colour has just because of a skin colour. Hopefully near future, skin colour does not come into consideration.

The people who I chose to interview are none other than both of my coworkers. The reason why I chose to interview not one but two of them, is to get two different perspectives since both my coworkers are very different but somehow manage to perfectly fit society’s definition of perfect men.

The first man I interviewed goes by the name Eduardo. Eduardo as a person is caring and affectionate. He plays more of a “protector” role with everybody. His best friend happens to be his girlfriend of two years. He considers them to be very close because she’s the only person who never fails to make him smile. In addition to this, they have the capacity to communicate through the good and the bad. He even admitted that his girlfriend brings out the best version of him, even in times of sorrow. Together, they love to go on adventures around Montreal: whether it be discovering new places to eat or watching the latest movie with his lover. From what I hear, they tell each other that they love one another every single day and every single time after hearing those three words, his girl shows off that huge smile of hers. Eduardo relationship correlates with the strong bonds in “Man Enough”.

Arnold is the name of my other coworker. Describing him is the exact midpoint of both a pesky child and a wise Elder. One characteristic that both Eduardo and Arnold share in common is: they are both soft at heart but prefer to show their aggressive side, just like how any man is expected to behave. Arnold’s best friend is a man he met in daycare. They remained close for years because he is able to talk to him in a free manner. In his words, “he has the least amount of filters with this friend in particular”. Together, they like to call themselves the kings of ridiculing people for no reasons to be specific. However, even if their friendship has been strong for 12 years, he never once told him how much his best friend meant to him because it never crossed his mind. He correlates with the phrase from the reading “taking risks and getting in trouble” (p 161)

To briefly conclude the topic of friendships for both my coworkers, the thing that I observed is the admiration given to another half is different compared to one of a male best friend. The reasoning may be due to media portrayal and how society works in general. In books, movies, and even music videos, the relationship between a male and female generally happens to be shown filled with hugs and kisses. Whereas, two male friends tend to be depicted more verbally than physically.

By stating that “institutions accomplish the creation of gender difference and the reproduction of the gender order through several gendered processes” (Kimmel, 3), the author is trying to imply that people are attempting to make big moves involving gender equality. For example, gender neutral bathrooms, and genderless jobs. In correlation to Man Enough, the topic “men and women cannot be just friends” arises. If two men and/or two women strangers have the right to go to the bathroom, the rules should be for a man and a woman.

The reasoning behind the use of the term masculinities in the phrase “understanding how we do masculinities, then, requires that we make visible the performative elements of identity, and also the audience for those performances” (Kimmel, 4) is because it is in fact, the plural form of it. The author uses this term instead because its definition is not stabilized. It changes over the course of a person’s life. For instance, on Man Enough, many boys follow the “guy code” and consider that as being masculine. However, some men realize how ignorant this “guy code” is so they change their behaviour later on.

Also, “there are different forms of masculinities across the different cultures. Some cultures encourage men to be stoic while for other cultures, it is simply based on civic participation.” The definition for masculinities change over time. For example, its meaning is different today as to its meaning in the 17th century. “Masculinities also changes over the course of a mans life”. Certain experiences and milestones shape a man.

References:

“#Me Too.”Youtube, uploaded by Wayfarer Entertainment, 26 July 2018, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwQLcyLbfm2erg_j0_ZTG5Q

INTERNATIONAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES. 2nd ed.

They say men must act tough through it all, but what really astonished me was the fact that they are constantly obligated to keep a poker face. Sorrow, anger, fear: these are all completely normal emotions every human is born with, man or not. Thus, being told to not show feelings eventually builds up inside of you until you can no longer take it anymore. This shook me because coming from a family of three woman, I’m not really aware of how men are treated since all my life, I was told it is harder to live life as a woman.

Another thing that jumped at me was “1 in 4 boys get bullied at school, and only 30% of those boys tell their parents”. This was shocking in particular because in movies such as Mean Girls and cyberbully, the females were often targeted. It caught my attention as I figured male, in particular gays are thrown under the bus for almost anything. In addition, the bullies often tend to pick on people because they are taught how to behave dominantly in which, bullies think they are.

As for the Carlos Andres Gomez book, the part that got to me was when after figuring out what a faggot meant, Carlos went on stating he has had “classmates and friends describe gay people as pedophiles and molesters”. Incidents such as so transformed Carlos into a homophobic person to the point he refused to attend a gay club. This intertwines with the documentary because gay people are considered weak and show sissyness in the eyes of society. According to the movie, “boys have a higher suicide rate than girls” and almost every male who shared their bullying incident in the movie thought of suicide at one point.

My role model

This guy here, he has been my idol for as long as I can remember. He is my definition of the perfect president and he has the biggest heart, for an ex president at least. Unlike the present president, Obama would never dare to think of building walls, or initiating wars. Nonetheless, Obama would never try and separate little children away from their parents. He was the most humble and kindhearted human to ever exist.

Aside from being the first president of color, he supported many causes such as same sex marriage and he even ended a war in Iraq. That being said, he never had the most perfect life himself. His parents underwent a divorce and would not have access to proper education if it weren’t for a scholarship. He is what I call a real president and he will still continue to fight for what’s right. His good qualities are his determination, administration and love he has for his people.

My definition of an inspirational person is someone who younger generations can look up to. Speaking from a young adult’s perspective, if I had people like Obama to aspire to become, I would have grown up to be a better person. To me, an inspirational person is someone who knows their values, morals, and power and take advantage of it to do good things. No one is perfect, everyone makes mistakes but an inspiration is someone who uses their mistakes as a way to warn youngsters to advice them.

Fave Food: Tacos 🌮