Masculinity as a form of social construct and its evolution

Masculinity is a form of social construct that implies certain traditional characteristics attributed to the male sex, which includes both physical as well as behavioral traits, which when possessed by a man, is called masculine, and when not possessed, identified as not being masculine (Thompson and Bennett 2017). The description of the traits have changed significantly through the human civilization, with ancient civilizations where the gender roles were less rigid and male and females could have flexible roles in the society, to a more rigid structure where males and females had fixed roles which could not be interchanged. In the modern era, the image of masculinity has been derived from the early 19^th century mindsets that developed alongside the industrial revolution and a subsequent segregation of the role of a man working in factories and supporting families and the woman raising children. Such fixed roles helped to develop an image of the masculinity as synonymous to strength, imperialism and power and potency while the image of women became synonymous to weakness, submissiveness and impotency (Streets 2017; Jackson 2015). This has resulted in a crisis in the image of a male, which sets up exceedingly rigid expectations on either sex, thereby causing an identity crisis. This phenomenon has been described as a contributor of a crisis in masculinity in the modern era, where an ideally masculine individual has been characterized as a strong, testosterone pumped, authoritative or imperialistic individual devoid of any weakness and masculinity itself has been defined as a lack of feminity, thereby excluding the female sex from such a characterization (Plummer 2016; Connell 2017)).

The aim of this study is to analyze a recent news article that discusses this ‘crisis’ faced by this modern imagery of masculinity that has come to be widely accepted in our society, and how the key assumptions of masculinity has been influenced by the key discourses on masculinity in our society.

Analysis of a newspaper article:

In the news article titled “The crisis in modern masculinity” written by Pankaj Mishra, which was posted on The Guardian on March 17^th, 2018, the author discussed the modern imagery of masculinity which was supported by the contemporary societies and mainstream media. The author describes this as a sudden ‘rush of testosterone around the world’ and is seen as the leaders of nations showing off their masculinity to affirm their strength and position in world politics. The author cites several examples where a public show of strength and power has been considered as a masculine trait while showing emotions was considered as a lack of masculinity (Welford and Powell 2014). According to the author, this change started during the early 19^th century with a segregation of the roles of males and females. The author stated that such division of labor which deviated from the more flexible systems seen in the agrarian societies have ultimately led to the polarization of identities of men and women in the society with the men being considered as strong, powerful and physically built up, an imagery that goes will with an imperialistic or nationalistic ideologies, while the women being considered as weak, timid and devoid of masculine characteristics (Wentzell 2015).

Discourses of masculinity in contemporary society

Example of the infamous Nathuram Godse was given, who assassinated Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, a famous Indian political activist for his non-violent movement to destabilize the British colonization of India, and help Indians get their independence. His philosophy of non violence have been harshly criticized by several Indians, especially by a fraction of Hindu nationalists who have long idolized the ideology of racial supremacy and tyrants such as Adolf Hitler, and have criticized Mahatma Gandhi as being too feminine and lacking enough strength and power to drive away the British colonizers from India. This conflict ultimately led to the assassination of Gandhi by Godse on January 30^th, 1948, soon after the independence of India. Godse firmly believed that the politics of Gandhi was emasculating the Hindu Nation of India, and criticized Gandhian politics and philosophy was ‘womanly’ (Roberts 2016). This perspectives clearly shows how the ideas of non violence was considered as signs of weakness, while a totalitarian, authoritarian and complete dominance was considered as masculine traits. More recent example has also been cited by the author such as the deliberate show of power by political leaders such as Donald Trump (the president of the United States), Vladimir Putin (The president of Russia) or Narendra Modi (the Prime Minister of India). Each of these leaders has openly supported the ideas of a show of strength and power as signs of masculinity and has considered feminity as weak. Each of these instances has led to the reinforcement of the stereotype regarding the gender images that is supported in our modern society. These leaders, thorough their show of power and authority has thus fuelled the current crisis in the understanding of masculinity (Mishra 2018).

The author also pointed out that such stereotypical mindsets are now being challenged with the technological advances in our society, with the necessity of showing power have become less relevant, and things can be done just at the push of a button. Both men and women are freer to express their sexuality and follow a gender identity of their choosing, without having the conform to the social norms for stereotypes. A man can show their emotional side, while a woman can be as masculine as any man can. Such aspects have been widely popular in China, where the technological growth has blurred the divide between the genders. However, the west still struggles to uphold such values and men still struggle to live up to the stereotypical expectations, creating a sense of identity loss and identity crisis among both men and women (Pelling 2017).

Factors that have shaped the assumptions about men’s gender and sexuality in modern society

The modern assumptions of men’s gender and masculinity have been contributed to by several factors which have reinforced the traditional views of the male role in the society. Some of these assumptions have been discussed below:

According to many authors, the key factors that have shaped the imageries associated with masculinity includes the culture and subculture, class and occupation, religion and beliefs, ethnicity, geographic location, status and lifestyle, education, sexual orientation, age and physique and historical location. These factors can change from place to place, thereby changing how masculinity or feminity is perceived across various cultures. According to Mishra (2018), the ideas of masculinity seem to change between Western and Oriental societies. This change in the perception can be attributed to differences in these factors (Stemple and Meyer 2014). During the starting of the 20^th century, the description of the ‘traditional family’ developed where the father was the sole breadwinner of the family and the mother being the ‘home-maker’. Even though the participation of women in the paid labor force was on a rise, their financial contribution was always shadowed by the contribution by men and thus the role of a man became identified as the provider of the family. Similarly, masculinity also became identifiable as strength while feminity with softness and anyone not conforming to these gender roles were harshly criticized. For example, men showing emotions and not exhibiting strength were not considered to be man enough, while women showing strength was considered as too masculine (Williams 2018).

Such visualizations have also been supported by the mainstream media, which have shown men as the bearers of strength and women as rearers of family and management of household. Advertisements that showed women cleaning houses or toilets or cooking and men as outdoorsy and adventurous individuals became the strategies of businesses to address the target male or female crowds. These advertisements and visualizations openly implied the stigmatized roles of men and women in the society. Even though women were participating in wars, their role in the army was also historically downplayed, and the armies have always been attributed as a hyper masculine, testosterone driven force, and women have been pushed to the sidelines where they are shown to tend to wounded warriors and soldiers, distanced from the war-front (Schilt and Windsor 2014).

Other others have proposed that the stereotypical behaviors generally attributed to the male gender included assertiveness, control, ambition, forceful, aggressive, dominance, objective, tough, determination, guts, self reliant, self confident, individualistic and independent and had true leadership qualities. On the other hand, behaviors or personality traits such as kindness, helpfulness, friendliness, gentleness, passiveness, softness, affectionate, sympathetic, sensitive, empathetic and compassion were considered as feminine and thus unlikely to be leaders. This stereotype lead to cultural shocks whenever these was a deviation from these stereotypical roles when a man or a woman wanted to exhibit the characteristics not typical to the gender, which then leads to cultural conflicts (Young 2017). Such an example of cultural shock can be seen in case of the boom written by Sayyid Qutb, an Egyptian author and Islamic theologian and a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. When Qutb visited United States, he harshly criticized the culture to be to materialistic and the freedom of choice and individuality of the women as being vulgar and opposed to Islamic ideologies. Such a cultural shock eventually led to the demonization of western cultures, which have later influenced the likes of Osama Bin Laden and terrorist organizations such as Al Quaieda and ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria). According to authors, their ideas of masculinity have also been significantly influenced by the gender stereotypes that have been followed by the west in the past (Mishra 2018; Westbrook and Schilt 2014).

Stereotypes of masculinity as strength, imperialism, and power

Waling (2017) pointed out how men’s lifestyle magazines have focused on the stereotypical representation of masculinity that conformed to the traditional visualization of a ‘perfect man’. Such biased views have caused stress among men, who often feel that they are unable to compete with such an image, leading to a feeling of being inferior to others and thus being rebuked and made fun of by others. These visualizations have been a source of social pressure on these men, often struggling to ‘live up’ to such heightened expectations from the contemporary society. The body image that is perpetrated by the magazines further increases the gender gap between masculinity and feminity and leads to differences in expectations on gender roles. The article by Mishra (2018) portrays such an aspect that correlates the modern portrayal of men in mainstream media as the cause of the ‘crisis’ faced by masculinity, and a deviation from what masculinity was understood as in the past (Nadal et al. 2015).

Beasley (2013) also pointed out that the gender gap between male and female genders have been increased by the differences in gender and sexuality between male and females. According to the author, the postmodern visualization of male has been described as a gradient between strength and weakness, with the real muscular male being very strong by nature. These differences have led to the emergence of ‘sex wars’ between the male and female genders, where either gender have started to consider the other as a danger to each other. Authors of masculinity studies have attributed such sex wars as the cause of a gander gap, and have caused historic disadvantages to any individuals who would not like to conform to the traditional gender roles. According to Mishra (2018), this gender gap is one of the significant stressor faced by these individuals who would not like to conform to the traditional gender roles and want to exhibit more freedom while choosing their gender and sexuality (Waling 2017).

Tanner et al. (2013) discussed the development of the modern constructs of gender through material conditions, body image and language. The authors have pointed out that vanity has developed in our culture over several years of normalization of gender stereotypes. The advent of cosmetic surgeries have further helped to increase the vanity, as individuals can use cosmetic surgeries to ‘fit better’ into the stereotypes of gender, with makes attempting to artificially create more muscular features and females with more feminine features. The fashion magazines that gives the depictions of these ‘perfect men and women’ have significantly attributed to the development of vanity around the gender roles in the society. These differences have been pointed out by Mishra (2018) as one of the key reasons for the crisis faced by the modern concept of masculinity, in which men often struggle between what is expected from them, and what they really want, and have also affected the women as significantly as men (Beasley 2013).

The identity crisis among men

All these impacts have been described as the ‘costs of masculinity’ where an individual has been stressed with the expectation to fulfill the traditional percepts of masculinity by the contemporary society. For example, the expectation that the males have the inherent responsibility of being the bead-earners and protectors of the family and the imageries have been supported by mainstream media in various ways, such a films that glorifies men taking on such responsibilities, and stories that depict men in such a traditional color. Moreover, personal sexual preferences such as homosexuality have also been stereotyped by the media as not being masculine, thereby causing untold criticism, harshness and discrimination against homosexual individuals, leading to a phenomenon known as homophobia (Tanner et al. 2013; Bridges 2014).

Conclusion:

Masculinity is a social construct that implies specific roles for make and females. These constructs have evolved through human civilization, and in the past few centuries, these constructs have led to the creation of a gender gap between male and female. The gender gap has been created due to the visualization of men as strong while women as weak, thus setting up unrealistic expectations of gender in the society.  Several authors have supported that such differences have been supported through the mainstream media as well as by political leaders and media personnel thereby reinforcing the biased opinions. Such biased views have creased a crisis of the modern concepts of masculinity as the males are expected to be strong, affirmative and not showing kindness or empathy, while showing empathy and kindness was considered to be feminine and devoid of masculinity. Such visualizations adversely affect the wellbeing of the society and have been called as the ‘costs’ of masculinity on the society.

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