Gender Narratives Part 1

 Tough Guise Summary 

Our culture places high emphasis on conforming to the gender roles of men and women. People of all genders are pressured to conform and often experience mental health issues relating to the societal pressures they face. For men in particular though, the concept of masculinity is directly tied to violence. The rhetoric that men must be violent, strong, and lacking emotion has been part of our culture for a very long time. The movie Tough Guise gives the example of John Wayne movies in which cowboys are always strong silent types that are quick to draw a gun. 

In recent years however the ties between masculinity and violence presented in the media have grown stronger. The movie gives several examples from Hollywood and it's ties with the gun industry citing movies like Avatar and Top Gun that glorify "larger than life" weapons. They also compare the portrayal of superheroes from early superman and batman movies to today exemplifying the physical standards actors must fit today.

 This increase in visual language that glorifies violence in men has directly impacted violent crimes. The movie explains that young boys are shown the media described above as well as taught examples of violence by adult role models causing men to believe violence is the best tool to prove their manhood. The repetition and growing visual and spoken language around this topic has increased it's power in our society leading to serious problems surrounding mental health and violent crime.

Capitalism and Social Classes

American society in particular values monetary gain and rising social classes very highly. When most Americans think about success, financial success would be the first thought. Starting early in our foundation is the idea of the American dream, based almost completely on advancing socially by earning money. In addition to valuing money, Americans have the concept of the self made worker. American society idealizes people who come from humble beginnings and work hard to gain wealth. The result of this ideology is that many look down on those in poverty and those that are born with money. The story of a hard working person with big dreams living in poverty and working their way to success is portrayed in the media nearly as much as the above standard of gender. Movies and news articles alike present this ideal worker as desirable. Many people in our society even look at CEO's as celebrities for this exact reason. Stories of Bill Gates starting Microsoft out of his garage are now common household stories meant to inspire children to achieve similarly high expectations. While working hard and having goals are positive traits, this intense ideology is harmful to those that don't measure up. This message causes many to overlook the very real issues that create and keep people in poverty and make us much less understanding or willing to help. It also puts pressure on every member of society, each of us trying to succeed more than our parents or peers. This is an unreasonable expectation as every generation cannot always outdo the last leading to mental health and financial issues similar to the gender issue above.

Resources 

Pettinger, T., Callie, Nick, Berry, Ryan, Ricky, Balint, Jones, T., Schreiber, J. T., Nadia, Arnell, George, B., Alber, E., LEE, M., direction, S. one need, S, E., Hill, S., & Karbinski, C. (2019, December 10). Problems of capitalism. Economics Help. Retrieved August 29, 2022, from https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/77/economics/problems-of-capitalism/

Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (n.d.). Criticisms of capitalism. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved August 29, 2022, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/economic-system/Criticisms-of-capitalism