Just-Chiu

Media - Things We Might Not Be Aware

2008-04-24T10:50:00.000-07:00

As I go on with my research, I start to find more things about masculinity. Media is one thing that impacts everyone's life significantly. "In Tough Guise: Violence, Media and the Crisis in Masculinity, Jackson Katz and Jeremy Earp argue that the media provide an important perspective on social attitudes—and that while the media are not the cause of violent behaviour in men and boys, they do portray male violence as a normal expression of masculinity." (Media Awareness Network)

While I search the media, I also find that Disney films also project images of male masculinity by obtaining the power. There's also a video on Youtube that is commonly being discussed about masculinity problem in Disney film - Video captures sexism, problems with masculinity in Disney film (RaceWire) Most people use that film as a tool to demonstrate how Disney teaches poor lessons on masculinity and ultimately condemns male characters to objectifying or subjugating women.

There are many films or advertisement programs that contain information on male masculinity. One of the films I find to be commonly discussed is "Fight Club". "Fight Club (1996) is the first published novel by American author Chuck Palahniuk. The plot is based on an unnamed protagonist who struggles with his growing discomfort with consumerism and changes in the state of masculinity in American culture. In an attempt to overcome this, he creates an underground fighting club as a radical form of psychotherapy. It was made into a movie of the same name in 1999 by director David Fincher." (Fight Club, Wikipedia) There are many people discuss this movie after they watched it. A lot of them talk about the consumerism and many of them also worry about the masculinity in the U.S. society. "white masculinity most fully represents itself as victimized by inhabiting a wounded body," (6) and "displaying wounded bodies materializes the crisis of white masculinity, makes it more real, like other bloody battles over race and gender in American history" (9). (Masculinity and Violence )

This research I have done for final project teaches me a lot. It changes my life quite bit and changes the way I look at everything. I start to understand why men are often found to be aggressive and violent. I also start to understand the meaning of being a man and the difference of man and masculinity. I think this research is very important to me and I am pretty sure I will continue to find more objects relate back to this project.

Works Cited:

"Video captures sexism, problems with masculinity in Disney film." RaceWire, The Colorines Blog. 10 Apr. 2008 <http://www.racewire.org/archives/2007/07/video_captures_sexism_problems.html>

"Fight Club." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 10 Apr. 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fight_Club>

Freed, Robin. "Masculinity and Violence." I'm Jack's Raging Bile Duck. I'm Jack's Raging Bile Duck. Aug. 2002. 10 Apr. 2008 <http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma02/freed/fightclub/masviol.html>

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Just-Chiu

2008-04-08T17:49:00.000-07:00

... I guess I will start by saying:

Hello, everyone

I'm new to this community and pretty much this whole blog thing. Even though I have heard of blogging for many years, but I have been trying to avoid myself to become one of them bloggers. Blogging is like a drug that once people try it, they will addict to it -- something I have heard several times. >.<

I guess I will try not to get addicted and at same time, I will try to share some stuff with you all. Feel free to give me any feedbacks and I really hope not to see much flaming posts here. (of course, I can't ask for non-flaming environment)

CWC

Tough Guise - Uncover the construction of masculine identities

2008-04-07T19:56:00.000-07:00

"Tough Guise" is a powerful tool to understand in this project. This film uncovers a lot of messages that hide behind our media, daily activities, and social relationships. After watching the film, I uncovered part of myself and now I want to uncover more. I want to know what does that mean to be a man? So I go on and ask myself these questions: What is the ideal image of a man? Is an ideal image of a man should be like this
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(Image may be scaled down and subject to copyright. Image from http://www.javno.com/)

or should an ideal man looked like this
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(Image from Wikipedia)

It seems so normal to us that a real man should have some muscle if not fully built. What's people's reaction to people with muscle, like skinny male body? I found this post (RingsWorld.com) online and the responses are something I expect people to react somehow. The reason I expect people to react that way is because that is how this Westernized culture has taught us. Being a man, you are supposed to have broader shoulder and chest; you are also supposed to have greater muscle mass. (Man, Wikipedia) I also find the definition in an online dictionary for the word, man. Here is one of the definitions for "man" - a man who has the qualities that people think a man should have, such as being brave, strong etc. (Longman Online Dictionary)

At this point, I have better understanding of why men's identities are the way it is. What about you?

Works Cited:

"Man." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 8 Apr. 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man>

"Really Skinny Guy." RingsWorld.com. 8 Apr. 2008 <http://board.ringsworld.com/really-skinny-guy-t14824.html>

Longman Online Dictionary. 8 Apr. 2008 <http://www.ldoceonline.com/>

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Uncovering Men's Life: Masculinity and Violence

2008-04-07T17:25:00.001-07:00

(Westernized masculine system structure!! )

Being a male, I have never doubted the power of men. All the privileges men possess seem so natural to me. This patriarchy system in U.S. culture seems to be the way it supposes to be. However, is this true? It was a true statement to me before I started college. It was some what true after I attended college. It was some what not true after I started taking CES courses at college. Now, I think this patriarchy system is so screwed up after examining the system structure in U.S. culture.

I was the kind of person that believe if you have power, you will be able to do most things you like to do. If you are strong, no one will want to mess with you. -- Don't you think this statement seems to familiar to you? Where did I get this concept? The answer will not surprise you. I learned this concept from Darwin's "Natural Selection". Darwin believed that only if the creature is superior than the others, they will have better chance to survive. Most people who believe this concept also believe that the only way to survive in this society is to be superior than the others. There's a term called "Survival of the fittest" and it was first used by Herbert Spencer. Herbert Spencer once used this term in the context of societies at war, "Thus by survival of the fittest, the militant type of society becomes characterized by profound confidence in the governing power, joined with a loyalty causing submission to it in all matters whatever." (Survival of the fittest, Wikipedia) To me, this term "Survival of the fittest" is why I believed that holding power is the key to achieve something.

What changed the way I think about this patriarchy system in U.S. culture? After taking some courses that related to ethnic studies at college, I started to examine the U.S. system structure. Then that one time when I was watching a film called, "Tough Guise", in one of my class, I was triggered by what I saw in that film. The information I received from the film was a key to find the answers of all the questions I had about patriarchy system in U.S. culture.

Works Cited:

Charles, Darwin. "Natural selection." The Origin of Species. 1859. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 1 Apr. 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_selection>

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