Thursday, February 4, 2016

Manhood

Because I am female, I am quick to point out all the ways the world has been unfair to women. Because I am female, I often forget about all the ways the world has been unfair to men. In his Ted Talk, A Call To Men, Tony Porter starts by describing the way men are "supposed" to act. Some of the descriptions he uses include: strong, dominating, no emotions (with the exception of anger), and no fear. In his talk he recalls the times when his son would come to him crying, and rather than comfort him, Porter would tell him to basically man up and stop crying. Because as we all know, men are not supposed to cry. At some point in time it was decided that men were not allowed to cry, or show emotion, or care at all because it would somehow threaten their "manhood." In Porter's talk he says that one of the things he wants to do is redefine manhood, and I have seen some media trying to do this as well. One advertisement that does a good job of redefining manhood is the Dove Men+Care Real Strength campaign. In this ad campaign men are portrayed as fathers and caregivers. The tagline of the campaign is "care makes a man stronger." I believe this ad is reinforcing the positive message that caring and showing emotion does not detract from a man's maleness, but actually adds to it. In the Ted Talk, Porter described a horrific event where boys from the neighborhood raped a girl. While Porter didn't actually participate, he let everyone think he did and he did nothing to stop what was going on. At the time he thought he was doing the "manly" thing, but really the "manly" thing would have been to care enough to stop the rape. I completely agree that care makes a man stronger, and I believe it is important to continue putting forth these positive messages. 


1 comment:

  1. I really loved this commercial. When I realized that you could've substituted any of the little boys with little girls, I realized that it was not only effective in breaking down gender stereotypes but effective in breaking down this culture of masculinity. So much of masculinity comes from the male role in the household and also the male role in the family relationships. This commercial targets gender stereotypes and helps tell men that it's okay to cry and it's okay to be vulnerable.

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