Women's Studies Discussion

There is definitely a relationship between hyper-masculinity and the reason behind all of the violence created by men or boys trying to be tough. Hyper-masculinity has developed over time to create our image of the American male and what he should be. Being tough is certainly something men strive for and it absolutely can lead to violence. In the video "Tough Guise" says that 95% of dating violence is by males, often teenagers. This is extremely telling about our culture and the way it tries to conform young men into its ideal man while he is young.

In order to change this, I believe media should alter their policy on violence in movies. I believe video games with a high amount of violence should be outlawed. It just teaches young men that it's okay. I also believe women should be more receptive to men who show a feminen side.

All of this said, men will always have testosterone and have the instinct to be tough. Our culture has to find a way to limit the violence that is servere or fatal.

I feel that there are multiple reasons behind the reasons for high levels of violence among men but there is definitely a correlation between these violence levels and hyper-masculinity. As shown in the video “Tough Guise,” there are constantly movies coming out showing males normalizing violence. I often see my 5-year-old nephew watching movies or tv shows meant for children, but still showing fighting and being tough as the expectation for males. I think the principle values that kids may be learning from overexposure to violence on tv could go along with the statistic from “Tough Guise” that 81% of male abusers came from households with abuse. Children learn what they see whether it is on tv or right in front of them, and if it is a normal occurrence, children will always have that mindset ingrained. I think one thing society can do to improve this normalcy is enforce movie and tv rating systems more strictly