The Black Male Searching for Stereotypes Blog #4

The struggles of woman are often downplayed in our society specially when it comes to black woman. The challenge for woman as it seems is that they have to prove themselves to be just as good as man are, and for black woman they have to take it a step further. First they have to prove that they are just as worthy as any white woman while not being affected by judgmental stereotypes and then prove that they are just as good as man are. As stated by Manning "not only did they have to endure exploitation and racism they also had to deal with the negative consequences of being a woman like sexism and rape, often the choices of weapon that men use to make women feel worthless and insecure." On top of the racism and rape they also had to somehow balance the everyday responsibilities such as the responsibilities of being a mother and being lovely and caring to the husband needs. She is one of the pillars that holds up the family, she bears responsibilities and the burdens. Apart from Michelle Obama ( who hasn't done that much) Harriet Tubman and Rosa Parks are one of the few black women who are recognized for their contribution and courage. Unitedly they helped society as a whole in understanding the importance that black women have contributed towards building a better and equal society for women and men everywhere, but more needs to be done to learn not only about a few black women ( in comparison to men) but black women everywhere who against all odds managed to overcome the hardship entrusted upon them and emerged triumphant.

Masculinity Paper

I did on time but just forgot to post it

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_Juhh-3B_Xb5wCs8dUKSnNIbt_jUsbp67auljRhUHDw/edit?hl=en&authkey=CLvN-KwF

Paul Theroux The Male Myth

In chapter 3 paragraph 2 Paul talks about disliking the idea of a what a men is supposed to be in his opinion. I'm sure that every boy growing up was told to "men up" at one point or other is his life and in high school this seemed to be a prevalent theme throughout my gym classes. In my gym classes i never bothered to work out or play football at one year I'm just the lazy type of person i suppose.When i attempted to play football apparently i wasn't good enough and so i failed. American Football would be probably the first sport that comes into anyone's head when you think of masculinity specially in the United States but I was held back one year even with summer school due to the fact that i was a butterfingers and because i couldn't play football like just as well as the other boys did, but hey at least i was pretty good at Volleyball.

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A thought came into my head as we were discussing and analyzing a photograph on class, the power of advertising. If i remember correctly there were 3 man on top of a woman and as we analyzed it i thought about how advertisement can affect people or at least in a subconscious way.During the class many interpretations came about including that the picture almost depicted rape because one men was on top of a woman holding her down and three other man watching. They were looking down on the woman and mind you that her pelvis was raised almost as if she wanted it to happen and in the background was a little bit of a cloudy sky.

What does that all mean though? Are men supposed to be on top of woman and is it ok for everyone to standby and watch? The island sky meaning that it's all good and relaxed? Are woman supposed to take it? While all the men are ripped and sweaty do all the woman have to be skinny and passive? Is this what you are supposed to take away from it, mind you the people that created this ad probably went to school to learn advertisement. I'm not saying all men who are muscular are doing it to fit in and I'm not saying that all women who are skinny are doing it to live up to the expectation, sometimes men are muscular because they do sports and not because they work out and sometimes women are skinny because it's just the genes. And on the topic of masculinity do you see how my thought process on the sentence before already came to the conclusion that men were playing sports but back to the point. While there are ads that are probably the opposite of what i have described above such as this one (http://fashionindie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/dolce_gabbana_whips.jpg) which reverse the roles of the typical male and female those are definitely not as common, and it is sometimes unrealistic because in school i see people from all shapes and sizes and looks.

Blog Entry #2

In my last blog entry I ended it by stating that it is up to the men inside and not outside to decide his masculinity. Judith Lorber's reading has got me thinking though, isn't masculinity molded in the outside world? There is a certain way you are supposed to dress,act etc. Ten years ago though I don't think anyone would think that men would have their eyebrows shaped to look good and yet they do it today. The world is always changing and to have certain expectations shoved down someone's throat does not make that much sense to me for example: If you are a male your expected to play some sort of sport. Now to what point do genes play a role in your gender? In Fausto's reading he states that the embryonic primordium is a indifferent fetal gonad which can give rise to the testis or the ovary but I agree with Lorber when he says that individuals are sexed but not gendered. A bit of an eye opener really because whenever someone would ridicule me I would always reply with I have a pair of balls so that makes me a man, and in a man's world that's what it's all about who has the biggest pair of balls is the bigger man. When you think of a men the last thing in your mind would be a transvestite. Transvestites are people who cross dress but masculine man will never cross dress because it's not socially acceptable but the way I see it I don't think a actor playing a woman is a cross dresser and I don't think a man wearing a kilt is a cross dresser and I surely wouldn't call Mulan a cross dresser (maybe not the most relevant example). There are those who go against the norm and do what they want or so called rebels but the word seems to have a negative connotation behind it. What makes a person a rebel? Only because they don't go along with what is the typical and expected that makes them a rebel or a bad person because they won't do what they are supposed to do.

When people talk about gender it is either you are a male or a female no in between: it seems to be such a concrete thing, something you can grasp with your hands but you can't. Gender is nothing but a word, a label to describe someone and what they are supposed to be like.

Blog Post #1. Are men born or made?

In my opinion men are born but can surely be made. Most people will agree that in this day and age science can explain 99% of everything that happens in life, and in scientific terms from the second your gene becomes a XY most of your life has been already premeditated. In speaking of masculinity what comes to my mind is what seems to be a universal standard of what a men is supposed to be and how they are supposed to act. Maybe I'm wrongly generalizing the idea of a man because i try to live a life without judging others but for this argument I would say that men have to be rough, somewhat promiscuous, and not be a "sissy", which includes sometimes treating women as tools. But I also say that man can be made because in my opinion the human mind can be shaped and molded.I will use one of John Money's cases example where one twin brother suffered a circumcision accident and then it was decided that the best option would be to get rid of the penis and raise it as a girl including hormonal treatment at puberty. Years later it seemed that he never accepted himself as a female and went to continue his life as a male and a little further research and I find that both the twins ended up committing suicide, now whether or not it was due to John's role in their lives is up to the individual person. Even though John's patient was raised as a female he did not identify himself as a female, maybe this is just an ordinary case but how is it that deep down inside he didn't feel like he fit in even though his whole life he was treated and raised as a female? Surely enough the decision was made in the best interest of the child because without a damaged penis how would he function in his day to day life. Assumptions led to the removal of his penis but maybe all he needed was a chance because with the advance of medicine maybe in years to come a new method of penile reconstruction would emerge and he would be "normal" again.  Everyone is "born free", free with the right to choose and the right to live as they please but it seems that the path to perfection sometimes might get in the way but no matter how hard anyone strives for perfection no one is and will never be. We are all born with flaws and qualities it's what makes us who we are and just maybe some things are supposed to be just the way they are. I say men are born but can surely be made, but that is up to the person inside and not outside.