'Tough Guise'

Men have a great deal of fear about being called “weak”. The definition of “tough guy” is defined by dominant group. I was shocked by what teen boys said about who “men” are. I thought that stereotypical men perception are often portrayed poorly or exaggerated. I thought that it is not as bad as how it is shown in the media. However, it turns out it is very true, especially at least for them. “Men” should be powerful, physical, strong, respected, independent, and tough. Those are very positive words and the opposite was pussy, bitch, mama’s boy, wimp, weak, and sissy. It is all negative words. They are actually mocking at the feminine qualities. I was thinking about what if I am a sensitive or emotional boy in class. There will be a lot of pure pressure, which I should act like a man like what others think of a man is supposed to be. The video warns the media is creating violence of masculinity in our society. It has been in our society for decades. And it also includes the color of people. Depending on an ethnic group the masculinity is differed. Moreover, media defines men as dominant group, so when the news introduces an accident, they usually focus on subordinated group, which is usually woman, or homosexuality. They leave out the key elements. They don’t pay attention to the masculinity. Like the speaker says in video, we have to “visualize” the hidden and violent masculinity. Personally I had put some thoughts on masculinity in past, but I did not know how to put them together neatly, but the video speaks very clearly for me. I was glad about it. One of other media affects people, especially men a lot, is sports culture. In the sports game, we occasionally see the fights between competitors. That kind of explains how we gain respect by not respecting others in our society. The more I grow up, the more I hear you should not let others look down you. Therefore, you should not be a “yes” man. You should say “no” to just show “I’m not an easy person.” And the tendency is that “No” person is more charming and cool, especially between high school kids. The most fascinating part was that shooting accident is increasing in teenagers. It was mostly about revenge. They got bullied, for they are more sensitive or they don’t act like one of “them.” The point I will try to make can be a little bit off the track. But still I kept thinking about this. In Korea, there is severe school bullying. It’s getting more serious, even it became the biggest societal issue. However, unlike American culture, Korean teenagers decide to commit suicide for revenge. It can be only the matter of legal issue of gun, but still they can try to hurt them physically or try to let them pay back, but instead, they kill themselves. I could say for sure youth violence is getting a serious problem, and wrong perception of masculinity participates deeply. It was interesting how different cultural group react differently on the same issue. I’m not saying which one is better than the other. Both are very tragic, but people should focus on what is implication to figure out the best solution.

Last Post

This must be the last post in my blog at least as a Sociology blog assignment. Before I start taking about two articles for this week, I need to talk about what I’ve learned in class in general. Before I take this class, I haven’t put some effort on thinking about race, and ethnicity. It is because my country, Korea, is nearly homogeneous. Like I said in class, I didn’t have to think about it, because unless you go abroad to travel or study, you are not going to meet other ethnicities much in your whole life. For me, race was just blacks It wasn’t even white or black. It seems like in my perception, the ordinary are whites, and something called “Race” was representative of blacks. Even though I am an Asian, ironically, I excluded Asians from race. I learned what the words exactly mean now. I don’t have to tell what the word means from what I think of the word seemingly means. I know what they are now clearly, how to divide them by characteristics, and what criteria they should meet to mean a certain thing. Overall, I was not always happy about a lot of readings and assignments, but I learned a lot from the professor and classmates as well. I really value both professor’s and classmates’ enthusiasm for learning, which taught me a lot.

I jabbered enough, so let’s get to the point. I read two articles: “Race Matters” by Cornel West, and “A different Mirror” by Ronald T. Takaki. Both of articles mainly talk about race and ethnicity themselves. The main difference was that the article, “A different Mirror” focuses on history perspective, while the article, “Race Matters” pays attention to economic perspective to discuss race in American society. I realized that being a white has a distinctive benefit in the society. I had never looked up blond girls with blue eyes. However, there is a reason why it is so popular, which I didn’t know. It was not just out-looking. Having blond hair and blue eyes can not only have a lot of meanings in the society, but also convey information to others. Both articles question “What does it mean to be an American?” or “Who are Americans?” Only certain people can be called and defined as Americans, whereas others are marked as “fit in”. The most important thing was in the articles that America was not just built from nothing in a newly recovered territory. Almost every ethnicity dedicated to build American history, culture, or even America itself. We can’t just ignore our history as the past memories. Each ethnicity’s status in American society grounds on cultural and historical background.