The Pop Culture: Masculinity

Masculinity is one of the essential components of the culture mentioned above. The latter refers to the act of portraying male traits that are appropriate for the society, particularly in light of culture and tradition. Therefore, it is one of the intersecting identities that popular culture has influenced. Current research in sociology and popular culture demonstrates that all of a man’s traits just represent his everyday habits rather than his true masculinity, which is of significant concern because masculinity has recently been portrayed from a different perspective than it was in the past (Paredes et al.). The traditional perspective of masculinity reveals that men should portray the very important features for instance; be the providers in their families and show high levels of courage in case of an arising fearful incident. Recently there has been an arising notion that anyone can perform the male traits (Bryant). Despite all these controversies, some still believe in the power of masculinity due to fear of how the community would become without these traits. It is still being carried out by many, and if only a little more effort could be added, then this trait could be perfectly embraced in our today’s culture (Sullivan).

Lack of adequate masculinity is so evident in today’s reality shows contrary to the previous ones that clearly depicted the male personality in the right manner and brought about a lot of prestige and humor to the viewers. The notion that masculinity is dead won’t be done away with unless a lot more effort is put in place to deal with this situation in order to retain the image of the society to resemble the past society in terms of manly duties (Posner).

Sadly the absence of masculinity is now clearly evident in the media and television shows, and this has really pulled down the popular culture that shaped it and made it grow to a perfect level. Reality TV shows has played a major role in shading away this character. The biggest mistake that has been done is replacing masculinity with gender which has in turn given more focus on gender equality hence shading away the power and belief on manly duties and its impact in the society (Paredes et al.).

When it comes to sexuality, the recent feminist thought about sexuality states that women are regarded as sexually and emotionally vulnerable. The men’s movement has therefore not achieved the greatest objective as that of feminism especially when dealing with heterosexual masculinity that has in a great way done away with the traits and characteristics of masculine men. This has greatly interfered with their image in the society, and the majorities are nowadays considered cheats and full of sexual desires (Calcutt).

Since most of them cannot say no to sex due to the fear of being considered weak, they, therefore, end up in very weird acts in order to restore their masculinity. They can, therefore, be easily turned on and get the urge for sex with pornographic literature or nude pictures because of this untrue notion. Anti-pornographic arguments stress that the impact of nudes or pornographic literature merely leads to violence and not pleasure.

That corrupt behavior has led to a lot of negative effects on women because they rarely have an addiction to sex. Most men are always on the look out to explore making it difficult for them to have one woman whereas women, on the other hand, are more committed to one relationship and their main objective is usually to bring out the best. Research on current relationships and marriages has proven that men are often seen as lying, uncaring and sex-obsessed (Calcutt).

In order to help shape up these uncouth behaviors, written literature has now been made available to enable them to learn how to behave and act like real men and as a result, a positive change in their perception of sex has been realized in that they have discovered the importance of responsible sexual behavior (Calcutt). However, there are still various challenges facing men as much as sexual masculinity is concerned and the two major challenges facing the men of today include the frequent urge for sex and the lack of commitment in relationship and marriages.

They are also involved in various unlawful acts like rape that make women more vulnerable. The loss of masculinity depicts itself in a scenario where men cannot speak out there minds in case of instances related to responsible sexual practices where both parties are involved because of fear evoked on their sexual capabilities by the society out there (Thomsen). They wouldn’t want to be considered weak by their friends and spouses, and in case a woman seems to be more aggressive than they are then they are often thought of as weak and powerless. Sexual masculinity, therefore, requires that we should accept the critical role of men and women in relation to sex and understand that every individual is free to act in any way that they desire.

There has been an arising need to reclaim and reform the media since most of the people depend on the media to get information as far as feminism and masculinity are concerned.

In most incidents, the media has been considered unreliable in terms of provision of relevant information on feminism that can help resolve major occurring issues like racism and gender inequality. In order to objectively achieve this goal, we should be able to work together to be able to promote a positive media network for better and reliable results and this is mainly because women are being diminished and that their participation and adherence to such job opportunities that bring out information has been greatly ignored and this has therefore impacted negatively on the quality and relevance of obtained information.

Discrimination in terms of race is also a major challenge among many citizens in various nations and research has also shown that there are a lot of discrepancies with regard to race such that the whites are normally considered of great perception in terms of delivery of information to the media (Bayles). Women, on the other hand, are discriminated in terms of providing information and are not given equal chances as men in such kind of job opportunities (Carbado). The media has been involved in providing wrong information that is contrary to what has been reported and trying to put more emphasis on the physical constraints of an action rather than helping in dealing with major issues like racism and gender in equality that are or be the major challenges experienced by people of a particular nation for instance the united states.

In order to be able to give quality information, the media should put into consideration features like gender, race, capabilities and public interest. There are also various ways that can be used to reform the media which comprise of actions to meet there laid down objectives, educating other people about technology, encouraging talents and creativity, maintaining relationships, employing experts and quality personnel and lastly, targeting a meaningful population (Carbado).

As a living example of intersectionality and identity, I was not privileged to better housing or better education, and none of my family members had ever stepped into a college. It, therefore, took me quite some time to make advancements in life. Getting to college was a better step as it gave me a clear understanding of intersectionality and the privilege that it could be offered on the basis of my social status and race (Carastathis). This gave me a reason to work much harder to get what others took for granted.

When it comes to intersectionality and identity political demands of many speak more than the pleas of few members and identity politics has proven to show support for the race and other related gender issues thereby promoting social justice (Carastathis). A research on structural intersectionality showed that most women experience violence due to poor housing, lack of jobs and poverty because of discrimination in terms of race, class, and gender (Cho). As a result, they are not able to bring out evil acts and oppressors for full action of the law as this as this could have severe consequences such as being deported.

The language barrier has also affected the abolition of unlawful practices that are normally carried out as a result of differences in political, social, economic and cultural relations that have also led to the emergence of different social classes among nations hence promoting racism and gender inequality (Salg). In conclusion, in order to deal with issues related to gender, race and class and other related issues like masculinity and feminism, all the stakeholders must work hand in hand to bring about change. This can be made possible by the empowerment of women since they are the most victims of various corrupt behaviors and by enacting laws that tend to protect their rights and responsibilities.

Works Cited

Bayles, Martha. Through a Screen Darkly: Popular Culture, Public Diplomacy, and America’s Image Abroad. Yale University Press, 2014.

Bryant, Aidan. “Iron Man: A Case Study in Orientalism and Hegemony.” The Proceedings of GREAT Day (2013).

Calcutt, Andrew. Arrested development: Pop culture and the erosion of adulthood. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016.

Carastathis, Anna. “The concept of intersectionality in feminist theory.” Philosophy Compass 9.5 (2014): 304-314.

Carbado, Devon W., et al. “Intersectionality.” Du Bois review: social science research on race 10.2 (2013): 303-312.

Cho, Sumi, Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, and Leslie McCall. “Toward a field of intersectionality studies: Theory, applications, and praxis.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 38.4 (2013): 785-810.

Paredes, Pablo, et al. “PopTherapy: Coping with stress through pop-culture.” Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare. ICST (Institute for Computer Sciences, Social-Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering), 2014.

Posner, Beth. “The Use of Psychological Defense Mechanisms–By Librarians and the Public–in Response to Traditional and Binary Librarian Stereotypes.” (2015).

Salg, Jackie. “Building the Bridge Between Advertising and Social Change.” New Errands: The Undergraduate Journal of American Studies 5.1 (2017).

Sullivan, Tracie. “Engaging in Effective Behavioral Health Treatment Methods: The Importance of Building Trust and Relationships with High and Proven Risk Men with a History of Childhood Trauma (s).” (2017).

Thomsen, Steven R., Quint Randle, and Matthew Lewis. “Pop Music and the Search for the Numinous: Exploring the Emergence of the ”Secular Hymn” in Post-Modern Culture.“ Journal of Media and Religion 15.3 (2016): 146-155.