On Tuesday, March 3, we all attended Jay Marquis-Manicom’s talk about his thesis entitled “From the White Pill to ‘White Genocide’: An Ethnography of the Alt-Right in Montreal.

The first thing from his talk that really stood out to me was that the men that are apart of this group look like typical well educated white males. This gave me the idea that really any white man that I see walking on the street could be apart of one of these groups and that there isn’t really anything that would allow me to know that mans beliefs. For the most part, I find this frightening because just as much as it could be any man, it could also be a man that I know or whom I look up to. When thinking of this, I also thought about the fourth episode of “Man Enough” which we viewed in class a few weeks back. In this episode it was explained how most women and men have gone through some sort of sexual abuse or have done some acts of sexual abuse. Many ordinary people have gone through it, but you cannot tell by the outside of a person or what the person will allow you to know about them to see it. Its the same concept with the men that are apart of the Alt-Right group and victims of sexual abuse, these are not things that are discussed openly, therefore do we really know anyone entirely?

Secondly, he explained how Alt-Right groups are against the rights of woman, how they are against the concept of women being equal to men. This means that woman shouldn’t have the right to vote, lower salaries and other things. There ideas were more based on traditional values that are no longer appropriate in any way. This concept in my opinion is unacceptable due to the fact that we are in 2020 and applying such a concept would cause complete chaos. Most importantly, us women shouldn’t be valued as less because we now play a major role in society and are just as well educated as men, therefore we should not be treated as anything else. When thinking about this idea, I referred back to the text “Masculinity” that we read. In the text by Michael Kimmel, it is said, “Institutions accomplish the creation of gender difference and the reproduction of gender order through several gendered processes”, this means that institutions are responsible for teaching us gender differences. Gender differences that are taught can be a cause for the creation of these Alt-Right groups, they are taught about certain ideas that are taught by institutions, so institutions are responsible for the creation of Alt-Right groups in a way because ideas must originate from somewhere. To solve some of the issues with these groups, we must look into the issues and flaws in our institutions that push some of their ideological beliefs.

In conclusion, there were many things that stood out in Jay’s talk about the Alt-Right group which he studied. The things that caught the eye the most are that these men are really just typical white men that we see everyday and that a reason that we have such groups is because of issues within our institutions. These groups are a product of our own mistakes, we should try to fix the flaws in out institutions to prevent the creation of these kinds of groups.

For this blog, I interviewed a male whom I’m very close with. I chose this specific male because I’ve seen how tight his relationship with his best friend is and it appears different than others I’ve seen. The first question I asked was, why are you close to your best friend? He explained followed the question by explaining that his best friend is a very close family friend, therefore they’ve known each other since birth practically. He explained how his friendship with him grew on a more emotional level as they grew older because when they started having girlfriends, they used each other’s advice on how to proceed at times. They also explained to each other how much their girlfriends mean to them, why it is that they love them (not for sexual reasons) and their fears of loosing their girlfriends as well. He explained to me that they’re close because they connect so well with each other when it comes to communicating about other relationships and they offer each other support.

The second question, what do you enjoy doing together? He said that they enjoy going out together and each other’s presence. For example during a hard day or tough time he enjoys his presence. Things they enjoy doing are partying, sports, school work and also “picking up girls”. They enjoy some activities together but they also enjoy things together on an emotional level.

Lastly, have you ever expressed how much he means to you? He explained that he has. During a tough day and when he felt like he had no one on his side, he realized that he was always there. That’s when he expressed how much he means to him. His reaction was that he reciprocated the same emotions as him.

To conclude, we both thought that this saying is true, “tough times, reveal true friends”. Whether it’s with a male or female, this always applies.

In the text, Masculinity, Michael Kimmel expresses the following, “institutions accomplish the creation of gender difference and the reproduction of gender order through several gendered processes”. Kimmel is expressing his point of view of how a man will change the way he thinks towards a certain situation depending on the depth of it. The setting plays an important role in how the man will interpret what is masculine to himself. For example a man will behave differently when he’s with his male friends than when he’s with his girlfriend. In the episode that we watched during class, we saw the different scenarios in which being masculine for a man is determined. How one acts protective over their family and how one might be violent during a situation depends on the circumstance and the social background they come from. Secondly, in the article by Kimmel he uses the “masculinities” rather than the term masculinity because his idea in this is that there are many ways to view a man. There is not one simple and correct way interpret what makes a man because all men are different in their own ways. The upbringing of one also determines how one may view or think what a man really is because no one comes exactly from the same background. In the episode of “Man Enough” all the men around the table expressed the different ways they were each brought up and how these were also the reasons as to how they became the men that they are. Also it is important to understand the fact that a man will always be changing due to the things that life will make them face.