First question asked, why are you close to your friend? He replied “ because we’ve known each other for a long time, we have the same interests, a lot of things in common and they help each other. 

The second question was , what kinds of things do you do like doing together? My friend answered “ hang out, listen to music, go clubbing, playing video games and debating”.

Finally I asked if he’s ever told his friend how much he meant to him? He calmly said “no,never “. I then asked why , “because he never felt the need to” . He also replied calmly. 

In conclusion, i feel like he was so calm because it is “generally normal” not to show emotion. To my understanding there is a sexual barrier, where they probably rarely expresses their feelings or show affection to each other because they don’t wanna be seen as “weak”. But yet being affectionate shouldn’t make them feel uncomfortable, they should be confortable enough around each other to share anything since they’ve been friends for so long 

In the text “Masculinity” by Micheal Kimmel he sais “institutions accomplish the creation of gender difference and the reproduction of gender order through several gendered processes” by this he means that we learn what masculinity from people with a certain perspective on masculinity. Parents, grand parents, school, work ,friends even tv shows and movies. All of this thing describe what’s masculinity. It was shown in the episode “Man enough” that men like to be dominant, providers and emotionaless and these aspects were conveyed by the older generation.

Moreover kimmel uses the word “masculinities” because there are many ways to view it and everyone’s culture is different. There isn’t just one definition.For example men holding hands can be a symbol of friendship in some countries , compared to other countries where that might be discomforting to certain men. In the episode “man enough” we learn that if a man doesn’t follow the men’s norms they wouldn’t live comfortably due to others judgment. 

The person I chose to be an example for adventurousness and aggressiveness is Lucious Lyon played by Terrence Howard in the show Empire. Lucious Lyon, who built a successful entertainment company by hustling drugs with ex-wife Cookie. On his come up and during his success Lucious show to be very aggressive and will threat, warn or kill anyone that becomes a hazard or that will jeopardize his company. And the more he did that the more powerful he felt. In section from the text it states “masculinity is a characterized by a willingness to take (physical) risk and become more violent if necessary.” That’s a perfect description of Lucious. He is also an example to his sons, because them to are aggressive and handle their situation with violence. Another thing that was mentioned in the text “Being dependent, passive and having low power(or status) have also topically been associated with femininity”. With that being said, I also believe that was one of the reason Lucious was so aggressive and handle things the way he did. So he can always be called “The Man”.

The documentary “the mask you live in” shows a deeper view of men and boys and their struggles living. After watching this documentary, one of the things that stood out,was the activity where the high school boys had to write on the front of the mask what they wanted the world to see and on the other side was how the truly feel. This stood out to me because it was accurate, most of the guys I went to high school with seemed ok , but when you seat and get to know them I can find out some surprising things they go through and don’t show it.

The second aspect that grabbed my attention was the fact that men can be depressed too and the ways that studies proved them. Men going through depression and women going through depression are almost opposite. While women are more quiet, men get aggressive and loud. Men being depressed was just never a thought in my head.

I genuinely like this movie and gained a lot on men’s perspective of life and the things the go through that I didn’t know.

Finally,a part from Carlos Andres Gomez book that caught my attention, was towards the end when he spoke about the expectations that people have on masculinity nowadays. If a young boy were to go to school with nail polish, he would be bullied and it would be all over the media. And in the documentary it proves that when young boys don’t live it up to what they are told about manhood they will end up getting humiliated for it.

The man that inspires me, is my boyfriend.

This boy is not scared of anything. He’s open minded and loves trying new things. Whether it’s a new job, going to new places or trying new food. See how most people don’t like changes? For example moving to a new house or going to a new school. Things like that don’t bother him. He’s so unbothered and a just to situation so quickly. Compared to me, my middle name is fear. But whenever I’m nervous or scared about something,he always reassures me that everything will be fine. My definition of inspiration is something or someone that motivates me in a certain way, someone I look up too. I also believe that, more than one person can inspire you. He inspires me to be fearless. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of him, he hates talking pictures .