When Kimmel states “Institutions accomplish the creation of gender difference and the reproduction of gender order through several gendered processes.” (Masculinity, p. 3), he means that our surroundings shape the mindset of people, wether it be school, our work or even our family. They are the ones who define to us what being “manly” or “feminine” is. Just like shown in the episode of “Man Enough”, men always have to be the one in charge, the dominant one as well as being emotionless to be perceived positively by our surroundings. It was also shown that as time passes, men act more and more violent in many ways without realising it, for example when it was said that young men were saying “I’d hit that”, one of the guys said that he was told that now it’s “I’d smash that”. Being more and more violent is being normalized.

By saying “Masculinities”, he means that masculinity doesn’t only have one definition, it has a lot. It all depends on many things like where we grew up, how we were taught. For example, being a “man” might have a different meaning here in North America than Africa or Asia. In the episode of “Man Enough”, they talk about how men have to do certain things to be viewed as a “man” or else they might be seen negatively, they called it the “man box”. In it were things that were considered to be masculine and men had to do those things to be viewed as a man, though this can vary from the place we come from.

“Institutions accomplish the creation of gender difference and the reproduction of the gender order through several gendered process.”

Michael Kimmmel

In this given statement, I believe that Michael Kimmel wanted to emphasis the fact that institutions plays a big role in “gender making”. Whether it is in a workplace, home, mall or any kind of of places where a group of person gathers, an act of a certain “masculine/manly” ways are expected from men. If they were to fail to fit in those manly criteria, they are either judged, and/or criticized by the public who follows the socially constructed view of masculinities. Men and women are expected to follow there respective roles in a workplace. Men are more on the heavy and handy jobs, where as the women are more on the organization. There is a sort of a discrimination towards them if they are found doing job that are not designated for there gender. For example, a man working as a cabin crew, commonly known as flight attendants. Until recently, women are mostly associated to do this and not men. If you are to work in this domain, you are regarded as gay. Why? It is because this job requires you to take care of the passengers and be a server/nurse on board. Given the requirement to take care, where this act is considered very feminine, you will rarely see men doing this sort of a career. A barrier is put in place by the social norms that requires you to follow a certain act of your sex. In correlation to the 4th episode of “Man Enough?”, it was mentioned during there discussion that they are obligated to fit in the safe box or else they will be judged and criticized.

By the term “masculinities”, the author meant all the definitions of what makes a man, a man. All the definitions that the society made up to put a certain standard of what is a man. He prefers using the term masculinity rather than male, because male is a term associated with biological sex and masculinity is a gender, what it meant to be a man on the social and cultural context and how you are molded to act the way you are. To fully understand what are masculinities, you need to know its meaning in an anthropological, historical, sociological and psychological dimensions. Just like they discussed in episode 4 of “man enough?”, in a historical dimension, since the ancient times, men are taught to be the predator hunting preys, where in this context meant the women. They do not respect women as equal since then and this are why the hierarchy is lead by men. The experiences of women that will never occur if you are a man such as walking alone at night and randomly grabbed off to be raped is an example of how men doesn’t see females as humans, but rather objects or preys.

In conclusion, I believe that vile acts doesn’t define masculinity, the way the society look at men are based on the acts of the minority, because the majority certainly do not stand out.

With this phrase, Kimmel is explaining how different scenarios and specific places in our society form differences between both genders and how these differences shape our perspective of what a man really is. For example, in a team project or a social event, usually people in the group will turn towards the male to direct the group and divide the tasks needed to be done. This gives an image and sense of power to the male which in turn creates a division and ultimately a hierarchy. This is in fact what divides our society and creates stereotypes on men which could pressure some to fit in this particular image created by these stereotypes. In the fourth episode, the pressure of the stereotypes can be understood when the males discuss how they too have been victim of the pressure by adopting this mentality. Subconsciously, they participate in the division of our society because it’s the only thing that they have learned, they don’t know any better.

I think that Kimmel used the term “masculinities” to describe how there are many things that could define a male and that it’s not solely one or a few characteristic that decide what a man is. Also, that these things do not have to be common to each person, that every male can have different characteristics. In “Man Enough”, it can be clearly understood what “masculinity” is. The men explain how there’s this way of life that men are “supposed” to be like, to act in a certain way, to talk a certain way, to do specific things that maybe they don’t necessarily want to do, but they know that if they don’t, they won’t be considered “Man Enough”.

In the text “Masculinity” by Micheal kimmel, he stated “Institution accomplish the creation of gender difference and the reproduction of gender order through several gendered processes.” He wanted to express that institution like school, workplace, family have a large impact on how men and females should act. The meaning of masculinity will always change dependent on what king of people you surround yourself with. An example in the episode of “Man enough”, they talked at some point on how they were influents to act different away just to fit in or didn’t want to get bully. Have to be strong or good in sport to be part of the “men club”.

Kimmel wrote also “understanding how we do masculinities…open up the unimaginable possibilities of social change” Kimmel prefers using the term “masculinities” instead of “masculinity”, because he thinks that different society have different meaning how to be a man.  Not everyone sees being similarly. We don’t have just one meaning for this term but many. During the episode of “ Man enough” the men said depend on how you were disciple and raise is how you will think how a men should be.

What makes a man? A man is seen to have to be strong but emotionless during hard times, to keep to themselves and assert power over the opposite sex. A man can also be seen to cry, show their emotions and even confide how they are feeling to others. The definition of masculinity varies from one place to another. The characteristics and personality of a man can be accepted in one area and then be rejected in another part of the world. A man should not have to feel as though they need to be man enough. Men should just be able to live a comfortable life without being compared to and measured with another man.

Institutions play a great role in identifying what makes a man. Institutions such as, educational facilities, family, religion, and work highlight what a man should be like. As stated on page 3 of “Masculinity” by Michael Kimmel: “Institutions accomplish the creation of gender differences and the reproduction of gender order through several generated processes.” I believe that Kimmel is trying to say that men and women who take part or visit these institutions must act a certain way in order to not be criticized or judged and so doing so can advance in the hierarchy that is presented. Since men and women are already genetically born different it leads to the conclusion that the sexes themselves must be different when dealing with different situations. This allows for the production of gender differences among men and women. For example, a beer company may hire only men because they assume that men are stronger and faster than women when in reality women can also work for them. A man and a woman should be seen as equal and should be judged on the work they accomplish rather then their identity. The idea that women have less power making men think they have to dominate them all the time was discussed in the fourth episode of “Man Enough.” In saying this you can notice how men are seen to be stronger and more powerful where women are seen to be more fragile and helpless. These characteristics are miscomputations seeing as women can also be powerful and men can also be fragile. This ties into Kimmel’s “Masculinity” because men and women are too often criticized for being a man or a woman and not enough for what they actually bring to the table.

The way a man or a woman acts and is should not be criticized for who they are because they are not living up to their society’s standards. Women do not need to always act “feminine” and men do not always need to act “masculine.” Michael Kimmel uses the word “masculinities” instead of using the term “masculinity” in the conclusion of his article on page four. I believe he uses the word masculinities because Kimmel does not see one definition of masculinity, he sees multiple. Masculinities refer to a variation of different definitions of what makes a man. There may be certain contradictions from one society to another about what men should be like but Kimmel wants to accept all men no matter their personality or characteristics. Masculinities will change over time and in todays society different types of masculinities have been accepted. What can be defined as a man today, was not accepted back then. The word masculinities is very broad whereas the word masculinity only defines what is acceptable of a man in their society. Kimmel is trying to be accepting of all men no matter the society. The symbol of a box was brought up in the fourth episode of “Man Enough.” The men referred to the box as if you stay in the box you are accepted and if you step out you will be rejected by society. The idea that men must hide their true identity in order to be accepted. This relates to “Masculinity” by Michael Kimmel because Michael wants to promote acceptance just as the man in the fourth episode of “Man Enough.” No one wants to be trapped in a box. They want to be free.

To conclude, what is man enough? In my eyes there is nothing that makes someone more of a man than another. Men and women need to stop trying to hide who they are or do things they don’t even like because it is seen to be what is accepted. Everyone should just be accepted for who they are.

Micheal Kimmel talks of the notion of “Institutions accomplish[ing] the creation of gender difference and the reproduction of gender order through several gendered processes” in his work Masculinity. He establishes the basis that in our society gender is expressed differently depending on context and relations to the others in said context. In a social situation, acting in a certain way or viewing a similar behavior over time, it will be perceived increasingly as normal and one is more likely to then adapt and propagate this behavior. Since gender affects how a person is viewed, tasks are separated by who would be more theoretically able to do it. If a task demanded a nurturing approach or of a servile nature, a woman would be the “correct” candidate, even if she might be ill suited to do so on an individual level. In the documentary Man Enough, they discuss how being socialized they too adopted some of the behaviors that ultimately create a rift between genders, one spoke of when women would denounce men for sexual assault, they would always lean towards believing men and not believing women, a certain “allegiance to men”.

Kimmel uses the term “Masculinities” as opposed to the singular “Masculinity” because there are different ways that one may perform masculinity and many ways to interpret it depending on culture, stage of life, from individual to individual, etc. People change how they assume their identity through interactions with others and within the society they live in. Most Eurocentric theories about gender derive from biology and also characterize women as weak compared to men. The latter was discussed in episode four of Man Enough where they spoke of, from a male perspective, how they were encouraged to devalue women. They were supposed to dominate them and take up more space than them in a conversation, effectively lacking any respect that they would give to the person had they been male.

1. I think when Kimmel wrote “Institutions accomplish the creation of gender difference and the reproduction of gender order through several gendered processes”, he meant that all the workplace, media, religion, family and school tries to define our traits in how we are suppose to act. For example, in the documentary “Man Enough”, men are thought to hide their emotions because they’re suppose to be strong and dominant. Society considers them weak if men get sad or cry. Also, there is this concept called “bro code”, where it’s popular in high school, where young men are thought among themselves that your “bros” are very important, where theirs this code. If you break it, you are out of the group and you’re considered as an “enemy”.
2. Kimmel writes, “Understanding how we do masculinities…opens up the unimaginable possibilities of social change ” instead of masculinity because everyone has their own definition of “masculinity” depending on what they are thought and how they are raised. For example, a man from the 21^st century might probably not have the same definition of masculinity compared to a man from the early 90” s.

In the text “Masculinity” by Michael Kimmel, ” institutions accomplish the creation of gender order through several gendered process” means that jobs were initially created for men and not for women. In the text, he used medical school as an example and he talked about the process until actually becoming a doctor. By that time you become a doctor, you’re either in your late 20’s or early 30’s. Some women would probably already have kids by then and would find it hard to juggle being a mom and going through the process of becoming a doctor. Even in the institution for promotions, there’s a gender difference. At this moment, I don’t relate to it I can understand. What I’ve learn is that you have to think like a man in these institutions to get what you want and not be a push over.

In the article”masculinities” means that masculinity has a different definition is almost every county and almost every culture. Kimmel prefers the term masculinity because there’s just one definition of it.

Question 1

I think Kimmel means that gendered institutions such as schools and corporate businesses create these sort of rules and expectations of genders and that we abide by these rules.We are the ones that have created these norms and that we are the reason we still follow them. For example, we associate certain roles to a specific gender, like how women are supposed to be more caring and gentle while the men are supposed to be tough and fearless. The reason we still follow theses norms are because of how we have been taught into this system. Furthermore, in these institutions women and men occupy certain positions based on their gender because of how people tend to believe in the norms that men should occupy the socially high job because of their characteristic and performance.

Question 2

Masculinity for Kimmel is something very broad and very different from person to person because a man cannot be defined by a couple characteristic and that if they do not fit in these criteria, they can’t be considered a man. The term masculinity in a sense puts a sort of box around men and force them into acting in a certain way. In fact, in the episode we watched in class, one of the guys admitted to put on a mask and not be his true self because of how people would view him. Another example would be the bro code, where the guys put their guy friends above everyone else even if they now its wrong, this shows how men are afraid of being ostracized and seen in a non masculine way because a man would never break the bro code.

In the text, Micheal Kimmel states “institutions accomplish the creation of gender difference and the reproduction of gender order through several gendered processes” what he means by this is depending on the situation you’re in your character will change. That’s why what is known as being “masculine” will always change whether you’re at home, school or at work. As well as, in the fourth episode of “Man Enough” what was spoken about a lot was that a man is portrayed as being strong, athletic, cool, tough depending on the situation you’re in whether it’s with your popular friends at school, with a girl or at home with your family.

Kimmel also writes in the text “Understanding how we do masculinities…opens up the unimaginable possibilities of social change” what he means by using “masculinities” other than “masculinity” is that everyone sees being “a man” differently. Some people may think being affectionate and loving is being a real man, whereas some people may think being tough and not showing emotion is actually being a real man. Just like in the documentary “Man enough” the group of men said depending on how you were raised is how you depict “a man” is supposed to be.