Blog 3: Inexpression and Independence

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Chris Gardner.
During his interview with the stockbrokers, Chris Gardner shows up wearing a dirty shirt instead of a suit! Confidently and without showing weakness, he explains what happened for him to be in that state. His intelligence and enthusiastic conversational skills earn him a spot as a trainee within the company. (inexpressiveness)
Now, the problems of his financial situation are still ever so present. Being a trainee meant that he would have to do work without making any money while competing for the limited space the company held.

He was, for some time, homeless and taking care of his son. They were always on the moveand had no choice but to rely on himself. With this mentality, while working, he does things that saves him time and sets several goals for him to achieve by the end of each workday. (independence)

Always showing up and always find a way around the problem.
Chris Gardner, I believe is a good example of an independent and inexpressive man.
Movie: The pursuit of Happyness

KEANU REEVES: Status and Achievement

It is in my opinion that Keanu Reeves is an exemplary example of a masculine man who does not fit the mold in the terms of success and accomplishment. He is currently 55 years young and has been acting since the mid-80’s. Keanu is philanthropist and regularly does charity work. He represents complete success except not to the norms that society sets for men. For example, Keanu does not flaunt money, does not live a lavish lifestyle, is not a womanizer, and overall defies the successful male standard that is set in Hollywood. I think Keanu is a great role model for young men to see that success can mean more than 12 car garages, instead it is based around the imp[act you leave on your surroundings.

Blog 3: Femininity

Terri Crews is a feminist and he is not afraid to show it or speak up about the topic. By using his platform and social status it really helps to grab the attention of the public. Terri says that “the big thing about feminism is that it scares men.” He is trying to show that even men can show support and realize what feminism is really about without being classified as ‘feminin’ or being judged for believing in it.

He is a caring and loving father and he is not afraid to show it. He cares about the way he presents himself and how he appears to the public and is not afraid to wear pink. Which is exactly the opposite of the definition of antifemininity, which is a man who does not care about his style and appearance and is not feminine as well as doesn’t show his emotions. He is also an actor of course and is not afraid to embrace his ‘feminine’ side while playing his roles. The movie White Chicks for example, when he is singing and dancing to the song “a thousand miles.”

Blog #3: Defining Men’s Studies

Our definition is adventurousness & aggressiveness and I will be presenting a person who does fall under that category.

Jordan Belfort is an American entrepreneur and a former Wall Street stock broker. He is mostly notoriously known from the film “The Wolf of Wall Street” where his life is portrayed through Leonardo DiCaprio. If you’ve watched the film you already know that this guy is the perfect example of this category. Jordan Belfort pleaded guilty in 1999 to fraud, stock-market manipulation and other crimes. Before becoming a multi-millionaire, he had a wife who he loved but then cheated on her multiple times before getting a divorce and after that he simply had an affair with every girl he could get his hands on. Belfort wasn’t known to be violent but he was a huge drug addict which also labels him under this category. He always thrived to gain the most power that he could, economically or in regards of his reputation and to use that to help support his frauds and crimes all while running away from the authorities. Although it has been a long time that he is sober and not involved in any criminal activity, he is the perfect example of this category.

Blog 3: antifemininity

Old spice guy (terry crews)

Around 2014, there was an ad campaign for old spice starring Terry Crews as the character “Old Spice Guy” titled Man your man could smell like. The character spoke in an aggressive rapid-fire fashion and was always shirtless.

Old Spice Guy is an example of anti femininity because he does not express any emotion other than anger. He exhibits manliness further by having his large muscles on display and making other men seem inferior to him (“ladies, I’m the man you want your man to be”). Simply by appealing to women in such a way implies that he is in fact attracted to them. He cares little in his appereance, not even bothering to wear anything but small shorts or a towel and he’s confident in said appearance.

Blog#3 Defining Men’s Studies Conor Mcgregor

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The definition of Adventurous and Aggressiveness is characterized by a willingness to take (physical) risks and become violent if necessary. As well as discouraging respect for authority and Rules.
Conor Mcgregor is the perfect example as he is an Irish professional UFC fighter and boxer. He has a net worth of 110 million dollars. He also has a Irish whiskey company called proper 12. He is determined, motivated, and aggressive as he is known for knocking his opponents out quickly. Conor uses violence to prove that he is the best fighter in the world.
Conor wants to fight a ufc fighter called Jorge Masvidal who is the current BMF (Baddest Motherfucker). That’s show how “aggressive” the sport of mma is

Blog#3:Defining Men’s studies

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The definition of adventurous and aggression is portrayed as masculinity. James Corden is not the definition of masculinity. We can see this because he expresses his emotions in his late late show, all the females love him, he is like a “gay-best friend” that you can tell your problems to and express how you feel. He isn’t afraid to show emotion.

As of his physical appearance, he is also chubby which shows that he breaks the rules and circumstances of a “man”. Men have to be fit and muscular where as James corden is far from that, to personality to physical appearance. James also dresses how men should not dress. He wears colorful pieces of clothing such as pink as seen in the photo.

Most of his carpool karaokes are with female artists in the passenger seat. These female artists seem to be really comfortable with him and they speak on whats on their mind and have deep conversations not only do they do karaoke.

Blog#2: The mask you live in

The documentary β€œthe 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.

Blog 2

What jumped at me was when they were saying that gender is a social construct. How the commercials showed how products meant for girls were super pink and for boys, much more violent. It makes me think of how the media could pave a path of how a child may turn out. I ask myself, why is it that we are likely to follow social norms. I think it’s because humans are social creatures and seek to belong with there own. And this surprised me because of the amount of impact we have on the younger generations.

Luis’s story shocked me. I have a little brother who was in a gang. He always does seem to be mad. But I never thought that he would be sad. I’m sure he has pain that nobody would think he has. After learning about suicide rates, I can’t help but feel like I should do something about my little brother’s situation.

Now onto the book and how this documentary helped me understand better what the author tried to tell us. By the end of the book, Gomez states that he hopes that the world would change the way they view the masculine and the feminine. In the documentary, we see that what Mr. Gomez wants is slowly coming to fruition. The documentary was a real eye-opener. We witnessed the pain and agonizing lonelyness many men face and now aware that we should be more attentive to our morals. Otherwise, it would be a domino effect of depressing proportions.