“Men, Masculinity, and the Rape Culture.”
Through reading the article on men, and masculinity regarding the rape culture I feel that there were several very strong arguments that were brought to the surface that I didn’t know about before. This topic is one that I feel very strongly about, and reading this article opened new doors for me. There were five distinct points that I thought really triggered me, both in positive and negative ways.
“Women have shared the complaint that, while individual men may appear sympathetic when they are alone with women, they suddenly turn out to be macho louts, capable of the vilest misogynist statements, when they are in groups of other men.” This quote from the article I feel is so true to many men in society today. While men are clustered with other men they feel that they can’t be weak or let others see their true feelings show. Why in our society has it become a sign of weakness for males to express their feelings? I know that males are supposed to be characterized as strong individuals, but showing emotions, is just a characteristic of life. Like any healthy human being I feel that it should be perfectly acceptable for males to express their true emotions and not have to hide who they are for fear of rejection by other males.
“Violence against women is primarily intimate partner violence: 64 percent of the women who reported being raped, physically assaulted, or stalked since age eighteen were victimized by a current or former husband, cohabitating partner, boyfriend or date.” To me from personal experience I know this to be very true. It is scary to think that the men who are so close to women in their lives are the ones who end up hurting them. When and why did it become socially acceptable for men to commit acts like this against women, and not have any feelings of regret about it? It’s frightening to think about where our society is today in terms of sexual violence and where we are going to be in fifteen to...