Youths Violent Masculinity
Youth violence in today’s culture is fairly a new phenomenon, it has been occurring in our nation at a more rampant rate. Youth violence is a problem that can no longer be ignored by the public any longer, when the generation of today that will be tomorrow’s leaders are destroying each other daily is an issue that cannot be taken lightly. Being a graduate of Columbine High School and experiencing the tragedy that went on there first hand, I have seen the devastation of what these youth acts of violence cause not just on the families directly involved but also the whole community. Though out these incidents there has been one underlying issue, these kids have all felt bullied or undermined by their peers or even their families and the only way for them to get respect or the attention they wanted was to “be a man” which in today’s culture often portrays men as being violent. The main question is where do these young men get these thought provoking ideas that this is the only way to get their point across is to act in a violent matter?
Jackson Katz film Tough Guise directed by Sut Jhally, and produced by Media Education Foundation which published the film in 1999, really examines the relationship between images in popular culture and the social construction of male identities in the United States of which the media messages play a large role in constructing the idea of a “real man”. Jackson Katz argues that there is a crisis in masculinity and that some of the guises offered to men as a solution (rugged individualism, violence) come loaded with attendant dangers to women, as well as other men. Tim Wise article “School Shootings and White Denial” published in 2001 by Copley, argues the fact that suburbia white culture needs to stop ignoring the dysfunction and violence when it only affects their communities. Mr. Wise also goes on to explain some interesting stats cited from the Center for Disease Control among the white...