For this blog I wanted to discuss the concept of femininity and masculinity as it has been discussed in my SM 4250 class.
Ok so the most recent discussion was based off two articles one of which is titled Sport, Masculinity, and Hegemonic Oppression (Anderson, 2005) This article is full of steryotypical behaviors of how "Real Men" should act and think and just be in general. For instance there is a term in this article called "the big wheel" and that men should "be a big wheel" which is described as "... men must be better than and/or be in charge of other men" or "the top dog." While that in itself would be an interesting subject, the subject of this article came from another steryotype in this article that compared men who cry as being a "sissy girl!!"
I found this to be extremely interesting, seeing that crying is a natural human emotion and that it really can not be linked to a specific gender/sex in general. There was alot of discussion on this particular topic, in which many of the men disagreed with the articles view on crying, but only if the man that was crying, was crying if he had won a championship game or any really big/important game in their life. One classmate in particular (whose name I will not mention lol) stated that "I think it's only girly to cry when you win a game rather than loose the game."
I stand firm to the fact that win, loose or draw, crying in a game or in life cannot and should not be considered a feminine trait!! I do however believe that crying in general for anyone (male or female) on a constant basis or over a game or in life is extremely irritating and may affect the way I see that individual, but I would not think that it should have anything to do soley with their gender/sex.
I like the point about how crying can only be linked to one gender, but it is a natural emotion, no matter what sex someone is. That is a great point. I think because society is so used to thinking that women are not as physically or emotionally tough as men, that women are viewed as being ok to cry as opposed to men. I do not agree with that, but that is what we see in the media and culture. I completely agree with you when u say that crying should not just be a feminine trait.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with both of you--that crying is a human emotion, and should not be stigmatized as being a feminine trait only.
ReplyDeleteCrying is definitely a natural emotion from anyone! Often when a team wins a championship there are tears of joy so does that mean they are feminine because they are showing emotion? I think it is good to show emotion no matter what gender you because it does show how passionate someone is about what they are doing. Yes females tend to show their emotion more then men do but that is because men are afraid to show how they feel due to the fact it ties them with being feminine. When someone in your family passes away it is also common to cry. Men and women both do it and it should not be considered a feminine trait! It should be a human trait.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. Crying is natural and not dependant on sex or gender. It irritates me when people don't have a reason for crying and I do not consider crying just to get your way to be a valid reaason. However, I do consider happiness, like winning a championship game, to be a good reason. It's not something that happens to a person very often and when it does, it's a treasured memory.
ReplyDelete