Thursday, September 22, 2011

Michaela Dempsey's Blog #6

     The first hotspot that I found in "'Guyland" by Michael Kimmel was the "Boy Code" that men are expected to follow by other men. Men are given a list of common phrases, mainly about not showing any emotions or weaknesses, that are said to them their whole lives from the time they are a young boy until they are grown men. But what I really thought was interesting about this was that "…Men subscribe to these ideals not because they want to impress women…They do it because they want to be positively evaluated by other men," (Kimmel  47). In class, we discussed the idea that women are not dressing to impress men but instead to prove something to other women. This is the same idea. I find it strange that while you would expect men to be following theses guidelines in order to be attractive to the opposite sex, they are actually doing it to be attractive to other men.
    This idea leads me to my next hotspot. When men step out of any of these guidelines, they are automatically seen as a homosexual. In the mind of a straight man, being gay is the least "manly" thing you can do. By stepping out of these rules, "Guys know that they risk everything- their friendships, their sense of self, maybe even their lives- if they fail to conform" (Kimmel 51). I am shocked that men would be so terrified to be called gay that they would do anything to avoid anything that isn't seen as manly. The article describes ways that women can tell if a man is gay or not. The women interviewed say that the man listens to them and looks them in the eyes, while straight men are uninterested in anything but sex. In my opinion, and probably in the opinion of most women, the man who is assumed to be gay would seem more appealing while the man who is assumed to be straight would seem like a jerk and I probably wouldn't like him very much. So while men are following the guy code in order to be accepted by other men, they are losing out on their chances of finding a women because they are too much of a "man".

2 comments:

  1. I agree with your second paragraph where they talk about how if men act a certain way they are automatically seen as a homosexual. I feel like that puts so much pressure on men to act a certain way even if they don't feel that way they have to pretend to unless they want to be looked at as a homosexual which isn't fair.

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  2. I agree with the first quote you said, we had just talked about that in class but we said that only women dress to impress and guys can wear whatever they want. In reality though, Kimmel brought up a good point that men subconsciously dress a certain way to not be judged too, even if it just means throwing on jeans and a tee.

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