The Bearded Woman

Someone posted a picture of a woman with facial hair on the internet a few days ago and has sparked up quite a conversation. Although bearded women are nothing new, I think that this brings up a good point about masculinity. Facial hair is usually associated with masculinity or the characteristics of a man. But here you have a woman who lets the hair grow which is unusual to most cultures. But her choice to have a beard is based on her religious beliefs. This shows that characteristics of what is manly is not some universal standard. This is an example that even within cultures, in this case American, there are sub-cultures, in this case religious, that have differing views of what it means to be a man or a woman.

To read the original article on CNN blogs, click here.

Does Plastic Surgery Make A Man Un-Masculine?

Today, many people's perceptions and beliefs of what the male body should be is influencing many individuals of the male sex to consider extreme measures to fit the medias image. This article speaks of how men are extremely self conscious of their bodies and are doing anything to fit the mold. While many would consider this as okay because they are trying to become more masculine, others would argue that plastic surgery is not masculine and not intended for men. Not only a concern for women, men are also trying to present images of perfection to the public eye. From a male perspective, this article explains men's point of view on lipo- suction.


http://articles.everyquery.com/articles-the-masculine-point-of-view-of-lipo-45038.html

Whitney Scott

Cool Sweatshirt, Bro

In case you were wondering what's currently available in men's fashion...

http://www.zazzle.com/original_cool_story_babe_now_go_make_me_a_sandwich_tshirt-235841278927985351

Black and White Masculinity

Masculinity is often determined by race. In this particular article, the focus is on Black and White masculinity. Stereotyped by their race, many men are categorized because of their race, rather than be judged off of their personal being.  Elaine Roth, discusses these issues further in her article" Black and White Masculinity."

web url:
http://www.genders.org/g43/g43_roth.html

Whitney Scott

A Real Man

                                    


            http://www.salon.com/2012/09/21/rush_feminism_shrinks_penises/

Women in Secularlism

In Susan Jacoby's Humanist article "A Woman’s Place? The Dearth of Women in the Secular Movement", the lack of women in a male-dominated American secular movement is discussed. I highly recommend this article to fellow secular women, and I think it can also be interesting in the context of a masculinity theory class. 

You can read the article here: http://thehumanist.org/september-october-2012/a-woman%E2%80%99s-place-the-dearth-of-women-in-the-secular-movement/.

Chris Brownout

Interesting read. Further expansion on Lela's post about Chris Brown and his tattoo..


http://bitchmagazine.org/post/block-chris-browns-stupid-face-google-chrome-feminist-magazine-internet

Is Homosexuality Masculine?

In society today, masculinity is based solely off of what we think makes a man masculine such as his physical features or characteristics. Instead of actually looking at the individual themselves, we conclude that a man is unmanly or not masculine because of their race, how they dress or act, and due to their sexual preference or being. Recently singer Frank Ocean came out as a gay man in the music industry and was praised by many fellow entertainers and others, for having the courage to do so. Upon coming out, he knew that his masculinity would be both challenged and criticized. Why do you think others have such a hard time with considering gay men as masculine?

This article gives the reaction to the singers homosexuality:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/23/hip-hops-anti-gay-tone-frank-ocean_n_1824494.html

Whitney Scott

The word Masculinity

This article is very interesting because it is directly from a man's perspective on what is considered masculinity. It is a very informative and worth reading, as it aims to give us readers a better understanding of masculinity through society's perspective.
http://www.avoiceformen.com/men/mens-issues/the-word-on-masculinity/

Whitney Scott

Neck Tattoo or Not, We Should Be Boycotting Chris Brown

This article from Huffington Post by Anne Donahue, Neck Tattoo or Not, We Should Be Boycotting Chris Brown specifically addresses the Chris Brown 'battered woman' tattoo on his neck but goes further to examine how media keeps Chris Brown in the public eye and supports his success despite being convicted of beating his girlfriend at the time. Brown claims the tattoo is a Day of the Dead image and perhaps it is. But isn't the blatant similarity of the image to that of a woman with a battered face something he considered? Probably--and he chose to do it anyway. Shock value? Or does he simply not see anything wrong with this? Based on the behavior we have seen reported in the media, it doesn't seem he is affected by the implications or that he has learned or changed, as he is unapologetic about the fact that he badly beat his (ex?) girlfriend. Rihanna. From the beginning, the Chris Brown/Rihanna story has been an opportunity for the media to promote productive discussion about domestic violence but we unfortunately see more sensationalism than we do awareness or education. MTV has been the most irresponsible, in my opinion, by continuing to promote Chris Brown, by featuring him in their music awards shows and by seating them next to one another, etcetera. Women between the ages of 20-24 are at greatest risk for domestic violence which is a core of MTV's demographic. According to to national statistics, "On average, more than three women and one man are murdered by their intimate partners" in the U.S. every day. With statistics like this, domestic violence is not something we can afford to take lightly, making commentary and dialogue around the Chris Brown attack even more crucial. For more domestic violence statistics, follow this link.

Men are from Google+, Women are from Pinterest

For those of you who have not read Bitch magazine, the new issue is absolutely filled with articles about gender. I am a Pinterest enthusiast as are many people I know, including men, but according to society, maybe they "shouldn't" be?

                                                           

                                              http://bitchmagazine.org/article/pinned-down

Sexist greeting card

I recently came across this picture of a greeting card for sale at Wal-Mart. While I am used to noticing sexism directed against girls and women in products, such as in this girl's top from JC Penney,

sexism or negative stereotyping against men in advertising and products flies more so under the radar. Finding this greeting card opened my eyes to some of the terrible gender stereotypes against men that permeate our culture, namely the "bumbling idiot" who is dumb and even smells bad! This got me thinking about other examples of this negative trope; characters on sitcoms, the "incapable" man in commercials for cleaning or baby products, etc. 

Some questions that occurred to me were, how does the "bumbling idiot" advertising trope negatively impact both men and women? Are there other examples of this I'm forgetting?

Thoughts?