#Masculinitysofragile

Insecurity is a key ingredient for the capitalist modern society to utilize gender roles. Throughout history, societal standards has set a rigid definition of gender roles and created a clear distinction between the masculinity and femininity. People who deviate from their gender roles are seen as abnormal or sick. The fear of not meeting the expectations of the society in a man or a woman resulted to an enormous insecurity. Both men and women are pressured to follow their gender ideals. As time passed, the society became more open about homosexuality and accepted that there are men who desires to blur the perceptions between the dichotomy of the two genders. The acceptance of the homosexual male resulted to an intense pressure for the straight males to prove their “straight-ness.” Now, please don’t misinterpret me. This phenomenon is not the fault of the expressive homosexual male because this intense pressure that I am talking about stems from a very old kind of insecurity which is the fear of the individual that “he” does not fit his gender ideals.

Honestly, throughout history we have been more strict in viewing what is masculine than what is feminine. Femininity focused more on the physique and appearance. In this case, we are talking about sexiness, boobs, hair, eyebrows, plus other desirable body parts. This is the reason why femininity suffers from transforming the women into a mere “sexual object” for “viewing pleasure.” Alessandra Ambrosio in a man’s shirt is hot; but Cristiano Ronaldo in a women’s tee? You know what I mean. Masculinity is quite different. Masculinity is a persona that encompasses the lifestyle, the hobbies, the actions, the things used etc. It’s a whole lifestyle package. This resulted to the fragility of masculinity. This fragility was only made worse by the capitalist when they utilized the already difficult position of men to gain some profit from it. They created the male persona--hmmmnn, what are the male personas of 2016? The fuckboy, the lumberjack, the bad boy etc. More and more companies utilized the insecurity of men. They used the fear of men to appear as not masculine to advertise grooming products, basic necessities, even food even though sometimes, they just use the same formulation for both men and women.

Masculinity, in its purest sense, is not fragile. It is an identity beyond what is seen and expected. Identity and mindset is a strong foundation because it comes from someone’s determination to prove his gender role regardless of his shampoo brand or his boxing routine during shower time.

To give you a better idea check out shampoo commercial! 

As an individual, I believe that masculinity is beyond our insecurity as social beings but, unfortunately, it is not easy to remove insecurity amongst individuals especially if everybody else got the same mindset. We have a long way to go but recognizing that truth that it’s not gay to use a sweet scented shampoo is a start.