Thinking about the idea of masculinity, I always think about my little brother that is the only boy with tons of sisters. I remember when I was younger, I would think that because my sisters and I were not masculine enough, our feminine behaviours would influence my younger brother into homosexuality. I was very young and naïve and feared an unknown. As I got older and went off to highschool, I did a lot of research on gender and sexual identity. In tenth grade, I wrote a research paper for my biology course on how men and women may learn to do masculine and feminine things despite biology. Throughout my research, I learned a lot things I thought were common sense. What is masculinity and how can it be done? I asked myself those two questions as I searched the web and thought of my younger brother. After my research, I concluded that masculinity entails any characteristics that would be associated with the male sex or gender depending on what discussion you are having. Okay, I thought I had a grasp on the concept of masculinity. With further research and understanding, I learned that performance plays a part in the idea of masculinity. The concept of “doing” masculinity comes after one has internalized what the idea of masculinity is. The idea of gender roles popped into my head. What could I do to make me more masculine so I can use that to influence my younger brother and make sure that my feminine traits did not influence him. I learned that even though my brother is surrounded by women, him and societal influences would be the ultimate determinants of how “masculine” he would be. He would need to learn what masculinity means in our western society before he could do “masculine” things. In our society, what makes a male masculine is his dominance over others through violence, control and other hegemonic ideals. These do not sound like something i would want to teach a younger male to make sure he is masculine. I have attached a link to a very interesting article that shares what it means to be masculine and how one must do a certain way in society to secure his masculinity.
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