This article was
featured in Douglas Colleges' newspaper, the Other Press. It is an interesting
piece about a documentary being produced Jennifer Siebel Newsom on the dangers
and pressures young males face in society today, and how these manifest
themselves negatively both inward and outward. The documentary focuses on
anxiety, fear, and pressures to conform present in young men, arguing that
males under the age of 17 actually drink more than any other demographic.
Indeed, there are huge pressures for boys to be leaders, be confident, and mask
their emotional selves. Men are still seen as "dominant", the
providers, and stalwart in the face of challenges. But in the last few years
with the economic crisis, jobs have been very hard to come by for young adult
males, which has prevented them from establishing the concrete economic basis
needed to start their lives. (Everyone has been affected by this of course, but
the argument is that men feel disproportionate amounts of pressure to be
economically successful under this patriarchal society.) The recession, it is
argued, has targeted a number of fields in which young men tend to gravitate
towards - for example, construction jobs have almost evaporated since 2008, and
manufacturing has been on a steady decline for the last 40 years or so due to
outsourcing and globalization. With new, increasingly difficult barriers to
breach to participate in society, young men are feeling the crunch more than
ever - still needing to show stoic leadership, confidence and so forth, but
without realising that the game has changed fundamentally. Where this leaves
young men in contemporary society is a question that must be asked. With women
doing very well academically and being expected to earn their own living, men
and society are asking what exactly the role is for men in the current cultural
context, and how that identity should begin to be shaped anew (with some of
these processes already taking place).
The thrust of the issue
is summed up as follows:
“What words do you associate with masculinity? Tough,
strong, stoic, a leader who never cries and “mans up.” “Be cool, and be kind of
a dick.” Men and boys who “don’t see the point” of these stereotypes are mocked
and ridiculed: they are called by feminine terms, like pussy. The binary of
male/female, and the idea that men are tough and women are weak, are harmful to
everyone: to boys and girl, and to men and women.” (Isbister, Sophie.
2013)
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