American Male

     Finally! I'm writing about something related to my studies instead of random interests I have! Earlier this week, I had stayed behind in my Multicultural Film class to talk with my professor about the subject of masculinity and hegemony, since I was interested in the subject and we had just scratched the surface of it during our lectures. He seemed pretty happy to see I was interested, and he recommended I watch a short film called American Male, which was made by MTV a few years ago.

    During our class, we had discussed the concept of homosociality and how it ties into the expectations for masculinity set by society (this extends to feminine expectations as well, but I'm choosing to focus on men today). The term homosociality is used to define the nonsexual attraction between members of the same sex, meaning its what traits men find "cool" in other men or otherwise "acceptable". According to Sharon R. Bird in their paper Welcome to the Men's Club, male homosociality is based off of three concepts: emotional detachment, competition, and objectification of women. If a man displays these three characteristics, then other men are more likely to view them in a higher social position than those who do not. (I disagree, but that's besides the point).

    In the short film, a frat college student narrates the do's and don'ts of being a man, as the visuals show him expressing these traits to fit in better with other men around him. While it starts off listing rules that sound kind of silly, like "Order beef, not chicken. No tofu. There's nothing gayer than tofu," these rules quickly become more extreme, alongside the actions you see the narrating male partake in.  At first, he's practicing beer pong alone in order to excel at beer pong during a party, but by the end of the film, he's beating another boy with a paddle while yelling slurs at him. But how do we get from here to there?

    It should be noted that while the aforementioned "masculine characteristics" are usually practiced by men in social scenarios, it is never stated that each individual male believes in these characteristics or even want to do the things they do. Instead, they participate in the problem in order to not get singled out as a subordinate male, and face social rejection. In the film, we see brief flashes of childhood pictures of the narrating man, showing that deep down, he is still the same boy, but had developed this crude, "manly" façade in order to find success within male-dominated social situations, like the fraternity party he's at.

    While I think the short film is an effective insight into what men might feel like they have to do in order to fit into a masculine space, I don't feel like this is an accurate depiction of all men. There are plenty of men (ahem ahem) that engage in behavior that is condemned by the homosocial standards for men. There are plenty of guys that prefer wine over beer, pop music over rock, or participate in activities like art that, according to the film, masculine men feel they can't do. I don't think any of these characteristics or activities impact how much of a man you are, I think that your character and morals make you manly more than any amount of slurs or violence you might engage with.

    Though they have a point: tofu is pretty gay...