culinity is the set of cultural values, psychological attributes, and social activities that a society has defined as normative for men. One of the activities that they do is show an encounter between an angry father and his son to schoolchildren. When they asked the boys what they learned from the encounter, the reply was a man is tough, a man is in control, a man doesnt cry. These phrases are part of societys definition of masculinity. They point out to the boys that it is very dangerous to live that way. The OMP also does another exercise. They ask a group of men various questions that fit societys definition of masculinity, such as Have you ever been called a wimp? or Have you ever made a comment in public about a womans body? This gives men a chance to look at how dangerous societys definition of masculinity really is. There is a connection between this type of violence and sexism. Sexism is the belief, attitude, action, or institutional structure that subordinates a person or group because of their sex. As pointed out in the article, the belief that one sex is subordinate to the other allows for violence against the subordinate sex. Excuses such as violence against women is natural are used to justify the violence. Sexism must be eradicated in order to stop male violence. The relationship between homophobia and violence is similar to the connection between violence and sexism. As I pointed out earlier, homophobia is the irrational fear of and hostility toward gay men, lesbians, or bisexuals. Words like gay and queer get very hostile reactions from homophobic men. This irrational hostility can lead to violence because thats one of the ways men are taught to respond, as pointed out in the article. Our current construction of masculinity impacts these connections. The exercise with the young boys shows that males are taught masculinity at a very young age. Their responses, Men are in control, Men dont cr...
