Monday, March 25, 2013

Hyper-Masculinity....does it exist?

First off I want to say I really enjoyed Marilyn's presentation to the class. It was very interesting and she just spoke to us like peers not like a lecture which I thought was awesome.

The one part that really grabbed my attention that I want to discuss is when we were talking about Hyper-Masculinity and how some people put on a front because they have to. We talked about if we think this is true or not and I 100% think this is the case.

A great example is in my hometown in Lafayette. My dad has been a teacher/football coach at our high school for 20 plus years and just recently retired. He's been way more than a coach to a lot of his African American players though. A lot of his players came from Gary and also the southside of chicago with their moms. Many of the kids grew up without a father figure and honestly a lot of them showed a lot of aggression towards other grown men because they've never had one they can trust in their life.

So they were showing strong examples of Hyper-Masculinity towards other male teachers and coaches and had a little bit of an attitude towards them. But my dad really tried to stress to these kids he is here to help them with whatever he can so for them to put their guard down and trust him. When the kids actually do they love my dad because he is always there for them giving them rides to practice, school, out to eat, whatever it is he just wants these kids to succeed.

These kids show signs of being masculine and acting tough because they've always had to do that towards men to protect their families. But once they realize my dad isn't such a bad guy he really helps them with things and they let they're guard down.

So I absolutely believe that a lot of kids have to show signs of Hyper-Masculinity but once they let that guard down it benefits them a lot.

No comments:

Post a Comment