American culture has caused great damage to the males of our society. American culture has damaged and warped feminism and masculinity into something they were never meant to be. Today’s media hyper-feminizes and hyper-masculinizes products that give the standards of how males and females should act and appear. There is so much pressure to fit the mask that American culture has molded and forced upon every member of society. We accept these stereotypes about gender and strive to fit this mask that hides our true selves. We don’t seem to realize how damaging this view of masculinity is, nor do we realize how much pain and emptiness these masks conceal.
The American culture teaches boys that masculinity is the rejection of anything that is feminine. They are taught that emotions are feminine traits and that they must be rejected and turned off. This is very damaging to the young boys because emotions are not female traits but human traits. Boys are being brainwashed to disconnect themselves from their very own human traits which then most often leads to emotional disorders. Boys don’t know how to express themselves or find help. All they have been taught is to keep everything bottled up inside. They can laugh during the good times but are not allowed to cry during the painful times. The American culture has taken away from males their very coping strategies and forms of expression.
Boys are brainwashed into believing that masculinity is defined by athletic ability, economic success, and sexual conquest. Boys are constantly put down for being weaker than someone else or for crying and “acting like a girl.” The bullying and pressure lead many boys to feelings of unworthiness, depression, and suicide. We must also take into consideration the damaging message of girls that we are communicating to boys. We are painting the picture for them that girls are weak and lesser than boys. By telling boys they need a successful sexual conquest over women, we are dehumanizing females to build masculinity. Then we go and wonder why men treat women they way they do. Well, it’s because of everything they have been taught about masculinity and how to be a man.
What the American culture has done to its young people is damaging, crippling, and almost irreversible. America’s cultural thoughts about gender have been polluted. But there is hope. There are organizations such as Representation Project who inspire people to challenge stereotypes so that all may fulfill their human potential. Change must also start in the home with how fathers interact with their sons and how they teach them what it truly means to be a man.
In conclusion, the common teaching of what masculinity is thought of to be must come to an end. If it does not, then we will continue to lose human beings, generation after generation, who will continue to follow these damaging teachings and live their lives feeling broken and trapped behind the masks they’re forced to live in.
