Jackson Katz believes masculinity should be designated as a public health hazard because there is a hard distinction between masculinity and violence. Katz’s documentary Tough Guise: Violence, Media, & the Crises in Masculinity talks about how men wear a mask to hide their vulnerability. Tough guise is a word Katz created as a metaphor for the “front that so many men put up that is based on extreme notion of masculinity that emphasizes on toughness, physical strength, and gaining respect and admiration from others through violence or implicit threat of it” (katz, 1999). The tough guise act can be hazardous to the public because there is a lot of pressure to act tough, and this means violent acts come out of the tough guy act. 85% of people who commit murder are men, 90% assault reports are committed by men, 95% of domestic violence are committed by men, 95% of dating violence are committed by men and teen boys, 95% of sexual child abuse are committed by men, and 99% of rapes are committed by men (Jhally, 1999). These numbers could be high due to the stigma of a masculine male, and in order for men to seem masculine and dominant they must act out in violent way to gain “respect”. It is sad to say that little boys grow up knowing what it means to be a masculine man, and try to carry out these masculine traits in order to feel accepted by the public. Males keep the front of a tough guy act because they do not want to be seen as a “bitch”, “queer”, “pussy”, “fag”, and “mama’s boy” (Jhally, 1999). All the negative names men get for not being macho are girly ones, and no man wants to feel they are equivalent and weak as a female.
The media shows what it means to be a masculine man by showing buffed guys (WWE stars), boxing as a sport (giving praise to beating someone up), gang movies (such as, Good Fellas, American Gangster, The God Father, and so on), the role of a jock (mean, bully) and much more. “Since the late 1990’s, there has been growing attention paid in media and cultural studies to the power of cultural images of masculinity” (katz, p.261). The media has created what a masculine man should be and act, and the media, also, kept creating the same images and actions over and over in different forms which, then, instills the notion of what it means to be a man to everyone. If everyone had media literacy knowledge, then people will not take everything they see from the media as factual and, instead, question it.
I agree with Katz that the “tough guise” act should be taken serious as a possible health hazard. The media stigmatized males how to be tough and violent to receive respect, which could be the reason why reported abuse and rapes committed by males are extremely high. Seeing all the “masculine” male roles in the media, I believe, definitely could have affected males’ thoughts on how to act. Most of the time, when people see something on television and like the outcome, those people will then act out that same thing in their daily lives in hopes of the same outcome. The media could clam down the masculine, macho guy and make room for the calm, real respectable man, and then maybe the notion of masculine and violence can be distinguished as separate.
References
Jhally, S. (director). (1999). Tough guise: Violence, media, and crises in masculinity
[Documentary]
Katz, J. (2011). Advertizing and the construction of violent white masculinity: From BMWs to
Bud Light. In G. Dines & J. Humez (Ed.). Gender, race, and class in media: A critical reader (pp. 261-9). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Kid Photo Retrieved from http://www.sodahead.com/living/are-americas-boys-more-confined-
by-gender-stereotypes-than-girlsvideo/question-1796441/?link=ibaf&q=&imgurl=http://oldsuptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/april10/musclekid.jpg
WWE Photo Retrieved from
http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&sa=X&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=G45XH1kaT65bJM:&imgrefurl=http://www.pimpmyspace.org/comments/code/201532/&docid=0qSDinfGB6YgTM&imgurl=http://cdn.pimpmyspace.org/media/pms/c/8b/b1/1y/wwe.png&w=464&h=360&ei=cZDVToLFAeXLsQLLhaWHDw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=984&vpy=353&dur=406&hovh=198&hovw=255&tx=232&ty=149&sig=105670646833120343828&page=5&tbnh=123&tbnw=157&start=80&ndsp=19&ved=1t:429,r:12,s:80&biw=1280&bih=649
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