Oppression and Depression: The Effects of White Masculinity Essay

Oppression and Depression The Effects of White malenessIn Peter N. Stearns book Be a Man he cites Nichols, Pleck and Sawyer as he makes the assertion that Macho man, artificially and oppressively virile, asserts himself over hapless wo workforce and in fields of aggression ranging from big billet to war, from raising of sons to the domestic cloistering of wives (Nichols, Pleck and Sawyer). White men in America end-to-end history hold up guided themselves according to a particular post of social norms which defines their maleness. Society embraces these defining characteristics and therefore sets standards for the men to live by and be judged by. John Steinbeck comments on the irony of these standards as he verbalize Men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success. And while me n admire the quality of the first they love the leaven of the second. In this statement Steinbeck recognizes the double standard of societys expectations, cosmos that men should be honest and true to their morals, while at the akin time rewarding them for the undesirable qualities. Although on the surface society emphasizes these confirmatory traits, it defines men by the exact opposite, the cunning and unemotional ones. White maleness is a set of expectations that have been instilled in all child as they mature, and therefore they come to expect this model to be achieved by every man. When these expectations become unreal, not only do the victims of clear masculinity themselves suffer, however so do their spouses and wives as they are unable to restore... ...sister. Those statements are make for him by his surroundings and the other non-white male characters in the novel. White masculinity is the ideal that has young boys dreaming of becoming firefighters, teenagers i dolizing Bruce Willis, and middle aged men dyeing their hair and getting gym memberships. Whether it is through the appreciation of the ideals of white masculinity, or the desire for the fulfillment of these ideals, society as a entirely has embraced it and continues to encourage its existence. In recent years, indications have appeared of a regression in the application of white masculinity through the popularity of movie stars such as Leonardo DiCaprio playing sensitive roles (Malin 239). However, extreme cases of white masculinity have also appeared, in such acts as hate crimes, against races as rise as gays, and exposure of sexual harassment cases.