TOUGH GUISE: violence, media and the crisis in masculinity

this is an educational video that analyzes the relationship between the images in pop culture and the socialization of masculine identity in the united states. to analyze this they bring up stats, they interview young men, show clips of popular media,

here are just a few of the stats they give, the first is that 85% of murders are committed my men and many of the the women who have murdered are victims of battering. 90% of assaults are committed by men, 95% of domestic violence cases are committed my males and 1 in 4 men will use violence against their spouse in their life time, and over 95% of dating violence is commit ed by men, and 95%of child sexual abuse is committed by men and 99.8% of rape is committed by men. 95% of road rage is committed by males.

so even though violence is not considered a gender issue but after looking at these statistics shouldn't it be? in the headlines its kids killing kids and not boys killing boys and boys killing girls. its girls getting raped and not men raping girls. so in this analysis they look deeper into what no one else is paying attention to. it is a key element that it is men committing a majority of these crimes. that is an issue, so now its important to consider that the problem isn't just what is causing these crimes, its also about what is causing MEN to act violently.

Ask your self this, what gender is usually seen holding the gun in the movies or TV shows you watch? look at how the media portrays masculinity. you see in on TV, in movies, video games, and even in action figures. the GI Joe of today has changes dramatically over the last 20 years. what our media is telling us is that to be a man you have to be big and strong and tough. as kids we are raised with the view that girls play with dolls, boys play with toy guns and wrestle. if a kid cant throw a baseball very well he gets ridiculed, kids will say you through like a girl.

Another issue that separates the sexes is how woman are portrayed in the media as being objectified for men. some examples that they give are shows like the man show, pro wrestling, and Howard stern.

but yeah it was a very interesting show and made legitimate argument so i would suggest people checking it out sometime.