Video Responses

video responses

Watching these videos truly changed my perspective on why woman are portrayed the way they are in pop culture, society, and everyday on our WSU campus. The question that kept running through my mind while watching both of these videos is “what is aesthetically pleasing to the American culture?”

“Tough Guise”:

Katz opened my eyes to a whole new way of looking at why and how the American culture value what a “real man” is in a functioning and successful society, and what a “real woman” should be to a man. In my group discussions, as the facilitator of the questions, I asked what everyone thought about the “box” Katz continually referred to in much of the video. Much of the group agreed in that it truly does exist in American culture, and is reinforced and seen everyday in multiple ways. I saw the “box” as the root of many of the problems Katz brought up about how America values and sees men. By limiting young boys to the ideas that they can not cry in public, can not be vulnerable, can not express them selves with talking, and must be the strong silent type truly blocks men from communicating with the world around them in a healthy way. The “box” creates a way of communicating only through violence truly. Not just physical violence but mental abuse too. This idea that men are “hard to read” and not “emotionally sensitive enough” that countless women complain about may be a doing of our own society. I realized that many of these ideas of what makes a real man a man I have completely fed into. On my answer sheet I talked about being in the Greek community at WSU, and that in itself has been an enormous challenge for myself to accept a lot of the values that are portrayed in the system. Many men in fraternities are portrayed as only being accepted if they can drink a certain amount, or act a certain way around women. This system has many benefits to it, but does contribute to the idea of what “ a real man” should be in American society. These ideas are constantly shown to young American culture over and over and over again, and therefore it is accepted without question. So then where does it start and stop? This idea and “box” we as a society have put men in.