masculinity

Examples of masculinity in the following topics:

• Gender Differences in Social Interaction

  • Masculine and feminine individuals generally differ in how they communicate with others.
  • Masculine people form friendships with other masculine people based on common interests, while feminine people build friendships with other feminine people based on mutual support.
  • For this reason, feminine people often feel closer to their friends than masculine people do.
  • These cultures can be categorized as masculine or feminine.
  • Wood's studies explain that "communication produces and reproduces cultural definitions of masculinity and femininity. " Masculine and feminine cultures differ dramatically in when, how, and why they use communication.

• Research Examples

  • Edward Sumerau on gay Christian men's attempts to construct masculine selves within the context of a gay-friendly religious organization.
  • Sumerau spent over 3 years observing the ways gay Christian males signified themselves as men, and sought to claim privileges typically associated with masculinity.
  • Ze found that the gay Christian males drew upon existing notions of masculinity, such as beliefs that men are breadwinners and leaders, emotionally controlled and rational, and dominants within relationships.
  • This was done to demonstrate their "masculine" selves to one another and convince themselves of their "rightful" place as church and community leaders.
  • The lesson: Masculinities may be constructed via the use of everyday assumptions and beliefs built into the gender norms of a given society.

• Gender and Research

  • Early gender identity research hypothesized a single bipolar dimension of masculinity-femininity—that is masculinity and femininity were opposites on one continuum.
  • Two instruments incorporating the multidimensional aspects of masculinity and femininity have dominated gender identity research: the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) and the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ).
  • Both instruments categorize individuals as either being sex typed (males report themselves as identifying primarily with masculine traits, females report themselves as identifying primarily with feminine traits), cross sex-typed (males report themselves as identifying primarily with feminine traits, females report themselves as identifying primarily with masculine traits), androgynous (either males or females who report themselves as high on both masculine and feminine traits) or undifferentiated (either males or females who report themselves as low on both masculine and feminine traits).
  • Twenge (1997) noted that, although men are generally more masculine than women and women generally more feminine than men, the association between biological sex and masculinity/femininity is waning.
  • In this image, a woman is seen working in a traditionally masculine setting, challenging gender roles of the time.

• Biological Differences

  • ., pursue masculine behaviors), especially earlier in life, combined with their typically more physically stressing occupations.
  • Others have noted the negative effects that stress and lack of emotional expression (a hallmark trait associated with masculinities) place on the body, and the tendency for females to seek help and treatment (traditionally feminine behaviors) as factors in this pattern.
  • However, females are, statistically, twice as vulnerable to anxiety disorders and depression (possibly due to their experience as a subordinate or minority group within many societies), but only one-third as vulnerable to suicide and one-fifth as vulnerable to alcoholism (potentially due to traditional definitions of masculinities that link violence and substance abuse to masculinities).
  • This (along with masculine socialization emphasizing acting out, being loud, and avoiding being controlled) could possibly explain why males are diagnosed with ADHD more often (and may be the result of feminine socialization emphasizing the care-taking of others).
  • Females are able to see facial expressions / emotions better while males are able to see motion better (mirroring gender socialization emphasis on feminine care-taking and communication and masculine attention to action).

• The Interactionist Perspective

  • This type of approach would appeal to the analytical characteristics typically associated with masculinity.
  • Both masculinity and feminity are performed gender identities, in the sense that gender is something we do or perform, not something we are .
  • In the context of gender, if society perceives a man as masculine, that man will consider himself as masculine.
  • The woman in this picture blurs the boundaries between the symbols that are traditionally considered masculine or feminine.
  • While she has long hair and is wearing makeup, typically feminine markers, her clothes are much more masculine in nature.

• Gender Messages from Peers

  • If a girl acts "too masculine," she may be called a tomboy and have difficulty gaining acceptance from other girls.
  • Biological males are not always masculine and biological females are not always feminine.
  • Both genders can contain different levels of masculinity and femininity.

• Gender Socialization

  • In other words, individuals are socialized into conceiving of their gender as either masculine (male) or feminine (female).
  • However, some individuals do not feel that they fall into the gender binary and they choose to question or challenge the male-masculine / female-feminine binary.
  • Individuals that identify as genderqueer challenge classifications of masculine and feminine, and may identify as somewhere other than male and female, in between male and female, a combination of male and female, or a third (or forth, or fifth, etc.) gender altogether.

• Gender vs. Sex

  • "Gender" refers to a person's perceived or projected social location within culturally established designations between masculine and feminine behaviors (e.g., gender refers to a person's attempt to signify a masculine or feminine self as well as a person's attempt to categorize someone else in terms of their presentation (intentional or otherwise) of masculine or feminine selfhood).
  • Specifically, gender refers to the ascription (by self or others) of differential social statuses based upon shared understandings of what constitutes masculine and/or feminine behavior.
  • As such, gender typically involves two interrelated components built upon the acceptance or rejection of societal norms concerning masculinities and femininities.
  • Parents may socialize children into what is perceived as a traditionally masculine role, which includes characteristics like independence, courage, and aggressiveness while constantly reminding the child he is supposed to be masculine by, for example, calling the child by gendered labels like "boy" or "son" and/or stopping the child when he acts in non-masculine ways (e.g., boys don't do that).
  • For instance, the masculine child may play with toy soldiers, join athletic teams, and learn to prize appearing tough while the feminine child may play with dolls, bond with other feminine-behaving people, and learn that he is rewarded for appearing to care.

• Teachers' Expectations

  • Math and science are often perceived as "masculine" subjects because they lead to success in "masculine" fields, such as medicine and engineering.
  • Math and science are often perceived as "masculine" subjects because they lead to success in "masculine" fields, such as medicine and engineering.

• Peer Groups

  • While boys and girls differ greatly there is not a one to one link between sex and gender role with males always being masculine and female always being feminine.
  • Both genders can contain different levels of masculinity and femininity.