Mask Socialization Essay
Training The Male Mind
John Watson
How are men molded into the people they are? Why do they act the way they do? Well it's because of how society socializes them. Whether it be through movies, music or even family and friends. Socialization happens when a child learns the attitude, how to act, values, and actions from people, an idea or a role model. This happens all the time all around us whether we realize it or not. Like you probably have the same religion or politics of your parents because of how you were raised and socialized.
As a male you are told from a young age that you have to act like a man but what does that mean? Well in movie media it is portrayed as being a super muscular ultra violent masculine male. You are told in action movies and TV shows that if your a man you have to act a certain way and to not act like a girl who are stereotypically… more prone to cry, be sensitivity, be gentle, and show empathy. Men are clearly capable of these things but it is seen as a negative thing in movies and is almost never portrayed. You can see this in almost every major action blockbuster ever like San Andreas Fault. From this you can clearly see that the media portrays men as ultra violent super muscular men or a lady killer.
In addition to movies painting men as super muscular heros the music industry paints men as ultra violent drug using thugs who use women as objects. This is shown in many music videos such as Lil Pump’s song “Gucci Gang” and Bobby Shmurda’s song “Hot N*gga”. These songs have a very violent message like in Bobby Shmurda’s song where he says he and his gang shot people, sold crack, and extort others. All these turned out to be true and Bobby got charged with conspiracy to commit murder, reckless endangerment, and drug and gun possession. He is currently serving 7 years in prison. This is mainstream rap culture that is listened to by many young impressionable men where the message is to do drugs, be violent and hate police. You can clearly see that the music industry actively sends the message that violence, drugs and objectifying women is ok. This negatively impacts young men and encourages them to be violent drug thugs.
Finally and perhaps the biggest contribution to male socialization is family. When you first start to get socialized it is from your family. Their beliefs rub off on you because you as you are a very impressionable young person. That is why you usually share the same beliefs that your family has when you're young. And at some point as a young boy you are told to man up. This phrase is meant to make you feel like less of a man. Something that is highly valued by our society. This leads young men to suppress their emotions creating a ticking time bomb of emotions that can explode at any time sometimes even being dangerous. This has lead to a high male suicide rate and is proven by AFSP.org when they found “In 2017, men died by suicide 3.45x more often than women.” This is because men are more likely to suppress emotions than women are. We tell the youth that it's a bad thing and even a weakness to show emotions. This needs to change. This cycle needs to be broken because it negatively impacts many young men and leads to higher amounts of suicide, depression and other bad things.
To sum it all up many young men are socialized by movies, TV shows, the music industry and family in many negative ways that… Lead to a higher depression/suicide rate because of suppression of emotion, more violence among men and higher drug use. Men have been socialized like this for years and the problems are only getting worse. We need to show young men that it is not ok to do drugs and be violent. Let them see that it is ok to express emotion and that it is normal. In conclusion, we all need to change how we socialize men so they have a healthier and happier life.
Sources
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/10/nyregion/rapper-bobby-shmurda-takes-7-year-plea-deal-in-gang-case.html
Mckinley, James C. “Rapper Bobby Shmurda Takes 7-Year Plea Deal in Gang Case.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 10 Sept. 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/09/10/nyregion/rapper-bobby-shmurda-takes-7-year-plea-deal-in-gang-case.html.
https://afsp.org/about-suicide/suicide-statistics/
“Suicide Statistics.” AFSP, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, 1 Jan. 2017, afsp.org/about-suicide/suicide-statistics/.
Truth Of War Project
Reflection
In the truth of war project we studied a war of our choise and a specific aspect of the war. For this project I choose areal warfair and the general history of the war in Vietnam. During this project I reaserched the types of areal warfair, how the public was reacting to the war in the states, how they were treating the war vets and how the war affected people after the war. After this I intervewed my grandpa John Abeyta, a Vietnam War vet that shared many stories in a video interview and writen intervew about his experences in Vietnam.
During the process of making the video I had to find a video editing software that I could understand. While looking for a good software I also researched more and found vietnam era photos online and in an album that my gandma had. Once I found enough photos and fugured out a videoediting software that would work. Once I compiled enough materal I spent three hours editing and refining my video project. Finaly I got feedback and sugestions on how to improve my project and what to do next time. My main issue with this project is that while working I got off task and I feel If I had focused more it would have been a lot better.
In the truth of war project we studied a war of our choise and a specific aspect of the war. For this project I choose areal warfair and the general history of the war in Vietnam. During this project I reaserched the types of areal warfair, how the public was reacting to the war in the states, how they were treating the war vets and how the war affected people after the war. After this I intervewed my grandpa John Abeyta, a Vietnam War vet that shared many stories in a video interview and writen intervew about his experences in Vietnam.
During the process of making the video I had to find a video editing software that I could understand. While looking for a good software I also researched more and found vietnam era photos online and in an album that my gandma had. Once I found enough photos and fugured out a videoediting software that would work. Once I compiled enough materal I spent three hours editing and refining my video project. Finaly I got feedback and sugestions on how to improve my project and what to do next time. My main issue with this project is that while working I got off task and I feel If I had focused more it would have been a lot better.