“Changing the Notion of Masculinity”
This article relates to gender inequality and the topic of
gender-based violence because of the power and emphasis put on gender roles.
Men have a sense of power and authority over women in Asia based on the
socialization of gender so in attempts to solve the problem, they are “changing
the notion of masculinity.” They want to change how people socialize genders
and what it means to “be a man” to break the connection between masculinity and
gender violence. They realized that the solution isn’t just helping woman and
children after the violence occurs it starts by preventing the abuse all
together. The author says, “Across
Asia, as elsewhere in the world, notions of masculinity are infused with power,
control and entitlement, the source of much brutality against women and
children, including gang rape by teenagers in Cambodia and daily violence in
families in China, to name two examples, activists and researchers said.” This
closely relates to our topic in class this week which was gender-based violence
and how it often occurs in men. I strongly agree with their decision to try to
stop the violence at the root and take steps towards prevention instead of just
offering help once the violence happens. By doing that, everyone who has ever
experienced violence or may in the future can increase their chances of feeling
safe and not having to go through that. I think to make a real change, they
need to increase awareness and education as well as changing the idea of
masculinity and the power associated with that. The younger they teach kids
that that is not okay and that’s not how relationships should be, the higher
the chances of it actually sticking with them and making a change. A lot of
people contribute to gender-based violence without directly being apart of the
abuse. By giving men this idea that they need to be tough and authoritative,
they give them a feeling of power and ownership over women. This often leads to
this violence and causes more problems. I am guilty of not preventing it or
taking action to make a change because I have never directly been affected or experienced
it and that is no excuse because you don’t have to be apart of the problem to
be apart of the change.
The concept of being a part of the problem without even realizing it really stood out to me in this post. Even in the media young boys are told not to cry and to be tough and manly. Even teachers, coaches, and especially parents contribute to this message that boys need to be powerful, in control, and lack emotion. The term "Boys will be boys" really comes to mind when I think of this. To end this idea that violence and control over women is not okay, we need to get phrases like that, as well as the preaching of gender stereotypes, out of our day to day life. This seems like a very plausible solution to the problem of gender violence. And hopefully with more education and awareness on this topic in our generation we can help teach it to the next generation and lessen this issue of violence!!
ReplyDeleteThe process of changing what it means to be "masculine" is no easy task! I think those areas pushing for change are setting a great example for other states/regions. For as long as I can remember, men seems to think that they automatically have power of everyone "lower" than them (specifically women). I remember the not-so-fond times of middle school; everyone had a "place", but not everyone was accepted. Between the boys, the larger, bolder, and more invasive boys were always the ones feared. This show-down for who is "more masculine" was a constant issue. As presented through this blog, education needs to start with the younger populations. Not saying that it's too late for older generations to learn about preventative measures to end gender-based violence... I just feel that awareness needs to be spread across more than just the "stereotypical" target groups.
ReplyDeleteChanging the world is the hardest task to ever achieve. Especially that we mainly live in a male- dominant culture. I can relate a lot to this article that I am from a Vietnamese culture. In my culture men dominates everything with no questions asked, and the women caters to the men. I often hear brutality and abuse in relationships from my country, at times those inflicted violence is encouraged. Men are powered to control their wives and send discipline to them. However over the course of time the nature of men dominancy has changed. These days I hear stories of the wives beating their husbands up from failing their tasks or cheating. I think violence in general from both genders, gender- based violence should be changed. It is just how do we do that without changing cultures habit in history of male dominancy? I wonder what it would be like to have a nation of femininity ?
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