Toxic Masculinity

As someone who is extremely interested in activism, and therefore is constantly looking at everything  with social justice in mind, I found myself more surprised than I thought during this movie. Tough Guise 2 showed numerous clips of movies that I never looked at as potentially problematic. Examining media how the documentary did showed me how important it is to continuously critic and make sense of our day-to-day experiences with pop culture. One of the most interesting and thought-provoking concepts I took away from Tough Guise 2 is the idea of “toxic masculinity”.  That concept is one that fits into a lot of discussions we’ve had about this idea of masculinity as a tool of power. I’m constantly thinking back to the talk at Fall Gathering where Carine Mardorossian discussed sexual assault not as a “women’s” or “men’s” issue, but as an issue with a specific type of masculinity and femininity, a certain power dynamic that creates and perpetuates systems of oppression. I wish in class there was more time to discuss how Tough Guise 2 can be related to or talked about in relation to Ferguson. Although the topic can be hard to get into, because of varying viewpoints and a lot of opinion, I feel like we all, for the most part, agreed that it’s because of these specific types of toxic masculinity that situations like police brutality can arise. Also, taking race into account, particularly in this instance since it was and is constantly used as a source of violent, dominant behaviors, is essential. Therefore, it’s important to discuss Ferguson and all cases of violence where there’s more than one contributing factor as such, keeping intersecting identities of power in mind, and in the conversation.

Tough Guise 2

I really liked this documentary. I thought that it made a lot of good points that are largely ignored. I hadn't noticed that media and the news only focus on gender or race when the perpetrator of a crime is not a white male. I had noticed that when white men commit terrible acts of violence, mental illness is usually the main topic discussed. While mental illness should be addressed in our culture, this does not excuse the crime. When a black man commits a much smaller crime (Michael Brown, Eric Garner) they are torn apart by the media, calling them "thugs" and implying that by allegedly committing small crimes, they deserved to die.
I also liked that the documentary pointed out the issues without blaming specific people. The documentary did not blame white men for creating this problem, they blamed the "tough guy" image. This image of masculinity is what men in our society strive for, and others are policing male behavior and punishing people for not fitting the expected mold. This is the problem. What I would have liked to have seen were suggestions for change, or ways to deal with this phenomenon.

Tough Guise 2

One of the biggest components of this documentary for me was the way the media completely ignored masculinity as a possible cause for violence in schools. Despite 62/63 school shooters being male, the entire media focus is on the NRA for gun control and video games and television for promoting violence. No one discusses how boys are raised with this idea that they have to hide emotions and be completely stone cold to the world around them. What could be greater recipe for a world of masculinity-driven sociopaths, right?

And I find it extremely sexist and ableist for the media to also blame school shooting on mental illness. As Tough Guise 2 explains, women also have mental illness, so why aren't the numbers of female shooters equally proportionate to the amount of women suffering from mental illness. Women can own guns and are exposed to violent television too. Why are women completely ignored when factoring in these statistics?

I was incredibly interested by the commentary on Bowling for Columbine, because that documentary as hugely influential for me as a future teacher. A lot of the arguments that documentary made were incredible easy to follow, as I do agree that it is much too easy for people to get a gun in our country. More strict background checks would most certainly help, but its not the main issue with school shooters and various acts of violence. The main issue is completely ignored and as a result, our culture continues perpetuating the idea that in order to be a real man, men must be aggressive and dominant to the point where school shootings are rational.

tough guise

I found the documentary “Tough Guise” to be informative and eye opening. Before viewing the film I was familiar with Jackson Katz and his views of masculinity and violence. The statistics that were highlighted in the beginning of the documentary I think serve their purpose to frame violence as a mans issue, done by men, to men, as well as women and children. I had never thought much about how our culture perpetuates this narrative of violence until watching one of Katz’s Ted Talks. Tough Guise brought to light how our societal norms serve to normalize violence. I found parts of the documentary to be difficult to watch, the violence, in particular the scene with the pornography example, made my stomach turn. Something else I found interesting was the news clip’s on the “wussification of America.” Boys being anything short of masculine was simply appalling. Something I found interesting was that Katz’s never mentions music as a narrative that normalizes violence. Rap music in particular is notorious for this and although music video clips were played, the music industry was largely ignored.

Tough Guise

I am glad we got to watch this movie in class. I never really looked at how men are portrayed in the media until this movie. What bothers me is the idea of men having to be these strong, no emotion showing human beings, it is just absurd. If you bottle up emotions and just let them sit there you are going to bring them out in an aggressive manner. And if guys do show emotions they are not seen has men so, they just keep that all bottled away in a little chest inside. Until one day something pushes them to far and that chest explodes. This is why we see so much crime done by men. They feel they have to prove themselves to others, or they have just kept their thoughts and feelings in for so long that they just crack. My friend is a very manly man. Which means he shows no emotions because that's not what guys do. Which is very obnoxious because he doesn't even really understand the concept of emotions or how to handle them. So, when he does have some sort of emotion of like sadness or weakness he just acts like it's not there. He does this because his father taught him how to be "a man". So, he always follows these rules. This is such an unfortunate thing to have to see in today’s society. Just because a man shows an emotion it does not make him weak, it makes him human. 

Tough Guise 2

Watching Tough Guise 2 was definitely an enforcer to knowing that men need to hear and be educated about these things. Not only that, but if anyone watches this they can then be enlightened to seeing that THIS is why people believe that feminists 'hate men' and why men get defensive and say "Not All Men." Yes, we know that 'not all men' kill - but the stunning statistics that this documentary show will tell men just why woman might be frightened by any man that walks past her at night. It is a higher percentage of men doing violent acts and the media barely enforces that, as well. Just in this picture, anyone can see that we need to target men and masculinity when talking about these problems.

In the documentary, Jackson Katz talks about how the media portrays violence difference according to the cases. They tend to only bring gender into the title when it is women creating the crimes. They only bring up mental health when it is men being talked about. The media bounces around the subject, creating a false facade around the true facts. For these reasons, it is great to have this kind of documentary to show the truth and help bring it do the forefront of people's minds. Quite like the way the documentary Miss Representation brings in issues and presents them, Tough Guise 2 presents these issues in an easy to understand way and can be accessible to anyone. With Tough Guise 2, the information may be more likely for men and a broader audience to want to watch unlike Miss Representation in which people may feel like it is more 'for women' - no matter how ridiculous that sounds.

Something that I found to be intense about the documentary were the clips used throughout the video. I have mix feelings toward them. I do feel that it was necessary to show the violent clips of movies and video games and such to get across the point that these are visuals that people see everyday. But at times I felt that sometimes the documentary lingered on these clips for an awful long time. Then again, this could be part of the 'wow' factor to really help people understand that this is real. Going along with this, I think that if this is being showed in the type of setting like we did, there should be more trigger warnings. It did give a warning at the beginning of them film, but in a class our group setting, I do feel like there should be a trigger warning given - especially when it came to the section about violence in porn.

All in all, I think it is important to show these type of documentaries to classes and groups of people who need to learn about these subjects. I watched the Bowling for Columbine documentary in high school which was featured a couple times in Tough Guise 2 and I think these documentaries can have a wide range of viewers to help shed light on these topics. I do feel that Tough Guise 2 might be geared toward a more adult audience - but something like Miss Representation can still be showed in high schools and can also start conversations that Tough Guise 2 talks about before college - which is very important.

Tough Guise

I really enjoyed watching the documentary Tough Guise in class. It really got you thinking about a lot of issues relating to masculinity, ones that are often times not addressed in modern U.S. Possibly my favorite part of the entire documentary is how they really dig deep into the statistic of which 90% of violence is committed by boys and men. While I was aware of this statistic, I had never sat down and truly thought about why men were the main perpetrator of violence. The documentary helped clarify this question for me, by really showing that the culture we live in is constantly immersing men even kids in the notion that violence is a normal, natural part, not just of the world, but of being masculine. And when men don't conform, they are called, pussy, whimp, emotional, queer, or fags. Furthermore, training, conditioning and socializing boys and men. Thus the true lesson I have gained from this video is that male violence, whether rape, murder, or domestic violence, needs to be understood as part of an ongoing crisis in masculinity. And that we all as a society must work to break the media controlled by rich, white men who control the existing stories and include more about men as humans not trapped by the guise. 

Overall, this documentary has taught and made me aware of some serious issues, as well as several ideas about masculinity and violence that I will take with me long after I leave the classroom.