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Educating Men: The Culture of Masculinity and Violence Against Women
Educating Men: The Culture of Masculinity and Violence Against Women
Statistics supporting the idea that violence, in particular violence against women, is a a gender issue*:
How does the media reinforce patriarchal ideas promoting violence against women?
The media provides images of manhood that are defined by power, violence, and control.
Sports culture such as wrestling: the celebration of violence connects being a man with abusive acts.
In the media, men are almost always shown as the perpetrators of violence. Images of men dominating women in ads imply that women want to be forced to have sex, and that it is an accepted social norm for a male to be violent towards women.
Violent Masculinity:
What does it mean for men?
From childhood on, males receive a constant message concerning their gender identity: Manhood is connected with power, control, and violence.
Invulnerability
With these ideals for manhood comes another expectation for males: the idea that a real man is not only strong physically (proved through violence), but emotionally as well.
And violence?
If a real man must maintain an appearance of emotional invulnerability, he does not have societys permission to express himself emotionally or receive help. Many males use violence (against women as well as against other men) as a way to express their frustrations, while also living up to the powerful male expectation that society idealizes.