SOCA2700 Gender, Religion and Power

The aim of the paper is to provide a literature review that is intended to reveal how the concept of a man or masculinity is created what implications does this idea has on mental illness. Along with this the paper will also try to understand how gender and sexuality, the basic concepts of gender studies and normative concepts can be analyzed as well as how these have significant roles in creating this idea of a man and masculinity.

In the book “Cultures of Masculinity” by Edward says it is important to understand the difference between gender and sex it is important to understand this significant and vital difference because the difference is precisely what creates an idea of a man and defines what masculinity is. These terms are often used interchangeably which is a major source of confusion that it has created in the discourse of masculinity. Sex can be defined as the physical signifier that determines anatomy of a human being. This anatomy is different from human beings to human beings and this anatomy defines who a man is, who a woman is. Thus sex is understood entirely from a physiological and biological perspective. On the other hand gender is a more nuanced and complex understanding and is influenced by the societal norms and regulations it is a performance that men and women are expected to perform to maintain the status quo. It is a set of norms ascribed to men and women who are then conditioned to follow these societal norms. The concept of gender is what defines the difference between femininity and masculinity. For both men and women what the concept of gender ascribes is known as the social role that helps in developing certain guiding characteristics and this in return guides the way men and women and other sexes perform their roles in the society. Apart from this sexuality is a different concept all together that defines the human bodies a particular sexual orientation or how a person is attracted to. To some extent even societal norms sets this orientation on human beings that forces them to perform the gender identities.  Many scholars have used these basic concepts to unpack the understanding of masculinity (Edwards, 2004).

Many literatures has suggested that it is extremely important to distinguish between a man and masculinity, where man is a physical and biological being; however masculinity is a result of gender norm. Thus it defines how a man should behave and what characteristics would dominate the behavior of the man. It is largely socially constructed however the degree of manliness or masculinity varies from cultures to cultures. But traditionally some of the important traits of masculinity are strength, courage, independence, signs of leadership and ability to be assertive. Even if these traits might not enough to make a human being feel superior to the others, but the conditioning of masculinity has put these traits on a pedestal by putting down the qualities of femininity which is constructed to be preceded by emotions. Therefore because of this differences created between masculinity and femininity, the former has been rendered a position of power and dominance in the society. With regards to this it is important to discuss that gender norms with the concepts of masculinity and femininity has given men and women their specific gender roles, where men have been historically granted more prominence making the other marginalized in the society.  This unchecked culture of masculinity over the time has produced a culture of toxic masculinity, these characteristics of toxic masculinity has added some stereotypes which has set a standard of expectations from men. This toxic masculinity is precisely based on the one understanding that the expression of emotions reflects a weak characteristic trait and hence it should be subdued (Mosse, 1998). 

This is because a large of part of being  a man is associated with the normalization of violence, where violence, violent behaviors are glorified, where aggression is supposedly a desirable quality in men to succeed in their professional and personal lives. These false notions of masculinity are not only harmful for the society at large because negative attributes like misogyny and homophobia are a direct result of it. But it also has damaged the man himself to a large extent, because boys from their very childhood are taught to be self reliant devoid of any form of emotional outburst has increased the cases of mental illness in men like acute depression, stress forcing them to substance abuse and alcoholism which in return harms the entire society. Thus the see such aggressive traits of masculinity has become a normative trend in itself which has serious implications on the mental health of men (Watson, 1995).

Hence the idea of how one can be a man has boxed him up which in essence is extremely toxic as researched by (Brooks,2001)  the traditional characteristics associated with men are unhealthy, unable to express emotions and their incessant need to be powerful makes them narcissistic and extremely violent. These attributes over the time has placed an unrealistic and unhealthy responsibility on men where the society has put them under a lot of pressure. While the societal norms have placed these pressures on men it has not given a solution that can help them to come out from this complex web of feeling. Conditioning them to be saviors, breadwinners, leading movements or organizations, succeeding in their careers are certain roles which is expected and forced on men and the ways of achieving these expectations is through, anger, selfishness, and aggression which has become a part of their gender identity and this particularly has been damaging for men. With these false expectations forced upon men, there is a constant pressure on them to prove themselves and the need to be in power gets embedded in their psyche, rather is conditioned and this in return leaves far- fetched consequences on others in fact in this process men end up  harming themselves as well. Not only men alone but the entire society has conditioned the toxic and violent aspect of masculinity which is furthered romanticized by the media and entertainment industry. With regards to this a false dichotomy is painted by the society and its agents, where their image as protectors is considered positive while their expression of their emotions is considered negative. Hence a number of men who are effeminate or are emotional and soft are subjected to ridicule, thus making these traits less desirable and valuable.

A number of mental health experts have mentioned that they keep so many emotions bottled up inside that has caused deep trauma amongst them and made them adopt unhealthy coping mechanisms often leading to suicide. Reports have suggested that since 2018 there has been an unprecedented spike in men committing suicides as well as a lot of deaths have been caused by drug overdose which is proven to be caused by depression.  Like other human beings men also fs suffer from anxiety, depression and other forms of mental illness. But they do not resort to mental health services in the fear of damaging their image in front of the society.  Accessing mental health services and talking about it is anyway a taboo, and people are generally reluctant to talk about it, thus for men to come out and break from their socializations, acknowledging their mental illness and trauma is equal to exposing themselves  and thus the avoidance (Brooks, 2001).

Some scholarly work has also reflected that as a result of this, an issue as serious as sexual assault on men does not get reported and neither there are appropriate legislatures to protect them from these abuses. These issues at a later point cause a lot of trauma that remains untreated. Even certain serious traits of men that leads to violence is in one way looked from a law and order perspective but it is also important to see it from a large scale social mental illness perspectives which has not been addressed and thus has led to where the society is today and  how men are perceived to be. Along with this one way in which actions of men are assessed is by punishments which is a temporary solution and does not address the root of the problems and makes no effort to peek into their psyche which is the ideal way to help them deal with this situation. This is precisely why it is absolutely important in breaking the stereotypical image of a man right from their childhood and creates a culture where emotional feelings are fostered and they are encouraged to express themselves freely without any societal pressures to behave a certain way. Along with this it is absolutely mandatory in de-stigmatizing mental illness and encourages them to express their emotions and assure them that asking for help is actually the true way of showing courage for oneself and the society (Gough,  Robertson, & Robinson, 2016).

Therefore to conclude, masculinity is obviously a social construct which is guided by certain gender norms that ingrains men to be violent and aggressive and this in return has caused serious cases of mental illness that has a lot of consequences in the society as well as in the lives of men and the one way in which these consequences that can be taken care is by enabling a society where talking about mental illness is normalized.

References

Edwards, T. (2004). Cultures of masculinity. Routledge. https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=0r2AAgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=masculinity&ots=n9KZo4OsiG&sig=0KvahMoSh2SGakRB8dcs4CiJu5c&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=masculinity&f=false

Watson, M. B. B. W. S. (1995). Constructing masculinity (No. 11). Psychology Press. https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=zC-ZTmQ9QkYC&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=masculinity&ots=-lbepl1XN_&sig=oZWwWJwygecSsE_qF3ZQoIhPi3E&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=masculinity&f=false

Mosse, G. L. (1998). The image of man: The creation of modern masculinity. Oxford University Press. https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=kXd_2_ebSekC&oi=fnd&pg=PP8&dq=masculinity&ots=9j1_K_cS2g&sig=TmC5hDor-QQJgm4D4052IOzZAkM&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=masculinity&f=false

Brooks, G. R. (2001). Masculinity and men's mental health. Journal of American College Health, 49(6), 285-297. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07448480109596315?journalCode=vach20

Gough, B., Robertson, S., & Robinson, M. (2016). Men,‘masculinity’and mental health: Critical reflections. In Handbook on gender and health. Edward Elgar Publishing. https://www.elgaronline.com/view/edcoll/9781784710859/9781784710859.00018.xml

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