first draft of research paper #2

GUADIA AZIZE
INSTRUCTOR: MAGDALENA BOGACKA
ENG. 101. O800`1
NOVEMBER 16TH, 2010


The concept of men solidifying their masculinity through collective rituals of heterosexual activities is well established within American culture. Contemporary public institutions have come to embrace this type of collective behavior practiced amongst adult males as described by Grazian in “The Girl Hunt”, and supported by two other credible sources in Friday night Lights: A Town A Team and a Dream and Gender Trouble: Feminism And the Subversion of Identity, Which helped me shape my argument in discussing the performative aspect of masculinity. The sources illustrate my agreeing to the different aspects of group-oriented roles that men engage in, to hype their masculinity. These roles include: from men’s perception of an ideal standard of masculinity to the political patriarchy which subordinates women and to the one-upmanship characteristics that are displayed as methods to gain in-group-status while functioning to build confidence along with a sense of belongingness necessary to maintain the gender ideologies associated with the collective performance of masculinity.
The ideology of masculinity is presented in “The Girl Hunt” as a performative behavior learned through institutionalized set of rules as oppose to being an inherent trait passed on by its primal ancestors. For instance, according to the writer in “The Girl Hunt” Goffman, West and Zimmerman argues:
Like femininity; masculinity is not innate but an
accomplishment of human behavior that appears
natural because gendered individuals adhere to
an institutionalized set of myths they learn
through everyday interactions and encounters,
and thus accept as social reality (Grazian 320).
The interpretation of gender as a learned behavior is intelligently illustrated in Gender Trouble, as the author writes:
……..The distinction between sex and gender
serves the argument that whatever biological
intractability sex appears to have, gender is
culturally constructed. Hence, gender is neither
the casual result of sex nor as seemingly fixed as
sex (Butler 8).
This statement verifies the the understanding of gender as performative and culturally influenced, which is why masculinity is thought of as an idealized normative standard flaunted through aesthetic displays of gestures and body language passed on by the collective rituals of especially young adolescent males. As a result, this kind of behavior becomes the accepted standard as it is reshaped and influenced by the contemporary courtship rituals desperetaly sought after by heterosexual men looking to introduce the up-to-date idealized characteristics of masculinity. The collective performance of masculinity is also practiced by young males to validate their manhood, gain in-group-status, as well as hooking up with a girl under sexist terms. In the reading of “The Girl Hunt” Grazian describes the validation of manhood associated with in-group status as he writes:
As these young men dance arm-in-arm with one
another, they generate the collective
effervescence and a sense of social
connectedness necessary to plunge into the
nightlife (Grazian 327).
There is a significant correlation between this statement and what the author in Friday Night Lights, claims by saying:
They would still be gladiators, the ones who were
envied by everyone else, the ones who knew
about the best parties and got the best girls and
and laughed the loudest and strutted so proudly
through The halls of school as if it was their own
wonderful private kingdom (Bissinger 327).
the comparisons seem to compliment each other, for Grazian refers to young men that work collectively and effectively to boost their confidence and be able to perform at the highest possible level before taking that initial step of pulling themselves off the couches, as they head out and into a mysterious night life filled with promising erotic encounters with the opposite sex, overwhelming these adolescent men with immature compulsive egos and unfulfilled quotas pertaining to sexual experiences. In comparison, Bissinger points out the dominant masculine expectations of young, strong and athletic players whose only goal is to establish their presence as these ultimately symbols of heroism, herosexuality, and manhood; Resulting as the subjects of women’s sexual desires and in prerogatives of male-bonding. Moreover, gender hierarchy describes the subordination of women through men’s collective performances implemented by the political patriarchy and heterosexual objectifications of women.
The subordination of women is driven by the political patriarchy and the perceived principles of gender roles. The author in “The Girl Hunt” supports this idea by claiming:
……Joey’s confidence is boosted by the
camaraderie he experiences in a bonding ritual
in which women---supposedly the agreed—upon
raison d’etre for the evening---are ignored or,
when they make their presence known, scolded.
This comment reiterates what the author in Friday Night Lights refers to as he writes:
………..So desperate was she to intergrate herself
with the football players that she bought one of
them a brand-new backpack and then offered
him fifty dollars to sleep with her
(Bissinger 141).
Both authors Grazian and bissinger argue, that women are perceived as a sexual object or some sort of trophy that you can raise up high to show your buddies and say “the persisting bolstering of our egos has paid off”. Another method by which women are subordinated is the way public perception of gender is manipulated in society as a whole,
Especially here in the United States. For instance, the author in Gender Trouble writes:
The political assumption that there must be a
universal basis for feminism, one which must be
found in an identity assumed to exist cross—
culturally often accompanies the notion that the
oppression of women has some singular form
discernible in the universal or hegemonic
structure of patriarchy or masculine domination
(Butler 5).
Bissinger illustrates the political and linguistic methods that are used to undermine women’s liberation and representation. femininity has suffered a great deal under the political patriarchy which has given women identities that symbolizes them as inferior beings or troublesome to men. The gender hierarchy has conceptualized femininity as being digressive and divisive in nature. This type of sexist behavior practiced in male-dominated political arenas is what Grazian talks about when he refers to the collective performance that men engage in to boost their masculinity by objectifying and subordinating women for the soul purpose of fulfilling the collective rituals that furnish them with power and control.
The author, David Grazian in “The Girl Hunt” Suggests, the performative aspect of masculinity is not only a learned behavior but a means by which it conveys gestures and body expressions; a social response under the influence of divisive gender rules made up and governed by male—dominated institutions (337). For men, collective rituals are ways of solidifying their self-esteem, masculinity, and in-group-status. young men come together to share their most testaterone-boosting stories about how much money they got, what cars they drive, and the number of girls that desire to be with them. Although, this type of behavior is what labels women as sexual objects, it releases anamalistic tensions from within the male structure that would otherwise inhibit their ability to function as heterosexuals. In other words masculinity is not pre-conditioned, but rather constitutes collective performances compatable to the current sexualized patterns of courtships.



Works Cited

Bissinger, H.G. Friday Night Lights: A Town A Team And A Dream
Cambridge: Da Capo Press, 1900. Print.

Bordo, Susan “Gentleman Or Beast? The Double Bind Of Masculinity”
The Male Body: A New Look At men in Public. New York:
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2000. 242-264 Print.

Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminisim And The Subversion Of
Identity New York: Routledge Classics, 1900. Print.