Masculinity As a Public Health Problem?

Harmful-men, women, self
Violence 90% of violence is committed by men.
Mental Illness
Men's bodies
-drink the most
-eat the most
-steroids
-health
-Substance abuse

Some aspects are associated with being positive when they shouldn't be for example violence and substance abuse; a lot of males seem accomplished when they beat someone up or drink the most alcohol, when in reality, they aren't benefiting anyone; they are hurting not only themselves, but also society.  Conversely, they see some aspects as negative when in fact there is nothing wrong with it.  The main example of this would be femininity.   Which then brings us to our second point; femininity  is also a public health issue because it forces women to contort themselves to fit into this intricate box that restricts them to a point that it is physically, mentally, and socially impossible to fit in.

However, the question of the hour is whether or not masculinity is a public health problem.  Certainly a difficult mystery to debunk, because of the fact that both sides of the argument are relatively strong.  Arguing that masculinity is in fact a public health problem highlights the countless times that men are often diagnosed with mental illness, but is it possible that it is due to the fact they are pressured by society?  So the question basically becomes who is to blame for the social pressures put on men to be ultra masculine.  Or is it a chicken -egg situation?

Whether or not masculinity is a public health problem, is there really a way to solve it?  Who exactly can be blamed for it?  Society has created this cyclical pattern of pressuring men to be the most 'manly' but putting them against one another, yet people are still so unwilling to try and stop the cycle for some reason, that it is leading to more and more issues with physical, sexual, and mental violence.

Gender in Sports & Media Coverage

Before today's presentation, I was aware that women in athletics are totally shafted in terms of air time, pay, etc. After today's presentation, I am disgusted by the fact that women in sports and media are hardly given ANY air time, hardly any sponsorship if they are not sexual, and overall, pretty much aren't even considered athletes by the world.

The summer olympics of 2012 was a huge leap for women.  There were women represented in countries that had never had  women from, there were pregnant women shooting guns, and women winning gold medals! HOWEVER, there were still so much criticism over women's outfits, women's hair styles, etc and there were significantly fewer women's events broadcast on television than men's. 

The media coverage(or lack there of) of men and women's sports was not just relevant to the olympics of 2012.  As they discussed in class, women's sports take up something like 10% of time on sports networks.  Along with that, if you look at sports magazines, women show up only if they are overly sexualized and scantily clad, and it probably helps if they have super awesome bodies.   Along with that, those are the women who have the best sponsorship!  To continue that, female athletes are often only paid attention to when they are not even on the court, field, etc.

One of the biggest pieces of information I took from the discussion was that female athletes are often not taken seriously, and if they are taken seriously, they probably do not have incredibly high sponsorship nor a fan base.  In essence, even though it is 2012, and the 40th anniversary of Title IX is coming up, women are not even close to being considered equal when it comes to athletics. 

What is Oppression?

No matter how you define oppression, it is clear that oppression is systematic in a matter that is not accidental.  Not accidental in a matter where society has inherently or purposely created binds and barriers, or as Frye might say, "bars in the cage," which is that you might think you may have avoided one aspect of oppression, only to find a plethora of other barriers that prevent you from taking part in other things. 

An interesting point from class was that oppression is not necessarily relatable.  I can't really tell whether or not I agree, because I feel like as a woman, I might be able to other women who might have been oppressed for simply having opinions that differ from the male dominant society.  But then again, maybe we are just experiencing the systematic oppression, as opposed actually being oppressed?

If there is anything I took out of today's class discussion, it is that oppression is incredibly convoluted and a massive knot of double standards.   First, if you look at who exactly is oppressed?  Personally, I would say that the hetero-sexual, christian, white male would be the main group that is not oppressed.  If anything, I would say they are the group that does the most oppressing and creates the oppressive social stigmas and norms, and in essence, is the driving force between the systemic oppression. 

Overall, it is difficult to clearly understand how oppression is perceived due to the ambiguity that can occur.  The internalization of oppression is something that is a big issue because in some ways, by internalizing it, you choose to be oppressed?  It is so confusing! Which makes me think that most everyone in the whole world is oppressed, yet a significant portion of those who are oppressed are also capable of doing the oppression?  

Rape Culture

Today's class discussion on rape culture was extremely riveting and also a bit horrifying.  Rape is just one of those concepts that is so difficult and uncomfortable to talk about, but at the same time, discussing rape is so necessary if society has any desire of limiting the frequency of the atrocities.
Although most of the discussion revolved around the safety of women, it was interesting to consider the  other side of the gender spectrum.  It would have been nice to have a higher male percentage represented in the class, but it was also comforting(in some demented way or another) to see that women were taking the upper hand in the discussion. In terms of the male representation, though, it was interesting to see how different the perceptions of rape culture, and relatively innocent actions varied between genders. For example, the majority of the class considered walking alone to be dangerous and risky, especially when you walk past someone at night.  Whereas the males were less frightened of being alone, and were not even aware of the implications of their behavior. The parallels that the class was able to draw concerning the gender binary was just so bizarre considering how frequently these things happen.
The gender binary also leads into the next point, which as that society spends so much time trying to teach women how to not get raped, instead of educating society to simply not partake in rape.  Almost everyone's parents warn young women about the dangers of date rape drugs, and don't walk alone at night, yet rarely do you hear about a parent lecturing someone to understand that if someone says 'no', it means 'no', and the importance of consent when it comes to sexual relations.
Along with that, it is interesting to see how often society tries to justify a vast majority of sexual assault by saying that a girl dressed in a certain way, or they were drunk, when in reality society as a whole simply needs to address the fact that rape is rape.  Society needs to develop a sense of compassion for victims instead of siding with the assailant.