Tough Guise, Male Gender Constructions & Eddie Vedder

In the documentary Tough Guise, Jackson Katz does a nice job of breaking down and analyzing the male gender constructions—what those constructions look like, where they come from and their consequences. He claims that masculinity is a projection, “a mask we often wear to shield our vulnerability and hide our humanity.” He calls the mask the ‘tough guise,’ a front that so many put up that emphasizes an extreme notion of masculinity. Some of the approaches Katz uses are similar to the discussions and investigations we have done in class already, especially the ‘box’ activity where we looked at the things that make men ‘manly’ and women ‘womanly.’ Here is a list of a few of Katz’s other claims found throughout part one of Tough Guise:

   » Media constructs violent masculinity as the cultural norm.

   » Definitions of manhood can be linked to dominance and control.

   » The ‘tough guise’ is a survival mechanism.

   » Dominant groups remain indivisible or unexamined, which allows male gender constructions to perpetuate without any kind of discussion.

   » Violence is gendered masculine. Therefore, when women are violent, they are talked about in the media a lot. But when men are violent, it’s ignored or perceived as ‘normal.’ Every day men are mutilating and harming women but it doesn’t make the news as much as the rare occasions when a woman does something.

   » Images of women have become less threatening over time as they have become more girlish, especially as women have threatened male dominance in the workplace, politics, etc.

   » Changing images of masculinity and ‘toughness’ reflect psyches of men—a response to challenges of masculinity, especially women’s civil rights movements.

   » Manhood assertion a response to ‘threatening’ social movements in 1960s and 1970s.

   » Anti-gay violence proves that many young men are insecure about their masculine identity.

   » Masculinity is a pose or a performance—culture tells boys you get respect through power and control.

For more on some of Katz's ideas, check out this link; it's a PDF of some of his ideas from the documentary in written form. You know, words.

Remember, one of you blog posts this week needs to connect back to Tough Guise.

The opening montage of Tough Guise is set to the song "Betterman" by Pearl Jam (a total coincidence, kind of). 

Eddie Vedder, the lead singer of Pearl Jam, has for a long time advocated for women's rights and gender equality. In fact, many of Pearl Jam's songs aim to empower women. Songs like "Betterman," "Elderly Woman Behind a Counter in a Small Town," "Daughter," "Rearviewmirror," "Dissident," and "Army Reserve," to name a few, tell the story of female characters fighting against some of these gender constructions that perpetuate male dominance and female subjugation, the real life struggles of women looking to empower themselves in the face of abuse, violence and gender expectations. In fact, in an MTV Unplugged session in 1992, Eddie Vedder, during the song "Porch" wrote the words 'pro choice' up his arm, voicing his opinion that women, not men, should have the choice and final say about their bodies, especially as it relates to abortion.