Masculinities - Research Paper Example

Socialization is the process through which a child becomes an individual through the influence of his immediate environment. Socialization is explained by the social learning and social roles theory. This theory focuses heavily on observational learning where individuals get their masculinity or femininity through imitating others also called modeling. This is most likely to occur when the observer is inexperienced or uncertain and especially at a young age. The agents of socialization from who behavior can be acquired can be teachers, siblings, peers, television, parents etc.

The society expects men to behave rationally and not emotionally and that is why behavior like crying and nagging are rebuked since they are associated with femininity. Representation of masculinity: The Beauty and the Beast Animation A good representation of masculinity is illustrated in the cartoon animation The Beauty and The Beast. When we look at the movie through a gender studies lens, we find instances where the film portrays what a real masculine man is supposed to be. Our main attention is on Gaston who is apparently carrying all the qualities that define a how a real man should be like.

From the dictionary’s definition, we get the meaning of masculine as having qualities like strength, vigor and power. In the movie, Gaston is the complete representation of the definition. He comes out as a man with a big Physique, large muscles, rugged look, and square jawed, strong and powerful which we even hear in the songs that are praising him in the movie. We see him illustrating power and aggression when Belle turns his proposal down and publicly humiliates him. He therefore resorts to use power and violence to get her to marry him.

He chooses her on the bases of beauty and not love. His aggression goes on till the end of the story where he does not accept defeat. From the movie, a real man therefore should be a strong, powerful, sweet talker and aggressive man. This are the traits that are highly appreciated by the society as shown by the women who are awed and attracted to Gaston and are all out to get his attraction (except for Belle) and the fact that all the men want to be like him. Aggression, competition and dominance are some of the elements of masculinity as established from Gaston’s identity.

He assumes superiority and dominance over everyone that tries to stand in the way of his Pursuit of Belle. His dominance is further seen in his assumption that since all the girls are falling for him, it will also apply to Belle. He further believes that his role as a man is to provide while Belle’s role as his wife would stay at home, get kids, massage his feet and take care of him. Beauty and the Beast is one of the children stories that illustrate a domineering, aggressive and demanding male.

This message reaches to children at a very early age and they grow up with negative models of masculinity and they end up acting it as they grow since it what they have seen over the years. As much as it comes out as entertainment, children tend to be easily influenced by what they see or read since they don’t know how to choose a good model to emulate and thus most boys will take up this traits in the believe that it is the right way to behave. To most people, this ruthless, emotional and aggressive character has been the definition of a real man.

Men marry women just as tokens to add to their wealth thus treated them like objects. Even in these current times we see men that see themselves as the