Men will be Women Essays - Gender, Masculinity, Literature, Biology

Men will be Women Being men means something today that is completely different to the definition of past generations; This is true for any time period. Primitively, being a man meant to be fearless and tough in order to protect and feed their people, it was male nature. As time progresses, this definition was ever so slightly modified to a point where men are expected to be tamed and act as a male version of women. Men are animals by nature, and like animals men require certain necessities in order to keep calm. Chuck Palahniuk, in his book titled Fight Club, using toxic masculinity explores a fictional scenario in which men find a way to release this primitive tension and masculinity stored through the years from a macro-perspective in order to escape from a world where men are expected to suppress their male nature. Men are no longer the image of strong figures that put their lives in danger every day in order to provide and protect their people. From a macro-perspective, men have been changed alongside history itself in order to better fit social standards set by women. Fight Club explores toxic masculinity, the side of men that is not good for society. According to Harris O'Malley in his article titled, " The Difference Between Toxic Masculinity and Being A Man", Toxic masculinity is a concept with questionable origins that describes men who do not live up social standards, " for many people, the toxic ideas of masculinity are synonymous with being a man"(par 4). To simply be men is already a big offense. From a macro-perspective, men have been driven to avoid male nature by slowly turning men into what is believed to be the ideal man, a female version of men. From a micro-perspective, a male child told that he cannot cry because it is not the manly thing to d o, will store all the tension and eventually release it all at once. This is true for all the expectations for men today: boys will be boys, men think about sex every 7 seconds, men can't be friends with women, real men fight, etc. According to Kali Holloway , in her article titled "Toxic Masculinity Is Killing Men: The Roots of Men and Trauma", "...male infants actually behave in ways our society defines as feminine' " (par. 3), furthermore proving that we are both unconsciously and consciously driving men since childhood to be female. Kali Holloway states that "... social constructions of femininity demand that women be thin, beautiful, accommodating, and some unattainable balance of virginal and fuckable, social constructions of masculinity demand that men constantly prove and re-prove the very fact that they are, well, men" (par. 1), stating that men are not the only affected by social standards. Women are also affected, some may argue that even more than men. Holloway s tates, " B oth ideas are poisonous and potentially destructive, but statistically speaking, the number of addicted and afflicted men and their comparatively shorter lifespans proves masculinity is actually the more effective killer"(par 2). Though women may or may not be affected by more social standards, they are free to express their opinion and feelings on the matter. On the other hand, "...[men] are not only told they should suppress their emotions, but that their manliness essentially depends on them doing so" (par 7). Being a man means something completely different today, than it did the past generations. Being a man depends whether or not you can act according to female nature and the standards set by said nature. In Fight Club , the narrator finds the way to express his male nature through the way of Tyler, a persona created within himself. Tyler could do as he pleased and explore male nature at will, something the narrator has never been able to do. The narrator is the representation of men trapped in the standards of society that find a way to break free from such standards. Palahniuk describes the narrator as the way men should be according to social standards: white, heterosexual, with a degree, a job, and a furnished apartment. When the narrator realizes he checked all the boxed for the ideal man,