I need some help on my paper (the one I will show has already been graded), so I can get better at writing future ones.
Thanks to anyone who can give some critique, and hopefully to the level of that the Den is know for.
This for gender studies and it is a video reflection.
The documentary film Tough Guise 2 presents the argument that the ways that men and boys are taught culturally in America about masculinity are distorted, destructive, and rigidly defined behaviors. These taught behaviors are reinforced by the media as acceptable, and this causes them to create a persona that exemplifies this behavior and closely defend the persona out of fear of being rejected from society. The film also argues that the reasons for the persona and the persona itself should not exist, and a non destructive teaching of masculinity should be the one taught.
I did have a problem with some of the examples used to illustrate Jackson Katz's point. He used the clip from Rambo to talk about how, “Sylvester Stallone as John Rambo killing his way through Vietnam to do the job our feckless American government is incapable of doing by bringing our POWs home“ (Katz, Tough Guise 2), is actually a misrepresentation of what went on in that particular movie. The American government was not feckless,it was trying to cover it's own tail in the Vietnam conflict. Rambo used lethal violence only during times where he was rescuing someone or defending himself and others. The reason why he commits the violence is that the enemy was not there to negotiate and he did not want the prisoners to go through the torture that he went through by the same army.
Another movie example Katz presents is the movie Scarface with the quote, “So in the wildly popular remake of the 1932 gangster film 'Scarface,' starring Al Pacino, it’s all about the projection of toughness and the use of violence to achieve respect and success as a man.” (Katz, Tough Guise 2), this is actually a misrepresentation of what the film was about. This movie actually backs up Katz's point about the destructive nature of the tough guise and how if you don't measure up there would be consequences. Tony Montana is the bad guy, the message of the movie is not to do what Tony does in the movie. In the movie, he becomes disillusioned about what his is doing and it comes to a head when he messes up an assassination attempt because there were women and children at the location. This action sealed Tony's fate to the others, since it showed them that he was not tough enough and needed to be removed. Now the message of the movie has been ignored by most of the fans of the movie, so it not completely the movie's fault if the fans take an incomplete interpretation of the film. I think Katz is attributing what the fans take from the movie to the movie instead of what the film actually presents to make his case.
Another aspect that Katz did not really touch upon during the video was the role the media plays on how women or girls would treat a man or boy that doesn't measure up to the “ideal man”. Some films give the impression that if man is too nice to a woman she will just use or ignore him and go to or even back to the hyper-masculine guy like in the movie The Last American Virgin. It does not even have to be the case that the man who gets the woman is a “jerk” or “stereotypical jock”; he could be the main character like in a number of blaxploitation films. This brings in another force that pressures men and boys to use this persona in hopes of getting women or girls.
Even with my problems with some of the examples, the film is very good one and the arguments presented are for the most part very solid. I watched the previous Tough Guise in another class, and it was more all over the place. It was not making connections very well in its arguments. Tough Guise 2 is definitely more focused and Mr. Katz's closing speech cleared up a niggling question about where he wanted the culture of masculinity to go.
I did have a problem with some of the examples used to illustrate Jackson Katz's point. He used the clip from Rambo to talk about how, “Sylvester Stallone as John Rambo killing his way through Vietnam to do the job our feckless American government is incapable of doing by bringing our POWs home“ (Katz, Tough Guise 2), is actually a misrepresentation of what went on in that particular movie. The American government was not feckless,it was trying to cover it's own tail in the Vietnam conflict. Rambo used lethal violence only during times where he was rescuing someone or defending himself and others. The reason why he commits the violence is that the enemy was not there to negotiate and he did not want the prisoners to go through the torture that he went through by the same army.
Another movie example Katz presents is the movie Scarface with the quote, “So in the wildly popular remake of the 1932 gangster film 'Scarface,' starring Al Pacino, it’s all about the projection of toughness and the use of violence to achieve respect and success as a man.” (Katz, Tough Guise 2), this is actually a misrepresentation of what the film was about. This movie actually backs up Katz's point about the destructive nature of the tough guise and how if you don't measure up there would be consequences. Tony Montana is the bad guy, the message of the movie is not to do what Tony does in the movie. In the movie, he becomes disillusioned about what his is doing and it comes to a head when he messes up an assassination attempt because there were women and children at the location. This action sealed Tony's fate to the others, since it showed them that he was not tough enough and needed to be removed. Now the message of the movie has been ignored by most of the fans of the movie, so it not completely the movie's fault if the fans take an incomplete interpretation of the film. I think Katz is attributing what the fans take from the movie to the movie instead of what the film actually presents to make his case.
Another aspect that Katz did not really touch upon during the video was the role the media plays on how women or girls would treat a man or boy that doesn't measure up to the “ideal man”. Some films give the impression that if man is too nice to a woman she will just use or ignore him and go to or even back to the hyper-masculine guy like in the movie The Last American Virgin. It does not even have to be the case that the man who gets the woman is a “jerk” or “stereotypical jock”; he could be the main character like in a number of blaxploitation films. This brings in another force that pressures men and boys to use this persona in hopes of getting women or girls.
Even with my problems with some of the examples, the film is very good one and the arguments presented are for the most part very solid. I watched the previous Tough Guise in another class, and it was more all over the place. It was not making connections very well in its arguments. Tough Guise 2 is definitely more focused and Mr. Katz's closing speech cleared up a niggling question about where he wanted the culture of masculinity to go.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/lnfynqttpcqj5 ... 9.pdf?dl=0
