Michael Kimmel in the article, ‘Masculinity as Homophobia: Fear, Shame, and silence in the Construction of Gender Identity,' describes how people, especially define masculinity and various other factors in close association with the sociological issue. The article starts by giving out some of the ideologies that people have regarding manhood. The author then shifts the focus to masculinity and how it is seen as a homosocial enactment. The author says that every man is under the watchful eyes of other men. Other men watch, rank and ultimately grant us our acceptance into manhood. A man demonstrates his manhood or masculinity to be approved by other men. The author also notes down that men do not really need the approval of women, rather, women are like a form of currency used by men to improve their ranking on the manhood or masculine social scale. Homophobia, as defined in the article, refers to men's fear of other men.
As the article explains, no man or boy, for that matter, wants to be seen a feminine or a ‘sissy’ ( Kimmel, 2017) . Men, while walking around, fear that other men will unmask them and reveal to the whole world that they are not yet man enough or that they are not real men. The fact that a man has such fearful feelings towards other men makes them realize that they are not as manly as they think. This then makes them ashamed. This shame leads most men to silence. This explains why most men would rather sit in silence while women, minorities, gays, and lesbians get mistreated and discriminated. A shows a lot of compassion and understanding while his woman friend but spits all sorts of sexist words while in the company of men.
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Homophobia drives men to develop weird behaviors. Some even try to deny others manhood just to maintain their manhood. Other groups of people, as presented by the article, such as the black people and the natives have been in the past stereotyped as weak and vulnerable. The author says that manhood is equated with power, a factor which is recognized both by fellow men and women. Men feel that they are supposed to possess or feel this kind of power by rite. The author concludes by saying that escape and exclusion are the dominant methods used by American men to keep their fears of humiliation at bay. However, the author also notes that these methods of avoiding humiliation or running from fear will help solve our problem ( Kimmel, 2017) .
The issue of masculinity has been broadly debated and discussed in the field of sociology. Masculinity has been associated with aggressiveness, possession, and power over the years. Those without power and material possessions are seen as weak in the society. In the olden days, women never owned much. Men without material possession or power were then seen as less-masculine or as women. In the modern world, feminists struggle to fight for gender equality by suppressing or doing away with the idea that masculinity is equated with power. Other men, struggle, day by day, to achieve greater things with which they would seek the approval of other men for them to be seen as manly. Therefore, men get more selfish by becoming more aggressive. Each man wants to have something that will ultimately improve his manhood. Consequently, they fail their own test as they lose more power by becoming more aggressive and selfish. The aspects of masculinity such as homophobia also make men more ignorant and less active to act on various social issues such sexism and racism.
References
Kimmel, M. (2017). Manhood in America . Oxford University Press.
