The Patriarchy is Sus

  One thing from the Minding the Gap documentary that stood out to me as an example of toxic masculinity is the domestic violence seen from Zack. This isn’t to say toxic masculinity is always involved in situations of abuse, but Zack’s attitude in particular towards his fights with Nina seems to be rooted in toxically masculine ideas. When Bing asked him about hitting Nina, Zack went on about how she wouldn’t stop talking during fights and how sometimes, when they won’t listen to you, “bitches need to get slapped.” Zack’s idea that he needs to resort to physical violence so a woman will act the way he wants reminds me of the idea of the reading from Liz Plank’s “For the Love of Men.” The reading touches on how the idea that violence and angry outbursts are acceptable ways to deal with your problems is rooted in toxic masculinity. Boys are taught from a young age to suppress their emotions. They are told that “men don’t cry” or “men don’t hug”. If they never develop the skills neces...

  You may or may not be familiar with the period cramp simulator, a machine designed to mimic different levels of period pain. I’ve seen a few viral videos floating around in which men, who are obviously in pain, use a period cramp simulator. In contrast, women in these videos are usually calm due to being accustomed to the pain. While it’s funny to see the differences between the reactions of men and women, the amount of pain many people with periods face on a regular basis has negative repercussions in the medical world.   For one, there is a pattern in the healthcare community of women not receiving as much medication to help ease general pain as men. Research has shown women are much less likely to receive painkillers for their ailment and post-surgery than men do. This inequality is, in part, due to the normalization of women’s pain and perceptions of women as overdramatic when it comes to expressing pain.  In addition, studies of pain usually center male subjec...

In class, we discussed Perez’s idea of the “default male,” or how men are seen as the default in different parts of our society. One example of an area in which women often feel unwelcome is the STEM field. Not only are most STEM careers male-dominated, but educational science material and science-y TV and movies usually center men. For example, those plastic human models you see in biology classes to help learn about human anatomy are almost always modeled after a male body. I can’t name a single nature or science show hosted by a woman, and as a young girl, I didn’t feel represented in science-related media. That’s not to say those shows narrated and hosted by women don’t exist, but almost all the shows and documentaries I grew up watching, like Bill Nye and National Geographic & BBC docs, are hosted or narrated by men.   The Magic School Bus is the only science show I remember watching growing up with a female main character (Ms. Frizzle!) and looking back, I think it’s fai...