Students warned: Bulging biceps, big guns advance unhealthy masculinity
http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/24488/
That message and similar ones were conveyed recently to students during Vanderbilt University’s “Healthy Masculinities Week,”
Athletes and fraternity members are a risk to themselves and others because of the pressure put on them to act masculine, according to other events from the week.
One event featured a screening of the limited-release documentary The Mask You Live In, which blames “America’s narrow definition of masculinity” for the deteriorating mental health of boys and men.
Gilman Whiting, who teaches a class called “Black Masculinity: Social Imagery and Public Policy,” blamed the hypermasculinized sporting culture in the U.S. for the intense pressure he faced.
Being a woman is more predictable than being a man because men constantly have to be ready to “prove it,” Whiting said.
The film isn’t without critics: A female gender-equity author said it’s “sensationaliz[ing] the issue being discussed” by taking statistics out of context and making several “alarmist” statements.
On the panel “Maintaining Bro Status,” Interfraternity Council Vice President Jay Reynolds told the audience they should all get therapy so they can better understand their own minds.
Reynolds added that he sees unhealthy masculinity in some form daily, but he didn’t elaborate on what that entails.
Jon Zacharias, a member of Vanderbilt’s Liaisons Educating & Advocating for Psychological Support, said students can see “unhealthy masculinities” in almost any social environment on a Friday or Saturday.
Bill Savage, IFC vice president of recruitment, said he hates the term “man up” or a phrase he claims is closely related, “don’t be a pussy.” In contrast to stereotypes, “being emotional is manly in my opinion,” Savage said.
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This is the second consecutive year Vanderbilt has hosted a discussion about masculinity. The Center for Medicine, Health, and Society hosted “The Politics of Masculinity” last year.
Rory Dicker, the director of the Women’s Center, told The College Fix by email that it hosted the week to “further the conversations” in response to Katz’s “provocative ideas” about masculinity.
But this year’s masculinity series was roundly mocked in national news outlets in the week leading up to the observance, including by a panel of four women and one man on the Fox News show Outnumbered.
Host Andrea Tantaros claimed the organizers were trying to “demasculinize men” and turn them into “thumb-sucking little beta males in skinny jeans.”
Asked about the Fox News pundits’ criticisms, Vanderbilt’s Dicker said they “missed the fact that … there are many ways to be masculine, but American society pressures boys and men to adopt” the version that prioritizes “being competitive, stoic and aggressive, for example.”