RR #2: Bro

     In “Bros Before Hos”: The Guy Code, Michael Kimmel discusses how our society and modern day world looks at masculinity.  He discusses the expected duties of a “man” including how he is supposed to look, act, and talk.  Society has unwritten rules that teach them that they need to be strong, tough, emotionless, stoic, big, and better than the rest of the men.  They can’t cry or talk about any potential problems they have; it’s better to express these feelings with anger or violence.  These ideas are the sad truths in our current society and they are instilled in the minds of our boys from a very young age.  It isn’t ok to be a “wuss”, a “sissy” or more popularly a “pussy”.  There is a huge fear of being thought of as a homosexual among male peers. 

      Kimmel brings up a good point that the only people that matter who judge masculinity are other male peers.  Men are so caught up with the judgement of male peers and have a great fear of being thought of as less than manly.  They need to have more and better material objects, not show any emotional vulnerability, and appear to have unfaltering strength.  

Kimmel brings up great points that wouldn’t come to mind naturally but make complete sense.  He is writing this in order to raise consciousness to how our modern society views how a man should be.  It is important to be aware of this so we don’t continue to pass down the trend of the narrow-minded idea of masculinity.  All of the young men that he interviewed expressed that they got their idea of how to be a man from another, usually older, man in their life.  Whether it is from a dad, coach, uncle brother, priest or somebody else it seems to be consistent that boys learn that they need to be tough and not become effeminate.  It is important that this standard of being a man is changed.  It can be harmful to a person emotionally if they can’t express their true feelings due to fear of negative judgement from peers: “No wonder boys are more prone to depression, suicidal behavior, and various other forms of out-of-control or out-of-touch behaviors than girls are” (616).  

     For the majority of the paper Kimmel uses pathos to express his points to his readers.  He brings up points about the sadness of the current state of how our society views masculinity and what is expected of men.  They are forced to repress their feelings that everyone should feel comfortable expressing.  Boys are raised to be emotionless, tough, and better than the rest by the men that they look up to in their lives.  Kimmel isn’t blaming these men because they too are victims of the system that they come from.  He just intends to raise awareness of the strict standards men have to pertain to.  We need to become more conscious as a culture and not judge the men in our society so strictly.