Journal Entries

Emma Heidenheim

Tuesday, October 10th, 2017

SSC 125G

Michael Lozynsky
Journal #1

I broke this statement down, and believe it is saying this: Girls naturally want to do

stereotypically feminine things, and boys want to do stereotypically masculine

things, and you could in theory make them do the opposite but it would just end up

making everyone unhappy. This might be true for a pretty large percentage of girls

and boys based on their genetics/basic biological differences; but everyone knows

that life isnt black and white. There are a lot of grey areas, and no two people are

the same. I believe that changing gender roles isnt about forcing children to do

things they dont want to do, but its actually the opposite. Its about encouraging

kids to do whatever they feel most comfortable doing, and not label things as

exclusively male or female.

Journal #2

1. The title of the film The Mask you live in references the hyper-masculine

appearance, and demeanour men and boys often feel obligated to present in our

society. The mask is an image men are taught is socially acceptable by the

media/gender stereotypes.
2. I definitely do believe that the media and our culture perpetuate stereotypes of

how men/boys should act. Growing up, I was fortunate to attend an arts high school,

and was always surrounded by very expressive boys. Because of this, almost all of

my guy friends were more feminine and expressive than I now think is normal. It

really wasnt until I moved to Windsor for college in 2015 that I truly understood

how uncomfortable some males are with emotion and femininity. I was always

aware of hyper-masculinity in media, but I wasnt really exposed to its full effects

until the last couple years. I see it a lot with drinking, where guys define their

masculinity by who can drink the most which then leads to people drinking a lot

more than they initially wanted to.

3. I think hyper-masculinity does harm boys. I think its unnatural for boys to be

tough and not show any emotion. Emotions are healthy and necessary for good

mental health and development. It must be really damaging to feel that you arent

aloud to be sad, or cry when you feel upset. I think it would cause a lot of anger and

depression to be taught that normal emotions are wrong.

4. I definitely think media has influenced how woman view men. The media

presents men as driven by sex and power. Desirable men are always presented in

hyper-masculine roles; where-as weak nerdy emotional guys are presented as

undesirable to women.
Journal #3

In the film Miss Representation the issue that stood out the most to me was that

from a young age girls are taught that their entire value lies in their physical

appearance; as opposed to who they are as a person. As a young woman I feel this

issue is out of control. When I look back at my teenage years I realize that almost all

of my close girl friends had some sort of eating disorder. I wasnt surprised when

the film stated that something like 40% of women have/ have had an eating

disorder. I think if I had a daughter I would do my best to instil confidence in her at

home and show her that who she is as a human being is whats most important. I

think its impossible to shield kids from the media and negative influences of the

world, but it is possible to teach them right from wrong. If you build up a childs

confidence she will have the tools to understand whats truly important in life, so

that when shes met with negative images she can differentiate whats true and false

for herself.