I just wanted to talk to you guys about masculinity and why American society puts such a heavy image on men’s masculinity. I am really in to makeup and I came across a guy makeup artist, James Charles. He is the complete opposite of what the normal masculinity is supposed to be. He is very sassy, not muscular, high pitched voice and loves makeup. He honestly is better than a lot of girls I know with applying their makeup. Men typically have traits of toughness, independence and competiveness. 

As we watched “Murderball” and reading “ Coming to Terms Masculinity and Physical Disability” by Thomas Gerschick, it made me compare men I know to what I have learned from the two. I learned a lot about Paralytic disability and how it counter reacts to masculinity. Paralytic disability men aren’t typically fast, strong, active or independent. Although, in “Murderball” , these men were very active and touch while playing rugby.

My mom’s friend’s husband is paralyzed from the waist down because he wrecked his motorcycle when he was younger. He reminded me a lot of the guys in the movie because he acts the exact same way. He is extra loud and tries to be extremely aggressive towards others because he is upset about his disability. I can understand why he is upset but like they stated in the movie, you can either move on from it or don’t.

Comparing the make-up artist to my mom’s friend there is a huge difference, which means that all men don’t have to fit this perfect role of masculinity. The men in the movie and my mom’s friend both fit the role of hegemonic masculinity. They want to really prove themselves because that’s the one way they think they can. If a guy who is paralyzed wanted to makeup, I personally think that would be inspiring and awesome to see. I hope one day we as a society can put less norms on things like masculinity.

The movie “White Chicks” is very relatable, as well because it’s two men, who are super masculine and have to fill a part of two women. It’s very funny how masculine men tend to act in a less masculine way. As females I feel like we also have a role to fill but it’s not as strong as a man. I’m not sure why society is the way it is.  

As I was thinking today I started thinking about how people are shaped into the person they are from past events and future events to come. As all these events occur, we develop scars and memories from them. Scars can be good or bad depending on the even. For example, someone could have a scar from falling doing something they love. Even though this still is unfortunate, they were doing something they loved to do like snowboarding. A bad scar could from being beaten, a surgery, or a fall from a bad experience.

From our reading “Scars” by Jarvis Jay Masters it influenced me to think even more in depth about scars and their impact on our bodies. In his reading he talks about how people have been traumatized from their childhood and it made some people in to criminals. In the reading it talked about mostly everyone in the prison had been abused and were raised in foster homes. It’s very upsetting to hear these unfortunate childhood events.  As well as people covering their scars with tattoos. They most likely covered their scars with tattoos because they were ashamed or didn’t want to see the scars to remind them of their horrible past events. Tattoos are supposed to be a memorable experience or something we just simply like so I think that’s why people use them to cover up scars.

I personally had surgery on my foot because I had to have a bunion surgery and I have a horrible scar left on my foot still and that was about 8 years ago. Also, a year ago I had my son where my body made me have a c-section which left a scar on me. My c-section scar isn’t the cutest, but I’ve grown to accept it because I love my son. The body is an amazing thing that we can never fully predict what will happen to us. I thought I was healthy and then I was in labor for over 24 hours, which led to a c-section. Labor was such a hard experience for me, but I think we forget after a while because in the end, it was all worth it. I do think c-sections should receive just as much credit as “normal” labor because I went through SO much that day. I was on oxygen and the doctor said I was going to lose the baby. This was all after 24 hours of labor. I literally received every kind of medicine to try to have my baby vaginal.  Overall, Scars will always remind us where we came from and our significant events. I think in today’s society we need to be more open with one another and love every part of ourselves. Our bodies are controlled by our minds, which is why we get so upset when seeing our scars. I wish there was a way to look at our scars and be happy.

Works Cited

“Scars” Jarvis Jay Masters. “The Body Reader” Edited by Lisa Jean Moore and Mary Kosut

One time, maybe a few times, or maybe every time you enter an elevator you get a weird feeling or is it just me. Sometimes it gets so crowded in an elevator that we as people are bumping in to one another accidently and accidently.  I have a story… one time in an elevator, I was so squished between people in an elevator that I was rubbing all on top of someone because people just kept coming in like I’ve never seen before. I didn’t know if everyone else felt the same way or if it was just me. I feel as humans we like to have a more space, but at the same time we like to get to places as fast as we can, so we try to all cram together to get as many people in as we possibly can.

            Well in the elevator during this specific time, a guy was touching my hair with his beard because he was taller than me. I couldn’t even move to see what it as touching me until some other people exited the elevator to see him there still way too close to me when there was more room at this time once people exited. So I had to say something to him because he didn’t understand my gestures, which were all hinting for him to give me some space to move.

            Specifically, from reading “the body reader”, in Arthur Frank’s piece of writing states “A medical anthropology unable or unwilling to examine how culture infolds into the body (and, reciprocally, how bodily processes outfold into social space) is not very likely to get far in the conceptualization and empirical study of the sociopolitical roots of illness or the cultural sources of healing.” I really like that quote because it proves to us that we feel the need to infold our bodily fluids and motions as humans because we don’t want to be judged in a bad way. It reminded me of my time in the elevator because I didn’t know whether to say anything to the man about giving me some space.

I definitely felt very awkward and couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t move. Just like we discussed in class about out body’s being open in any type of way gives off the impression that we are “dirty” or “unmannerly”. I just would love to know how other personality types feel about the elevator situation I had experienced. Body and mind both are connected and not connected at the same time, which is so mind blowing to me. As a human I feel like sometimes if we didn’t have certain norms about how our bodies are then there wouldn’t of even been that thought in my mind in the elevator.  As well as the others in the elevator witnessing this situation… did they even find it weird? That’s what so wild about all the different types of mind’s there are in the world. The mind is such a insane part of our body that no one will ever think the same. Has anyone else had these thoughts or a situation similar?

“The body reader” Edited by Lisa Jean Moore and Mary Kosut.