Masculinity

During the discussions on blackboard during week 5, there was a good deal of discussion that brought up name calling in schools. The Kimmel article, Masculinity as Homophobia explains the situation pretty well from a male perspective. Unlike women, men are held up against a perception of what is masculine. Anything that is perceived as feminine, either emotionally or physically, leads to harsh reactions from peers. As Eric pointed out, students even go as far as to cover their tracks when they do anything that may be perceived as a homosexual or feminine, as seen by the phrase "no homo."

I begin to wonder if there is anything that can really be done about this in a classroom setting. While it is possible to tell students that the language is inappropriate, it will just lead to them censoring themselves in the classroom and starting it up again once they leave. As this is more of a universal issue, I feel as though the best course of action is to avoid adding to the pressure ourselves. Students have enough to deal with from their peers and self perceptions that we should be trying to alleviate, not add to.