Reflecting on masculinities
The community norms and cultural practices have played a significant part in my understanding of masculinity. There are certain expectations for a cis male from the society that every man must adhere to otherwise, one is termed to be deviant. Specific attributes are associated with cis males, such as leadership and being independent. In terms of power, the male masculinity emphasizes the women being subjects to male dominion.
As a man, when you lose your loved one, you should not shed tears as it is a symbol of weakness to cry in public. I have conformed to this societal norm whenever I lose a loved one and show strength in my family line as the dominant male. After my parents divorced, I was forced to stay behind with my father since it is a sign of weakness to follow the feminine parent if you are a male child. The effects of male masculinity lead to more psychological problems on men. This is because men are weakened emotionally, thus crippled to express their emotions. The resulting issues will be stress, mental issues, anger, and violence. The community norms help one realize what is expected of the gender one is assigned to, and thus one can conform with the societal expectations. In my community, we have been supporting feminist activities in a bid to fight for women’s rights, especially their oppression through toxic masculinity. This is generally by encouraging women who are outstanding to vie for positions in leadership since they are capable of bringing some change to the community. This is because some of the male elected leaders we have, are involved in bad politics, and they tend to take advantage of the support they get due to toxic masculinity that tends to discredit women in leadership positions.