Ideals of masculine and feminine beauty

Critical analysis of men and thus of the gender of masculinity arose in the 1970s with the beginning of the men's movements. These movements established the notion that men (like women) are oppressed by their gender and that this oppression is a result of pressures and constraints put on men by society such as defined roles and expectations of men within the public sphere. In recent years, there is an increasing number of evidence supporting the fact that masculinity is in crisis. These prove include the threat of unemployment for men, their incapability in expressing their own feelings and responding to physical and psychological problems, the gay movement, worse health qualities, failure in school, higher rate of committing in violent crime and so on. It is now believed that masculinity qualities are being challenged by our society and feminism. Men are now being portrayed as trouble makers because statistics show that they have been doing worse than women in various areas. Regardless, persons contend that this so-called “crisis in masculinity” is paradoxically further types of hegemonic masculinity. This essay will establish the origin of the crisis in masculinity, which is believed to be the male liberation movement during 1970s. It will then look into what exactly the crisis in masculinity is and how this crisis has affected the performance of masculinity by men. It will also evaluate whether the crisis in masculinity furthers forms of hegemonic masculinity with evidence from supporting side. It will then be discussed with examples from different areas. One of the examples is from the Australian sports sector, which could be referred to the allegations of rape put forth against players of the Canterbury Bulldogs rugby league club followed by the media coverage of the rape allegations. (Beynon Pp. 12-13)

The concept of hegemonic masculinity, which formulated two decades ago, has considerably influenced recent thinking about men, gender, and social hierarchy. It has provided a link between the growing research field of men's masculinity studies across many academic fields but has also attracted serious criticism. People argue that the crisis in masculinity furthers forms of hegemonic masculinity as society's role on man trapped men into unfulfilling, unhealthy, and alienated lives and to devalue women was the way which boys and men learned to discipline themselves to stay within the boundaries of this sex role. The majority of men despises feminism and believes gender equality is impossible and will never happen. Some groups argue that if masculinity was in crisis, it was women's fault and the solution to the crisis was the revival of the subordination of women. (Fox, J Pp. 13)

A lot of anti-feminist groups believe feminism is very similar to fascism in that fascists will disregard any scientific argument unless the conclusion supports his existing belief and that fascists are quick to cast blame on someone else for anything that goes wrong in their lives and they portray these characteristics to feminism today. They believe that feminism is an attempt for women ...