Blog #2- How Men Oppress Men

Taylor Foerster

Blog Post

Blog #2- How Men Oppress Men

For this post, I’ve chosen a passage from what may be the most personal read of the semester for myself so far. Gomez’s ‘Man Up’, which is a read about the expectations of masculinity men have and do undergo. “Men are not allowed to be afraid.” This is true in a wide range of ways. This article revealed a lot of frustrations and feelings I have, and had a lasting effect on me. To begin, I feel it’s important to mention that men aren’t as oppressed as everyone else. However I believe that a core piece of understanding how and why other cultures are oppressed can be reached by discussing ‘toxic masculinity’. Or better put, the societal expectations and norms of manhood and strength men are expected to follow.

Ironically enough, where most oppressed groups are oppressed by those in power, men are ultimately oppressed by other men. A lot of this article was routed in the idea of fear, and how it’s weak for men to have, or especially display fear. The modern standards of masculinity have greatly improved. However it’s still true that a lot of men feel obligated to act tough, and not show emotion. To me, the idea of people naturally swallowing feelings and perpetuating a standard of numbness is extremely dangerous in a very dimensional way.

In a lot of ways, society values masculinity over femininity. Recently I’ve learned that, statistically, gay women are called in for more interviews then gay men. Part of me thinks that this is because society can be more comfortable seeing masculine traits in women, than feminine traits in men. Either way I’m glad we were asked to read this article, and very happy its a topic people are talking about.