{"id":1060,"date":"2018-04-03T00:29:21","date_gmt":"2018-04-03T04:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/productionracestyle\/?p=1060"},"modified":"2018-04-12T16:31:00","modified_gmt":"2018-04-12T20:31:00","slug":"hardness-softness-masculinity-crisis-in-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/productionracestyle\/2018\/04\/03\/hardness-softness-masculinity-crisis-in-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Hardness, Softness &#8211; Masculinity Crisis in America"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"width: 800px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('video');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-1060-1\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/mp4\" src=\"http:\/\/urctlt.com\/productionracestyle\/04\/Phillips-Friends.mp4?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/urctlt.com\/productionracestyle\/04\/Phillips-Friends.mp4\">http:\/\/urctlt.com\/productionracestyle\/04\/Phillips-Friends.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n<p>Amanda Phillip\u2019s article \u201cDicks Dicks Dicks: Hardness and Flaccidity In (Virtual) Masculinity\u201d explores toxic masculinity within America. According to gender theorist, Judith Butler, \u201cgender is neither the casual result of sex nor as seemingly fixed as sex,\u201d but rather is performed through acts of \u201cbodily gestures, movements, and enactments\u201d (Butler, 1988, p. 9 &amp; 10). Similarly, masculinity and manhood are dependent on being oppositional to femininity and require men to perform various acts to prove their manliness.<\/p>\n<p>Phillip\u2019s argues that \u201csociety wants masculinity to be hard, from its cock to its biceps to its steely, impenetrable self-assurance.\u201d The correlation between masculinity and a man\u2019s penis stems from the primal and sexual nature of men. Darwin\u2019s theory of survival of the fittest places men who are sexually dominant as superior due to their ability to attract the best mate. This primal nature results in men feeling pressure to be the sexually dominant male that society requires. Men feel trapped to perform this \u201chard\u201d form of masculinity to achieve approval by both women and other men.<\/p>\n<p>Phillips constructs masculinity within the parameters of a hard penis and a flaccid penis. According to Phillip\u2019s the video games The Tearoom, Second Life, and Genital Jousting, emphasize a variety of penises, primarily feature hard penises. The absence of soft cocks in digital dick modification symbolizes society\u2019s dislike towards men that do not perform extremely masculine acts. Popular culture and the media position men that exude \u201csoft\u201d masculinity as those who are weak and inferior. However, Phillip\u2019s believes that men need \u201ccelebrate the floppy dick, relax [their] expectations of hard masculinity,\u201d which will help solve the masculinity crisis in America.<\/p>\n<p>For this video, I decided to focus on two characters from Friends, Joey Tribbiani and Ross Geller. Joey Tribbiani represents the \u201chard\u201d masculinity in his ability to attract women. Joey is known for his seduction tactics with the line \u201chow you doin\u2019,\u201d which causes women to succumb to his charm. In contrast, Ross Geller represents the \u201csoft\u201d man who is weak, emotional, and sexually incompetent. Unlike Joey, Ross cannot attract women regardless of his ridiculous antics. Additionally, in one scene, Ross is seen being judged by a woman for his constant whining and self-deprecating comments. The lack of confidence and sexual dominance causes women to disregard Ross and for the men to view him as weak. I think that these characters and video clips perfectly represent Phillip\u2019s argument of hard penises dominating popular culture over soft penises. If media-constructed \u201csoft\u201d men in a positive light like they do the \u201chard\u201d characters, then society would view \u201csoft\u201d men as an acceptable option.<\/p>\n<p>Questions:<br \/>\n&#8211; What are the societal effects of media only promoting \u201chard\u201d masculinity rather than \u201csoft\u201d?<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Phillip&#8217;s argues: &#8220;Our masculine bodies must remain firm and disciplined, ready to penetrate enemy ranks with bullets that rip through flesh.&#8221; What does this mean for the soft man? Can he &#8220;penetrate enemy ranks?&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8211; In what media forms is the \u201csoft\u201d masculine viewed as more attractive than the \u201csoft\u201d masculinity?<br \/>\n&#8211; In 2018, why does the media still stress the \u201chard\u201d type of masculinity?<br \/>\n&#8211; Are there any negative repercussions to the \u201csoft\u201d man?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Amanda Phillip\u2019s article \u201cDicks Dicks Dicks: Hardness and Flaccidity In (Virtual) Masculinity\u201d explores toxic masculinity within America. According to gender<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2675,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[72731],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-racialized-disgust"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/productionracestyle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/productionracestyle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/productionracestyle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/productionracestyle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2675"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/productionracestyle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/productionracestyle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1060\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/productionracestyle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/productionracestyle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/productionracestyle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}