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Masculinity
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Masculinity is the study of how societies define, enforce, and reproduce ideas about what it means to be male. It appears across disciplines including sociology, gender studies, cultural studies, literature, and psychology. The topic is academically rich because masculinity is not a fixed biological state but a set of contested social constructions that shift across cultures and historical moments. Frameworks such as Michael Kaufman's triad of men's power and tools like the Bem Sex Role Inventory give students structured ways to analyze how masculine identity is produced and measured. Literary texts such as The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and films such as Pumping Iron and Dr Strangelove provide concrete cultural objects through which these ideas can be examined. C. J. Pascoe's work on masculinity and sexuality in high school settings further demonstrates how masculine norms operate at the level of everyday interaction.

Student papers on this topic take a range of approaches. Some use close textual or film analysis to read masculine symbolism and gender roles in specific works. Others apply sociological frameworks comparatively, examining how masculinity functions differently across contexts such as Japanese fatherhood, high school peer culture, or competitive bodybuilding. Several papers explore the relationship between masculinity and femininity directly, including how physical activity and food consumption reflect socially constructed gender differences. Historical and cultural comparison is a common organizing strategy.

A strong essay on masculinity grounds its argument in a clear, specific claim about how masculine norms are constructed or challenged in a defined context. Evidence drawn from cultural texts, sociological theory, or observed behavior carries the most weight when it is analyzed rather than simply described. The most common pitfall is treating masculinity as natural or self-evident — a strong thesis always treats it as something that requires explanation.

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Paper Doctorate

Gender Back in History, the Only Roles

This is a half-editing, half new writing situation. The original essay is altered significantly, to account for new material added. The subject of the essay is gender roles and norms. There are several sources that are used to substantiate the main claims of the paper, which is that gender roles and norms are changing, even if slowly. About half the editing work has been completed thus far.

Research Paper Doctorate

Gender Sections I Specifically Agreed

Sections I specifically agreed with include "Patriarchy" (Part II, Chapter 17, p. 166-169), and "Anti-Gay Stereotypes" (Part VII, Chapter 107, p. 522-523). The premise in "Patriarchy" is that ours is a male-dominated…

Pornography: A Growing Problem Behind

In today's technologically savvy world, pornography is as easy to access as it has ever been. With pornographic and obscene materials easily available for view by men, women, and children, it is reasonable to assume…

Paper Undergraduate

Violence Exists for Its Own

¶ … violence exists for its own sake. In Macbeth, the author confronts the audience with scenes of violence. Explain how the scene or scenes contribute to the meaning of the complete work.

Paper Doctorate

Gender Porn Gender, Sexuality, Violence

What is the relationship between pornography and violence against women? How has technology affected this dynamic?

Paper Doctorate

Gender, media, and culture: an analytical overview

This is a six page paper. It is divided into three two-page papers, each with an individual question that is answered. The questions are: What is hegemony and how are the effects visible in your everyday life? (2 pages) What do you feel are the top 3 issues facing women and how they are portrayed in film and on television? (2 pages) Commonly in the media (television, movies, etc.) race and sexuality are portrayed with various stereotypes attached. Looking specifically at race and sexuality, discuss these stereotypes (the good, the bad, and the ugly). In what ways are they detrimental? In what ways could they be considered good, if at all? (2 pages)

Research Paper Doctorate

Great Gatsby and Sun Also Rises Both

Both F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises depict the American psyche in the aftermath of the First World War. Although The Sun Also Rises is set in Europe, many of its main…

Paper High School

Atonement vs. Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet has always been one of William Shakespeare's most popular and successful plays, even though critics have sometimes dismissed it as an immature or sentimental work. In that respect, Atonement is not sentimental at all but rather grimly realistic, although the love of Ronnie and Cecelia also ends tragically. Both the play and novel have a great deal of seemingly irrational and senseless violence that destroys the lives of the main characters. In Atonement, the violence takes the form of a system that convicts Robbie unjustly of a crime he did not commit, and then gives him a choice of either serving in a war as cannon fodder or staying in jail. Cecilia and Briony also experience the violence of wartime London with regular bombing and endless numbers of badly mangled bodies that flood into the hospitals where they work. In Romeo and Juliet, the violence is the endless feud between the Monatgue's and Capulet's, in which Romeo kills Tybalt in retaliation for the death of his friend Mercutio. Great Britain in 1935 was not nearly as repressive and patriarchal as the Italy of the 17th Century which is the setting for Romeo and Juliet. Women had won the right to vote by that time, and were beginning to attend universities or work outside the home, as Cecelia and Briony Tallis did. Unlike Juliet, they were not being forced into arranged marriages contracted by their father, who actually seems indifferent to them.

Paper Doctorate

Dominik\'s Killing Them Softly Andrew Dominik\'s 2012

This paper analyzes Andrew Dominik's "Killing Them Softly" according to auteur theory, acting, characters, editing, direction, sound, and impact on society. Dominik's film looks at characters as the express something human, sad, sympathetic and profound even as they participate in violent crime, which mirrors the crimes of their leaders.

Paper Doctorate

Lynn Welchman and Sara Hossain

n short, therefore, although Welchman and Hossain state misogny and violence to transcend all coutures, there is a degree of violence and misogyny that is particularly characteristic of Islamic societies. These societies not only legitimize such actions but also actively pursue them to a greater or lesser degree. And almost always, these countries that pursue such violence are characterized by backwards and poverty. It is a s though one condition instigates the other. Pakistani art and culture is there – in fact the novel is full of it and rads like one itself. The misery and heartache, however, the coldness and desolation is not attributable to the Islamic culture of poetry and art; rather Aslam attributes it to a religion / social ethos that has gone askew and lost itself in the morass of the years. Backwardness has resulted in misogyny. In turn, misogyny culminates in violence. And the spiral continues.

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