Violence Media and Crisis in Masculinity (Movie Review Sample)

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Tough Guise: Violence, Media & Crisis in Masculinity (1999) and Alvesson (2009)
Tough Guise is documentary about a “tough guy” mentality in the American Culture. Jackson Katz, a social and anti-sexism activist, released the film in 1999. The documentary addresses the problem of social construction of masculinity and socialization influences the way men behave. In addition, the movie shows how geopolitical events presented a destructive and oppressive idea that men are hard, cold, unforgiving, deadly and destructive (Carlson 3). Katz is effective in presenting his claims through illustrative examples such as archival photographs, news footage and editorial commentary that interleave the movie footage.
A feminist perspective of the documentary would assert the Tough guise was well created using effective and interesting examples of masculinity and violence. Our society has constructed distractive ideas of masculinity that look down on women and girls alike. However, the toxic traits of men discussed in the movie oversimplified the effect of constructed masculinity to women in society today.
Boys or men would benefit from putting on a “tough guise” in times when they feel they need to protect their masculinity. The tough guise would make them feel like a man and the image they portray would rub off on others who would then honor and acknowledge their masculinity. The term male bashing refers to the act of putting women down through various traditional oppressive notions that make men seem superior to women (Carlson 7). The defensiveness in society today about this idea has perpetrated violence against women and the notion has been passed on from one generation to another, which limits the chances of women rising above the concept.
According to the movie, the media presents a “gangsta” image to the African-American man who feels that they could protect their masculinity by wearing this mask. The movie pointed out that this culture has no boundaries and, therefore, it could cut across Asian, Black and Latino cultures. The white boy feels that they could imitate the “gangsta” image because it was the available instruction of being a real man.
According to Katz, the tough person poses work against the true image of a real man. If society had diversified images of masculinity, the young men would be able to weigh the available instruction and choose the best image based on their beliefs and value system. However, the diverse images would come into conflict with the traditional notions because some are stereotypic notions are tied to institutional and political instructions (Groenke at al., 29). Katz proposes that if the societal construction of masculinity would change, men would have to resist the tough guise and allow them to be real with themselves instead of putting u...