Analysis Of Connel’s Theory Of Hegemonic Masculinity

Analysis Of Connel’s Theory Of Hegemonic Masculinity In today’s society it takes a lot to grasp the change in how masculinity is â€Å"supposed† to be. To be able to truly understand the sort of expectations that men are held to by society there must be a detailed look into what R.W. Connell refers to as â€Å"Hegemonic Masculinity† (Connell), it justifies men’s position in society as head of society and puts women second, saying women are supposed to submit to men. The impact it has on men in today’s society is, more than less, changing, but still has a significant place in male masculinity and in a lot of the â€Å"norms† we have, such as the man has to be the â€Å"breadwinner† of the household, and the women should only take care of the house. We often deamn these beliefs to be true by nature, as soon as a boy becomes a â€Å"man† he must go out and become the head of something or show that he is a man by gaining power (Being the head of his household, owning a business, getti ng wealthy, ect.). In the text Connell states that Hegemonic masculinity is â€Å"a social ascendency achieved in a play of social forces that extends beyond contests of brute power into the organisation of private life and cultural processes.† The one thing that will always be prevalent in the relationship of men and women all over the world is that fact that men will always dominate women. This structural belief that men are over females is the foundation for the term â€Å"Hegemonic Masculinity†. â€Å"Masculinity is only hegemonic amongst men: no femininity is hegemonic†. This does not mean any kind of violence, it means hegemony in every part of life, Mainly talking about religious practices. For example, wedding vows, they mostly talk about how men will take care of their newly wed wives as if the are too incompetent to take care of themselves because they are women. â€Å"The man takes control as the breadwinner and the person in charge of a heterosexual relationship.† (Connell). Hegemonic Masculinity is publicized at lot in society, mostly in the media, you may see advertisements showing muscular men as the goal of what a man should look like. It tells him that if his mindset isn’t to want to look like that then he isn’t a man, the proceeds to give him the instructions he needs to become the muscular guy on the television. â€Å"How a man throws a ball is different to how a woman throws a ball. I didn’t want to throw a ball in front of my dad because i knew it wouldn’t look right, it wouldn’t be like the way a good, strong boy should throw it.† Here Connell tries to interpret the boy’s fear of disappointing his father and the combined sense that his body is unsuitable for a man as a learned social experience. The boy is young but is already fully aware that he isn’t what a man should be, he falls short of his father’s expectations in his head. Because of this, Connell is aware that hegemonic masc ulinity is a learned behavior. In movies, another form of media, you see the superheroes, mostly men, as big strong manly guys who saves the world from appending doom, giving the message that men are supposed to imitate these big strong macho men and get through the harsh realities of life unscathed, when in reality life will get to them and that okay, you don’t have to be like these men on the big screens. â€Å"Masculinities in Western societies are typically defined by by a specific body reflexive practice: sport, violence, heterosexual performance, and bodybuilding† (Connell pg. 86). One of the biggest societal issues is that fact that women want to be paid the same as men and that simply is not the case in today’s society. â€Å"Hegemonic Masculinity can also be seen in our wage structures where men earn more than women and traditionally men achieve the top positions as managers or leaders.† (Connell). Women try tirelessly to get equal pay, in today’s society, but a lot of the big taxation and welfare policies are still advocates of the belief that males are more important and should get compensated more than women. â€Å"Hegemonic Masculinity is evident in all aspects of life, even in housing, where men have designed the house that women clean and traditionally spend much more more time in than men.† (Connell). According to Connell, most of the men in today’s society often benefit from women submitting to them and the home. Taking care of the home is no worry for the man because his wife is the only one that must tend to the house, homely duties like for example, Ironing, cooking and washing clothes, these duties have an unwritten gender rule to them and separates the men and women when it comes to marriage. It is noticeable that the role of men is slowly but surely changing, that actions of men are very different form how men acted 30 years ago, a lot of thin gs that males in the past where doing would not be tolerated in today’s society. â€Å"Traditionally, the man of the family was seen as the breadwinner and the female looked after the children and all duties associated with the household.† (Connell). Because of the many financial challenges in today’s society, the concept of Masculinity has flopped as women are now taking on higher paid jobs and are taking care of themselves rather than in the past that wasn’t accepted. Some men today even have problems trying to find employment and stay home because of it. Women are more educated than men in today’s society as well and that is a big influence on this phenomena. To conclude, the topic of Hegemonic masculinity has yet to be stable and has a lot more research to go before it is concrete. There are many different aspects to masculinity, gender roles and the simple fact that if women weren’t around we wouldn’t even be studying masculinity. According to Connell, a lot of different masculinities are in existence, even though hegemonic masculinity is the most prevalent one. Hegemonic masculinity affects the behavioral aspects of men in today’s society and still has most men trying to maintain their rein on society. The result of this is the fact that men still must prove to the world and other men that they are just as manly. The way that men cope with the changes in the world is something that a lot of future sociologists will be studying. In today’s society it takes a lot to grasp the change in how masculinity is â€Å"supposed† to be. To be able to truly understand the sort of expectations that men are held to by society there must be a detailed look into what R.W. Connell refers to as â€Å"Hegemonic Masculinity† (Connell), it justifies men’s position in society as head of society and puts women second, saying women are supposed to submit to men. The impact it has on men in today’s society is, more than less, changing, but still has a significant place in male masculinity and in a lot of the â€Å"norms† we have, such as the man has to be the â€Å"breadwinner† of the household, and the women should only take care of the house. We often deamn these beliefs to be true by nature, as soon as a boy becomes a â€Å"man† he must go out and become the head of something or show that he is a man by gaining power (Being the head of his household, owning a business, getti ng wealthy, ect.). In the text Connell states that Hegemonic masculinity is â€Å"a social ascendency achieved in a play of social forces that extends beyond contests of brute power into the organisation of private life and cultural processes.† The one thing that will always be prevalent in the relationship of men and women all over the world is that fact that men will always dominate women. This structural belief that men are over females is the foundation for the term â€Å"Hegemonic Masculinity†. â€Å"Masculinity is only hegemonic amongst men: no femininity is hegemonic†. This does not mean any kind of violence, it means hegemony in every part of life, Mainly talking about religious practices. For example, wedding vows, they mostly talk about how men will take care of their newly wed wives as if the are too incompetent to take care of themselves because they are women. â€Å"The man takes control as the breadwinner and the person in charge of a heterosexual relationship.† (Connell). Hegemonic Masculinity is publicized at lot in society, mostly in the media, you may see advertisements showing muscular men as the goal of what a man should look like. It tells him that if his mindset isn’t to want to look like that then he isn’t a man, the proceeds to give him the instructions he needs to become the muscular guy on the television. â€Å"How a man throws a ball is different to how a woman throws a ball. I didn’t want to throw a ball in front of my dad because i knew it wouldn’t look right, it wouldn’t be like the way a good, strong boy should throw it.† Here Connell tries to interpret the boy’s fear of disappointing his father and the combined sense that his body is unsuitable for a man as a learned social experience. The boy is young but is already fully aware that he isn’t what a man should be, he falls short of his father’s expectations in his head. Because of this, Connell is aware that hegemonic masc ulinity is a learned behavior. In movies, another form of media, you see the superheroes, mostly men, as big strong manly guys who saves the world from appending doom, giving the message that men are supposed to imitate these big strong macho men and get through the harsh realities of life unscathed, when in reality life will get to them and that okay, you don’t have to be like these men on the big screens. â€Å"Masculinities in Western societies are typically defined by by a specific body reflexive practice: sport, violence, heterosexual performance, and bodybuilding† (Connell pg. 86). One of the biggest societal issues is that fact that women want to be paid the same as men and that simply is not the case in today’s society. â€Å"Hegemonic Masculinity can also be seen in our wage structures where men earn more than women and traditionally men achieve the top positions as managers or leaders.† (Connell). Women try tirelessly to get equal pay, in today’s society, but a lot of the big taxation and welfare policies are still advocates of the belief that males are more important and should get compensated more than women. â€Å"Hegemonic Masculinity is evident in all aspects of life, even in housing, where men have designed the house that women clean and traditionally spend much more more time in than men.† (Connell). According to Connell, most of the men in today’s society often benefit from women submitting to them and the home. Taking care of the home is no worry for the man because his wife is the only one that must tend to the house, homely duties like for example, Ironing, cooking and washing clothes, these duties have an unwritten gender rule to them and separates the men and women when it comes to marriage. It is noticeable that the role of men is slowly but surely changing, that actions of men are very different form how men acted 30 years ago, a lot of thin gs that males in the past where doing would not be tolerated in today’s society. â€Å"Traditionally, the man of the family was seen as the breadwinner and the female looked after the children and all duties associated with the household.† (Connell). Because of the many financial challenges in today’s society, the concept of Masculinity has flopped as women are now taking on higher paid jobs and are taking care of themselves rather than in the past that wasn’t accepted. Some men today even have problems trying to find employment and stay home because of it. Women are more educated than men in today’s society as well and that is a big influence on this phenomena. To conclude, the topic of Hegemonic masculinity has yet to be stable and has a lot more research to go before it is concrete. There are many different aspects to masculinity, gender roles and the simple fact that if women weren’t around we wouldn’t even be studying masculinity. According to Connell, a lot of different masculinities are in existence, even though hegemonic masculinity is the most prevalent one. Hegemonic masculinity affects the behavioral aspects of men in today’s society and still has most men trying to maintain their rein on society. The result of this is the fact that men still must prove to the world and other men that they are just as manly. The way that men cope with the changes in the world is something that a lot of future sociologists will be studying.

Exploring the continuity between heritage and nationalism Essay

Exploring the continuity between heritage and nationalism - Essay Example At the heart of the concept of nationalism therefore is the recognition and portrayal of this nation and the creation of an identification of its people. This can be done through the fostering of national heritage. Heritage is an important and indispensable addition to the concept of national identity and has evolved simultaneously with nationalism. The connection between nationalism and heritage is evidently strong. The nation is a concept built by heritage. Nations will cease to exist without their national heritage. The Relationship between Nationalism and Heritage Heritage, defined as â€Å"that which has been or may be inherited† (Howard, 2003, p. 6), developed from a set of philosophies and ideas, which openly represent ‘modernity’. The modern period, as usually described, frequently espouses a Eurocentric worldview. 18th- and 19th-century Europe are regarded as the zenith of modernism as secularism developed during the Renaissance finally translated into th e Enlightenment of the 18th century, with its support for and confidence in human rationality. The idea of European nation-state was formed within this perspective (Howard, 2003, p. 6). Similar to the Renaissance, the Enlightenment is regarded as being characterised by its specific interpretation of heritage. Consequently, the modern period is characterised by the development of various accounts of nationalism as the â€Å"ideology of belongingness† (Corsane, 2005, p. 3) and primary component of validation in state-building process. As stated by Woolf (Corsane, 2005, p. 3): National identity is an abstract concept that sums up the collective expression of a subjective, individual sense of belonging to a socio-political unit: the nation state. Nationalist rhetoric assumes not only that individuals form part of a nation (through language, blood, choice, residence, or some other criterion), but that they identify with the territorial unit of the nation state. The character of a nation is an aspect related to its attitude toward its national heritage. Basically, national heritage is defined as shared memories of a society emphasising symbols, cultural objects, historical experiences, and people which are viewed as prerequisites for the existence of nation (Labadi & Long, 2010, p. 39). The more components such as symbols and cultural objects that are integrated into a dynamic appreciation and recognition of national heritage, the stronger the concept of national identity and the more intense and committed the nationalism of the community. Thus, when the English appreciated their national heritage, particularly their diverse English intellectuals and literary geniuses, they showed a strong and passionate sense of being‘English’ (Laurajane, 2006, p. 136). Moreover, according to Borelli and Lenzerini (2012), the attempt of Eastern European peoples to restore their 19th-century national heritage, with its focus on commemorating historical events and past grandeurs, is a perfect example of strengthening the sense of nationalism. In this visualisation of a nation that is also the native soil of inhabitants who share cultural similarities, heritage is the most important tool in the development or building and consequent cultivation of a national identity. National heritage and nationalism evolved simultaneously while the concept of ‘nation’

FMRI Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

FMRI - Coursework Example (BME, 2007). The third category of products offered by financial institutions is investment funds. These accumulate assets from investors and invest the assets in a diversified pool of assets. According to BME consulting report of 2007, investment funds can be classified as equity fund, bond funds, balanced funds, money market funds, real estate funds and other funds such as hedge funds. (BME, 2007). The other product is the life insurance. This product is among the largest net asset pools of consumers in the European market. UK is the largest market in Europe in relation to total life insurance provisions. (BME, 2007). Derivatives are the other category of investments issued by financial institutions. â€Å"Derivatives are special non-standardized instruments tailored to meet the different investment strategies and needs of consumers.† (BME, 2007) There are mainly two types of derivatives. They are warrants and certificates. Lastly, there is a private equity. Consumers consider this class of assets better than public equity since the liquidity and transparency level is lower, and is a more established class of assets. (BME, 2007). From a report by the Bank of England, with an increase in interest rate, consumers will shift their investments to suit their risk attitudes. If the rise in interest rate reduces their level of earnings, investors will opt to sell their assets and invest in a different category that will maximize their earnings. For example, a rise in interest rate of bonds will lead to a fall in its price. With this, investors will tend to sell their bonds before maturity and reinvest in securities with a lower prevailing interest rate. On the same report, savings have a direct relationship with changes in interest, whereas investments have an indirect or negative relationship. The increase in interest will make savings more attractive and reduce greatly on borrowings. This is because the rate of borrowing will increase and the income from