I was really excited when I saw that Jennifer Siebel Newsom was making a new documentary that would examine masculinity. I was so excited I decided to share the 5 minute preview clip with one of my Facebook friends, as I knew he was also an avid feminist thinker, and he would appreciate this topic. However, almost immediately after posting it and throwing a few positive comments back and forth, criticism soon found its way to the post.
The question asked was “how much of masculinity is culture and how much is nature?” I wanted to scoff at the notion of masculinity being an innate trait, but reeled in and remembered not everyone “believes” in gender construction. The commenter continued with “I would beg to differ that ‘masculinity’ has to do more with nature than this film portray’s it is. From our hunter/gather past it is a man’s natural inclination to want to ‘conquer’ certain items of their life. Even if men where somehow culturally ‘feminized’, I still think one would be going against the grain.” Yet, if one watches the video, it doesn’t call for a feminization of the human male; instead, it calls for the definition of masculinity to be broadened rather than upheld to a strict and bound patriarchal code. As for being a hunter/gatherer society, I can argue we are no longer in that day and age. While biological evolution may categorize us as barely moving out of the forest 1000 years prior to today, social evolution moves at a much faster rate. On that observation, we are at a point where society no longer relies on strict gender roles to function, nor does it benefit from it. We live in a first-world country that requires both men and women to enter the workforce; that requires both sexes to step outside of their “traditional” roles in order to truly function as a collaborative community.
This comment was actually applauded and seen as wise. This commenter is actually one of the people I really admire as an intelligent thinker, so it kind of caught me off guard that he would actually fight me tooth and nail about masculinity. He went on further to comment on how the video is too narrow, how it only focuses on men and culture being the problem, how it fails to address woman’s part in upholding machismo, and that giving boys a “woman’s touch” isn’t going to turn our world into a haven of sorts.
The video may be narrow, after all it is a documentary focusing on some very specific subjects, but come on! It was only a five minute preview! There’s no telling what more they’re going to include once it’s edited and all. I doubt they’re going to avoid the role women play as supporters and duplicators of society’s current definition of masculinity. There’s no way a feminist documentary would just play the blame-game and place all the guilt and burden on men. It wouldn’t be worth the watch if it wasn’t going to examine multiple facets of culture, which, as far as I know, has always included men and women.
The last point that I’d like to focus on is that of “conquering.” This has been noted as a innate male trait that one is born with, and something that is reflected in a man’s wish to rise up the social, corporate or whatever other ladder he may find. It might just be the inner feminist in me being too logical, but these traits don’t necessarily stem from one’s Y chromosome. I find these traits rampant in a capitalist/materialist society, and while I do believe that boys are nurtured more often than girls to be dominant, I don’t believe it is integrated at a genetic level. In other words, no, I don’t believe it is nature’s fault for our rampant sexism (that hurts both men and women), our patriarchal order or our limited definitions. Saying that “conquering” is integral to men may be true for the state of man in this day and age– when society stresses for the man to be the provider, the self-suffienct/emotionally-deficient macho man. However it is this stress, the failure to rise to these archaic expectations, that leave them wanting to “conquer” whatever they can– including women.
This documentary will make more than a few people uncomfortable. A documentary on men, by a feminist woman, is sure to pick at a few people’s comfort zone. But how long can our society afford to be comfortable while the youth (I say youth because that’s what the documentary focuses on, but everyone is affected) of this nation suffer from archaic definitions and expectations?
From One UT Feminist to the World 
Really enjoyed your blog. I’m looking forward to this documentary because broadening the definition of masculinity (or masculinities rather than the singular) is an interest of mine. But this is because the traditional “man box” doesn’t work for me. It does work for many, many men, however, and they see a more expansive view of masculinity as a threat.
But this is zero sum thinking. When I heard about Mask I got MissRepresentation at the library knowing it was controversial, allegedly for being anti-male. After watching it I’m not sure what the anti-male parts were. (There weren’t any.) Greater equality for women translating into lower status for men is also zero sum thinking – so this mindset is a big issue.
One last thing. As a skeptic I have an issue with evolutionary psychology (like hunter/gatherer arguments) because it often isn’t scientifically testable. Which is to say it starts with the conclusion and reasons backwards. Gender as social construction is testable via cross-cultural comparisons.