Our Mission:
Our mission is to educate men and women about the healthy and unhealthy types of masculinity. By being aware of the positives and negatives, it will benefit men and women in their everyday lives. |
Who Are We?
We are students of Northern Illinois University's Women Studies Class (WOMS 230). We were assigned an Action Research Project, and we chose to enhance the lives of women and men by learning about healthy masculinities! Check out our Action page to see what we did and what you can do too! |
A Quick Lesson:
Society tells us that to be a man, you must be masculine. So what does it mean to be masculine? This idea of masculinity is constructed from traits such as intelligence, courage, strength, power, and “machismo”. Machismo involves breaking rules, sexual potency contextualized in the blending of sex and violence, and contempt for women (Shaw and Lee 113). Masculinity is based off of “gender”, which is socially created, society constructs the differences between a “woman” and a “man” (Shaw and Lee 128). Masculinity can be positive, but many times in our society it is prominently negative. The norm for male masculinity includes aggression, violence, dominance, and abuse. These negative aspects of masculinity do not need to be the norm, and can be combatted with positive masculinity.