Boys Learn to Abuse (excerpts from The Macho Paradox)

(the title is a link to the book for purchase on Amazon)

I feel kind of lame always quoting stuff instead of writing my own ideas, but I feel like I'm still learning and forming my own opinions, and it helps to quote what really catches my attention, and will hopefully catch the attention of others. For now, I am gathering information in order to secure my own stance on specific issues.


"Everywhere you turn, you see manhood equated with power and control... They learn it on Saturday morning cartoons and trips to the toys store, where 'action heroes' with rippled muscles convey the powerful lesson that might makes right; on the playground, where recent research shows that bullies are not social misfits, but often the most popular kids; in the sports culture, where dominating one's opponent is seen as the height of athletic achievement; in NASCAR racing, whose most popular icon was nicknamed 'The Intimidator'; in hip-hop, where rich and famous rappers denigrate women and gays; in professional wrestling, where ritualized bullying, humiliation, and sexual harassment is normal behavior, and caricatured portrayals of brutish manhood are celebrated; in video games, where mastery of the joystick and the ability to 'kill' at will - and sometimes beat up prostitutes - is equated to manly competence; and in the larger adult world, where they see abuses of power by men in business and government.

At the same time that impressionable boys absorb these lessons about how to earn respect in the world of men, they get the complementary message that what is considered 'feminine' has less value than what is considered 'masculine.' It is a short step from there to the belief that women are supposed to be subordinate to men - and sexually available to them. ...our culture is saturated with stark visual evidence of women's continued subservience to men, especially in the sexual realm. The stylistic conventions of pornography have become decidedly mainstream. From advertising billboards to magazine covers, scantily-clad female bodies are ubiquitously on display as objects for men to use and discard. Pornography itself – the vast majority of which eroticizes male dominance and control – is a $10 billion-a-year industry. Major recording artists glamorize pimps, and radio shock jocks openly humiliate women – with little or no public outcry. In the context of this cultural environment, can we credibly profess to be surprised when boys and men verbally, physically, and sexually harass and abuse girls and women?"