Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Breaking The Silence

I think that our two authors here, Crews and Theroux, are arguing different shades of the same side of the story. Crews is responding to what he's observed in masculine culture and all that he's been a part of through a career in Hollywood and in professional sports and though while Theroux seems to be responding to the same issue, his article seems to want to victimize men a whole lot more. Crews is calling to action, distancing himself from the macho brand of alpha-male culture and telling men that these things are no longer acceptable. Theroux seems to whine about how indoctrinated our young men have become and how otherwise innocent boys are shaped into this complex mess of social stature and personality disorders. Both believe that there is something deep-seated and very corrupt with the way young men are being raised (and in Theroux's case, he believes a similar thing of young women) but to me, Crews takes a much more productive stance towards the issues. Crews's whole motivation behind writing and publishing a book of this nature is that he believes that there is too much silence surrounding the issue- that this deplorable macho culture has reached a cult-like state, with no one daring to question the traditions or let “the other side” in on the secret. Crews equates silence to acceptance in this matter, and claims that he wanted no part accepting such a disgusting societal trend. Theroux, on the other hand, doesn't seem to want to accomplish anything with his article, but rather give his take on things from the perspective of a male writer, an occupation which in the 50's was thought to be part of a woman's field. Theroux doesn't actually so much claim that men are in the wrong, but rather that they are victims of a society that taught them to want to dominate, to control women, and to champion masculinity above all. He believes these expectations and norms have turned many men to beasts and placed the outsiders under all the pressure to become beasts. Theroux's article certainly strives to paint men as victims and doesn't particularly lobby for social change in any way (though it's obviously implied that he is unhappy with the way that things are), but that does not mean that his article isn't important in the scope of things. There are many valid points to consider and lots of information which can be helpful in striving for a society that stresses gender norms less and reaches a point of true social equity among all genders.

2 comments:

  1. I agree with what you have to say regarding Crews interview and Theroux’s article. I also noticed how Theroux was playing more of the victim role in his article. I could not figure out who Theroux was specifically blaming, however. I too liked Crews interview more, he had more valuable points than just talking about the sexism in the writing world. Crew was able to relate in more aspects, friends in the sports world, in Hollywood, young boys and many more. I think being famous also helped Crew because his audience is wider and just the fact that people like him and are more willing to agree because of that. I liked the story of Crews son at the movie theater and how he made sure not to say “are you scared” in the typical “manly” way and a way that did not make his son feel ashamed. Theroux’s essay was a little more confusing to follow in my opinion and he mainly focused on his experience in the writing world. Theroux focusing on the narrow minded people of the writing world made his article less relatable and I thought that was his main downfall. Theroux did have good points however and I thought both the article and essay had good points. However, besides the small points they each had I liked the overall purpose of both, they are both speaking out about an issue that has been brushed under the rug for a long time. Society is changing and men do not know how to deal with this I think it is great that people are speaking up and trying to help guide men.

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  2. This post shows the "so what" of the topic towards the end when gender equality is brought up and how the roles of males have been the cause of men turning into "beasts". Crew's and Theroux's 'So What?' are related yet not the same. Where Crew is shining light on how today's idea of masculinity makes men believe they are superior to women, Theroux is focusing on how masculinity affects the males of this country mostly. They both bring up each other's main ideas, but they have a different reasoning and focus.

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