Paging All Men!

The overarching idea between both Crews’ and Theroux’s opinions is men’s self-identity issues, mediated by societies view of what “manliness” constitutes.  In American society, the rugged, rough edged, emotionless man is glorified and the family oriented, kindhearted, involved man is characterized to be feminine which men should avoid at all costs. Theroux explains in his article that career choices such as writing are discriminated against for men, being that it involves emotion-based thoughts. His purpose for writing, like Crews’, is to change the American opinion of male masculinity and the way that a male should act. Crew’s argues against this traditional opinion of masculinity in his interview, stating that men should act the way they desire, and treat women with respect regardless of societies acceptance of them for going against traditional gender roles. Their intended audience is both the male and female populations, possibly mainly the male population, to instill their revolutionary ideas in the minds of men in America. In their arguments they are responding to societies rejection of more lenient male values as well as arguing feminism isn’t simply for women, as it has been traditionally understood. Though their audiences are similar their target intention is slightly different. Crews’ seems to be more adamant on men’s emotional embracement as well as the encouragement for men to treat women as more than sexual objects, whereas Theroux’s calls for greater consideration to equality and less discrimination for men in the workplace based on their career choice. All in all, both men are calling for reform in the American opinion over gender norms in society.