Sunday, February 28, 2010

English Essay on the State of Masculinity In Modern Culture

The Emasculation Of Men In Modern Western Society

Down through history, cultures have had initiation processes that boys have had to pass to become men. Whether it be in First Nations Tribal life where a boy would spend a night by himself in the wilderness, or in some African cultures where there is bodily tattooing/and or piercing. To either extent, a boy knows when he is a man, and can thus rearrange his worldview accordingly and start to live up to society's expectations of him. However, it is my opinion that this is untrue in Westernized Society. In the homogeneous, 'anything goes', embrace-all-views-society that we have cultured, we have sadly forgotten to create a culture. In this vacuum, generations of children have grown into adulthood with no real knowledge of when they have crossed that line. Along with their lack of indoctrination into the adult world, men have also lost the definition of what it means to be a man. Feminists have diluted and disparaged masculinity, media has undermined it and men have lost the ability to teach it to each other. While some say that this is not a loss of masculine traits and characteristics, but rather a leveling of the sexes, I disagree wholeheartedly for reasons that shall be revealed in my second last paragraph.

Feminism arose in the 1960’s for good reason. Inequality was rampant, and women were being under-represented on every platform and being automatically designated into stereotypical roles of homemaker, nurse or secretary. Even when they did make it into the work world, sexual harassment was rampant and unreported. Feminism was an attempt to stop this and bring light to a bleak situation. However, in their battle to establish themselves as equal, Feminists have taken the war too far and knocked masculinity down to a laughable level. Where there was once a stereotype in the culture of men who loved their families and worked 9-to-5 jobs to provide for them, this idea has been killed. Nowadays when someone says ‘man’ the first thing to jump into my mind is not a levelheaded compassionate father, but rather a lumber-headed compassionless failure. It is my belief that in the heat of the battle, Feminists enacted a smear campaign against an entire gender that has yet to be cleaned up.

This is evidenced in the media. Think back to the last commercial you saw. If there is a family, the man is not intelligent. He does not know how to flush a toilet. He is completely incompetent. His children do not respect him, his wife lords over him, and yet this is seen as normal. Think of the last movie you saw. When was the last time we as a society have seen a damsel in distress be rescued by her knight in shining armor? It is my observation that this role has been completely shifted. No longer do men come to the aid of women, but rather, women to the aide of men. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but it does seem rather lop-sided for one gender to constantly be saving the other one.

One possible reason that men do not behave like men anymore is because men have not been taught. Modern society enforces the idea that a ‘real’ man will be interested in sports, be out of touch with his emotions, will have a fondness for beer, illicit sex, and general vulgarity, will be disrespectful towards women and will enjoy every Sunday in front of the T.V. watching football. This image is both sick and disturbing, almost as much as its general acceptance in contemporary culture. In days of yore, masculinity was synonymous not only with physical strength, but also strength of will, spirit, character and heart. However, under the onslaught of social pressure from the media, pop psychology and Feminist criticism, men have backed down from their true role. Tucking their tails between their legs, real men have failed to teach the next generation what it means to be a man. Instead, they have sat back and let the culture raise them. In this, culture has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. It expects men to be lazy, selfish, sex-centered and abusive, and so it teaches young adolescent males such values (or lack thereof).

In spite of this, some Feminist’s will defend this by saying that spousal abuse is still an issue, that rape still happens, and that there is still gross inequality in the workplace. These facts are truth. However, breaking men’s kneecaps is not the proper method to get them to rise above what is now expected of them. If change is desired in the system, then it should be espoused. Browbeating does not lead to lasting change; it leads to a shamed face.

Since manhood is in such a dire predicament, the only option available is both idealistic and presumably impossible: Change the media. While this seems like a painfully daunting task, it really is the only solution. Men as a gender are not going to start fulfilling roles that they haven’t been taught about. The media shows us what we want to see. If we want to see change, we need to show our desire to see it, by being the man that they should show. If you are a lady and reading this, then you need to enact change by challenging the stereotype of what a man is, by standing up for yourself and not allowing ‘boys to be boys’, but instead forcing boys to man-up.

this was all written to the lovely sounds of The Album Leaf, a band my loving and lovely sister introduced me to today:

http://www.purevolume.com/thealbumleaf

Friday, February 26, 2010

i wrote this wednesday, but havent had a chance to publish til now

So, my netterweb was being stupid last night, as it is most nights when I want to blog, and I couldn’t connect. So, this will be posted a day late. (for those who know anberlin, I too am now humming ‘so let me get this straight’ to myself.)

Anyways, the reason for this midnight blog is because some interesting things were talked about at youth tonight.

Matthew 7:7-11 was the parable in question, although I think it came from a different gospel… I just recognized it cuz that’s what I did my devos on this morning (dontcha love it when that happens? Gives one such a feeling of solidarity.)

Well, it boiled down to a conversation on the topic of prayer. One of the things I really like about Eastridge Youth is the dialectic way of teaching things. (dialectic is a form of self-discovery that Socrates is credited as inventing, also known as the Socratic method… its where the teacher teaches the pupil by continually asking them questions and the pupil figures things out with a bit of help from the teacher.) So, in our discussion, the point came about that we shouldn’t be praying for the world around us to change. A lot of times, prayer is along the lines of “Dear God, make this happen.” That always seemed a bit screwy to me. It’s not a matter that God can’t make something happen, it’s that He won’t because that goes against free will; and if free will is gone, Christianity becomes excessively meaningless.

What it came down to is that we should be praying about personal change. But not just that God would change us, because, once again, then we’re castrating ourselves. To put it in an existentialist lens, we’re living in ‘bad faith.’ Of course, this does not mean that we shouldn’t be praying at all, or even that we shouldn’t be praying for these things to change, because I’m sure that every prayer has some sort of effect.

(I just realized how odd my usage of the pronoun ‘we’ is… who exactly am I talking to, and why do I assume I have enough knowledge to teach them?)

the point of the discussion was that we should be praying more for strength for personal change. If you want you’re friend to become a Christian, pray a lack of weak knees and an opportunity.

I’m assuming I’ve contradicted myself a fair bit in here (goodness knows I’ve butchered the English language. (or to keep with my butchery theme, “tha englush lunguge”)) but I’m not too concerned since not only is this not a school assignment, therefore it wont be marked, it’s also not going to be read, so it will just float in cyberspace.

Now then, on to some musicality for the day… going on shuffle on my iPod ‘til a worthy song pops up… and the winner is… “such great heights’ by Postal Service. With the wonderful stanza of:

“I, am thinking it’s a sign, that the freckles in our eyes are mirror images, and when we kiss they’re perfectly aligned/ and I, would have to speculate/that God Himself did make us into corresponding shapes like puzzle pieces from the flame”

even though that line is totally unrelated to what the rest of this blog was about, I thought I’d share it with you, the non-existent reader, because it’s one of those times when a secular artist presents God in a fair way.

Yep, that’s about it.

I should probably start adding links to all the songs I mention so you, the non-existent reader, don’t have to track them down.

Oh, did I mention I went dumpster diving today? I got a bag full of chocolate. Like, a big, industrial sized garbage bag. I’m not sure if it can be considered resourcefulness or stealing from homeless people. Either way, chocolate=endorphins, so I’m sure I’ll be fine.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

i will probably delete this later, but for now, i'm fascinated

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmHcVZNP8n0&feature=related

it's so... wonderful

existentialism, hockey, matthew 6 and other things

so, yesterday morning i opened my Bible to it's book mark and started reading what i thought was john 7. turns out it was matthew 6. both ended up being amazing, but i liked matthew more... which i find interesting. i have a friend who always says that john is amazing, so i thought i'd start doing it for devo's, but i find it a bit, well, dry. good, but not quite as 'fun' as matthew... if that makes sense?
i just find it to be a bit of a reflection of my friends personality. he's rather reserved and not 'fluid' as a person.. if that makes any sense?
idk, he's ISTJ. google it to understand what i'm talking about.

on to existentialism

we studied it yesterday in philosophy. a few errors occurred to me, but i'm not sure if it's the actual existential viewpoint, or merely my teachers version. he's a solid guy, so i think it might be the actual philosophy.
to summarize, the premise of existentialism (e for short) is that 'existence precedes essence.' basically, it's tabula rasa. we are all born blank slates and the decisions we make form who we are. there is no conscience or such. we decide what is right, we decide what is wrong.
the other main part of e is free will. since existence precedes essence, free will is what shapes our essence. giving up one's free will, or letting some one else decide things for you is called 'bad faith.'
this is where my first issue arises. how, when morality is subjective, can something automatically be assumed to be bad? people who live in bad faith are viewed through some rather harsh lenses, and are seen as weak and inane to e-ists, but that makes the assumption that the essence of wrong precedes the existence of the person making the choice to not have free will.
even then, how can one e-ist say that someone else is wrong? is that up to the other person to decide?
anyways, i'm sure i butchered both e and my view on it, and some philo aficionado is going to stumble across this blog and rip me to shreds.
since i'm probably going to be taken down anyways, lets give them some more ammo:
my 2nd issue with e. they say that rationality and reason dont really exist, since people dont use them to make decisions rather differing to their F preference and going off personal meaning rather than objective value.
they also make the claim that most people live in bad faith. what they fail to mention is that most people live in 'bad faith' because living in 'good faith' (doing as one desires and as one interprets to be correct) would cause society to collapse. the reason people live in 'bad faith' and are engaged in menial jobs and do things they rather wouldn't is because they have used rationality and reason.
they know that throwing away their career wont pay the bills, wont buy food and won't help in any real way.
people are rational to a certain extent. they're mostly insane, but simultaneously rational.

on to hockey...

my aforementioned friend plays in some local league. i can't remember the vowels, but i think it's the 3rd worst/3rd best. it's somewhere in the middle, but closer to being not good.
however, it was a play off game, so there was a very intense atmosphere. to quote one of my wittier tweets from yesterday: "This is as intense as watching two fat people eyeing the last twinkee.."

and yeah, thats about it.. nothing noteworthy has happened yet today. i still have youth to attend, but i think they'll just be showing the olympics.. lame.

speaking of twitter, follow me.

since i'm handing out links, check my purevolume page for mash-ups:
http://www.purevolume.com/atticusgray

oh, and heres a song quote that i will definately be dissecting more in the future:
"how you live means more than what you believe"
- split the sky, kingdoms





Monday, February 22, 2010

psalm 119

got back from Bible study a while ago. a friend talked about the direct correlation between loving God and loving the Bible... in retrospect, i really wish i had taken notes, but the main points went something like this: loving God is reflected in your love of the Bible. your love of the Bible is evidenced by how often you read it, meditate on it, converse about it and teach it.
personally, i think i'm doing better then i ever have before. i'd say my two weakest points are talking about it and teaching it, although i can easily change the former, the latter will require a lot more work.
ah well.

to end, i shall tell you, my as-of-yet reader to go listen to 'deep in your eyes (there is a river)' by jon foreman. lyrical excerpts below:

i can see your eyes moving
looking down towards the shore
you've been searching for substance
you've been searching for more
i can see your eyes moving
it had been twisting around
you've been looking for something, honey
that you haven't yet found

aloha is hawaiin for hello and goodbye... so, i like where we are.

God, if you can hear, can you help me and my friends?
We've been driving all night into dead ends.
We just wanna find our own way home again.
We knew you as kids but lost you in smokey bars.
We lost you in the boom of lowered cars -
in parties that grew into the yard

God, if you can hear, as the sun is creeping down,
Could you kindly point me right out of town?
Honestly I'm sick and tired of falling down.
We knew you'd be here in the fray of darkest nights,
and the sad and holy glow of tv light,
in the blood and the bruise of back-alley fights.

So we're totally deprived,
buried alive
I couldn't help myself to save my life

Totally deprived
Buried alive
I couldn't help myself to save my life [x3]

Totally deprived

those would be the lyrics to the song 'modern day prayer' by twothirtyeight. i know next to nothing about twothirtyeight, only that the singer went on to start discover america. whose one song that i do have is amazing.
anyways, the creation of this blog comes on the wings of a 'jesus high'. you know, the post retreat glow that is oh-so inspiring and gets you out of your bed an extra 15 minutes early to read your bible? but then gradually fades and one is left to wander how you got back in the same rut? yeah, that thing.
except this time, it feels different. having just had a fantastic and eye opening weekend, i thought i would start this to process my thoughts to a certain degree. trying to figure out life is an intriguing thing, and i often think as though my throughts are going to be made open to the world. so, here they are, open to the world.
while the major focus of this blog will be books and music relating to a christian walk, i will probably digress into other things such as personality types and interpersonal relationships, just because they fascinate me.

i think that is all for now.