Masculinity in America

This blog post is from a man named Ray Williams who discusses a loss of masculinity in American in the work place and in education, he states that it is having a “huge impact on the male identity.” Williams uses quotes to illustrate the rise of women in employment for example “forty percent of family's primary breadwinner are now women” and “women now make up more than fifty percent of the nations workforce.” Nowadays women are being employed for roles men would traditionally undertake but women are now educated and skilled to do these jobs and also some women may have a better education than male competitors hence why there is a decrease in masculinity in the workplace. Williams also states that the “number of women in government continues to rise” he later states that the last male dominated roles are in the military and in politics “although even those areas are slowly being eroded” this indicates that Williams feels that these areas are being spoiled by femininity and there will not be much left to offer up once the masculinity of these roles have been washed out.

Williams discusses the reasons for why masculinity is under threat and that is because of the way men are portrayed in the media. Williams claims that images and stereotypes used by the media are giving men a bad name making it hard for them to maintain their masculinity and their role in society. Williams also states that the “negative portrayal of men in the media, along with the feminization of men and loss of fatherhood in society has caused confusion and frustration in younger generation of males as they do not have specific role models and are less able to define their role in society.” Here Williams is saying that the younger generation of makes are going to grow up having more of a feminine outlook than a masculine outlook on life because of the loss of masculinity within society and the family home, as Williams states that “forty percent of family's primary breadwinner are now women” and also there are more stay-at-home-dads than there was ten years ago which shows that the roles have changed.

Williams states that “it has been difficult to know what it means to be a man and even harder to feel good about being one [....] and men are groping in the dark for their identity” Williams also quotes Guy Garcia as he states “as a group, men are losing their way” this shows that men think masculinity is under threat of being a thing of the past and that they have no way of knowing how to reclaim and maintain their masculinity for the future generations of men.

http://raywilliams.ca/blogs/our-male-identity-crisis/