Essay On Hegemonic Masculinity

From the information above it is easy to understand that hegemonic masculinity, as well as many of the other sub areas of masculinity, prompt the idea of men acting tough, aggressive, showing leadership, asserting their dominance, and dominating others. This is the similar with traditional gender roles and a patriarchy society. Men are taught violence from a young age and are taught to use that violence in ways that assert their masculinity and authority. Through this it is easy for men who are not fulfilling their dominance or aggression out in “proper” ways to take it out on their partner once they get home, giving them a brief relief from not meeting gender expectations. Another applicable viewpoint to masculinity related to domestic violence is understanding it …show more content…
This is very similar to all the other aspects of masculinity in that men take their aggression out on women in domestic settings, however this takes a part in the idea that the man actually “feels bad” about the violence and attempts to neutralize the situation in some way. The neutralization is normally by becoming a “Family man” and resulting to the “honeymoon phase” of the relationship to rationalize that his violence was just a reaction (Mullaney, 2007, p. 230). However it becomes a cycle of violence, which is an on going cycle between the abuse and the honeymoon phase, which makes the process of violence on-going. By doing this violence may not seem as an issue, making some believe it is not something to do with domestic violence, but rather something all relationships go through. This is dangerous because it helps mask the problem laying with domestic violence and any possible solutions to fix it. This type of violence can change over time by nontraditional gender behavior when it comes to hegemonic masculinity and relationship dynamics. This means that more men taking the “passive” role in masculinity instead of the “real man” role can help change the idea that men are suppose to be