Social Construction Of Masculinity

During war time, females tend to suffer the most, where they are often suffer sexual violence where they are forced to become sex slaves. Rape is regarded as as a, “Display of power and is a way of letting the enemy know who us in control,” (Henderson and Jeydel, 2014, pg. 318). Rape is often committed in front of males in order to humiliate them because they were unable to protect their women, as a way to traumatize the community, make women who were once in power feel inferior and was a way of ethnic cleaning where women are forced to have children of the enemy (Henderson and Jeydel). Men exert their dominance over women by belittling them in order to feel superior, where psychological and behavioral properties determined by society have …show more content…
The role of militarism in the construction of masculinity requires men to overplay their virility, where hegemonic masculinity expects men to act in an aggressive manner and normalizes their violent mindset, “Link between weapons, masculinities and violence…,” (Theidon, 2009, pg. 420). Men’s value is measured by their physical strength where failing to so result with them being label as a fag or wimp to immaculate them where, “Words are also used to impugn someone’s masculinity and, in the process, to delegitimize his positon...,” (Cohn, 2014, pg. 453). Militarism requires the maintenance of gendered division between male and females where men are expected to fight courageously and females are expected to remain at home taking of the children and their homes, where there is prestige placed upon men who fight in wars are and referred to as a man’s man, “Human characteristics are dichotomized, divided into pairs of polar opposites… Opposites is associated with male, the second with females. And in each case, our society values the first over the second,” (Cohn, 2014, pg. …show more content…
321) where they are unable to trust the authorities who often do not act on the charges. Sexual violence has led to women join armed forces which contradicts the gendered perspective of females in society where a women’s life is expected to revolve around their domestic duties, where they are commonly referred to as nurturers rather than fighters. Women are said to represent purity so when they are seen in the front lines it often catches men by surprise because men perceive women to to be weak and fragile, “Suicide missions by women…[are] often successful because of the element of surprise (people still don’t expect women to be terrorists),” (McLaughlin, 2003, pg. 87). Women are redefining femininity, where they are transcending the roles of cooks and wives to soldiers, “Girl soldiers have taken up arms; led forces on the frontlines’ mutilated and killed friends, family, civilians; and served more expected roles….to rebels soldiers,” (Henderson and Jeydel, 2014, pg. 329) by blurring the boundaries of what is defined as men’s work and women’s work. Women have become