The Tattoo By Chris Mckinny

The novel “The Tattoo” by Chris McKinney, holds a captivating story that addresses the hardships of Kenji Hideyoshi upbringing and life experiences. Ken is a new inmate at the correctional center in Hawala. During the process of being tattooed, Ken shares his significant life story of his sufferings regarding the three suns’ of his life. The three suns of Ken’s life include his family, friends, and intimate partner. However, this essay will specifically discuss the relationship between Ken and his father. This essay will also analyse sociological theories such as “socialisation” and “hegemonic masculinity” in relation to their relationship. Throughout Ken’s life, his relationship with his father was distant and inconsistent. During Ken’s …show more content…
When Ken was in the fourth grade of elementary school, he was physically bullied by his peers. Rather than providing a sufficient amount of comfort and support to Ken, Ken’s father angrily criticized Ken for not fighting back. He told Ken that “life is tough and he must be tough as well” (McKinney, 1999, p.50). He taught Ken to be against his enemies and learn to self-defend. This significantly links to hegemonic masculinity as Ken’s father acts intentionally harsh to Ken in order to construct his macho “character” (McKinney, 1999, p.50). From then onwards, Ken developed a strong sense of hegemonic masculinity which provoked his father a positive attitude towards him. Consequently, Ken was also well respected within the school environment where his peers labelled him as a “Kamikaze”. Kamikaze is a form of special attack unit where Japanese pilots were trained to crash their plane into the enemy (Samuels, 2005). This means that Ken is considered by his peers as a person who is risky and dreadful. However, the compulsion Ken receives from his father made Ken felt dehumanize as he said: “Sometimes I felt like a dog who had suddenly pulled a neat trick” (McKinney, 1999, p. 50). At the age of twelve, Ken’s father begun to train Ken boxing. He brought various boxing equipment to educate Ken how to self-defence. During practices, Ken’s father would violently whack Ken on the head with a wooden scratcher …show more content…
Hegemonic masculinity is connected to the power structure of men’s dominance. It refers to the presentation of gender practice which symbolizes the legitimacy of patriarchy. Moreover, hegemonic masculinity informs a pattern of gender inequality that asserts men’s superiority over women and some men in society (Connell, 2005). Throughout Ken’s upbringing, Ken’s father represents himself as the ideal figure of masculinity. He constantly impels masculine traits on Ken through teaching him how to build a tough character. Eventually, Ken and his father strongly supported the concept of hegemonic masculinity. Ken and his father featured several characteristics that associate with the hegemonic masculinity. They were both physically and mentally strong, heavy alcohol consumers, and emotionally restrained. However, due to their Japanese ethnicity, and low socioeconomic level. They do not meet the expectations of the ideal hegemonic masculinity. Instead, they carry out a secondary form of marginal masculinity. In relation to Ken’s performance of hegemonic masculinity, it was very difficult for Ken fully adopt the hyper-masculinity. There many factors which affected Ken from embodying the ideal hegemonic masculinity. Firstly, Ken possesses low levels of power and status than his father. Considering that Ken’s father conducts a different form of hegemonic masculinity than Ken. The