#publishable

“Does anyone want this?” said Lily, walking into the Gryffindor common room with a small, potted cactus in her hand. “I went a bit overboard practising for Transfiguration and I’ve got too many.”

“I’ll take it!” cried James Potter, playing it cool. “I’ve always wanted a… spiky plant thing.”

“It’s called a cactus, Potter,” said Lily. “Though for the life of me, I can’t figure out why anyone, even a witch, would ever feel the need to transfigure a mouse into one of these. I mean, why are we even taught–”

“Sssh,” said Remus Lupin calmly. “Don’t break the fourth wall.”

With a shrug, Lily handed the cactus to James with a warning to keep his fingers away from the spikes, and returned to her dormitory to practice more spells that would have no practical use in everyday life - which, actually, is a rather brilliant reflection of many educational practices that are still commonly used today. Who cares if you don’t know how taxes work when you can make a potato battery, amirite?!

“This is the greatest day of my life,” said James, holding the cactus aloft. “Lily Evans gave me a gift–”

“Technically, it wasn’t a gift,” said Sirius.

“This gift!” said James, ignoring him. A shaft of light broke through a nearby window and illuminated the cactus in a golden haze. “I shall dub thee Benjamin.”

“Not Peter?” said Peter.

“I’ll cherish you forever, Benjy,” said James, and drew the cactus close to his face. “Forever and ever and–”

“James,” said Remus urgently. “Don’t do–”

“No!” Sirius seconded. “Don’t hug the–”

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Hegemonic masculinity is defined as a “gender studies concept that makes up of the proposed practices that promote the dominant social position of men, and the subordinate social position of women” (Campbell, the Guardian). This form of masculinity within the gender hierarchy and the modern male stereotype is one that harms men more than we think. Since the mid twentieth century, social scientists, historians and philosophers have theorized “that gender- the roles, characteristics and activities that distinguish men from women- are not innate, but socially constructed” (Moma, Constructing Gender)

A popular and powerful form of expression in today’s society is addressing issues through the concept of visual activism. In How to See the World, Mirzoeff believes that “Visual thinking is something we do not simply study; we have to engage with it ourselves” (Mirzoeff, 289). The tool of art, creation and visual protest is a form of communicating opinions, worldviews, information and to ultimately seek change. There is a saying that from the day we were born, we were instantly placed in gender stereotypes. From a young age, society and the media wires and constructs our brains to follow a specific stereotype for our gender- boys and men are told to “be a man”, “to grow some balls” and to show no emotion or empathy. Women and girls are told to always look presentable, to be polite- this social construction from a young age has developed a society full of gender stereotypes that apply to our everyday lives. Tricia Szirom explores this social construction of gender mentalities and stereotypes in ‘Teaching Gender’ and states that “The process is successful when the ‘double standards’ is internalized; what is acceptable behaviours for one sex is then known to be unacceptable for the other, and both females and males will conform to their rigid sex role stereotypes”. These ideals create the idea that men have to repress their emotions and conform to emotionless, detached mentalities. The harm that this stereotype and social construct is inflicting is however not often seen on the surface as men are yes, not supposed to show any emotion or “care” in that matter. In R.W Connell’s academic text, ‘Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the concept, the concept of masculinity in terms of a social construction is present as well. “Hegemonic masculinity was understood as the pattern of practice (i.e. Things done, not just a set of role expectations or an identity)” (Connell, 842) and “The concept of hegemonic masculinity originally was formulated with a strong awareness of psychoanalytic arguments about the layered and contradictory character of personality, the everyday contestation in social life, and the mixture of strategies necessary in any attempt to sustain hegemony (Carrigan, Connell, and Lee 1985; Connell 1987).

 Works Cited

Campbell, Denis. "Body Image Concerns More Men Than Women, Research Finds". the Guardian. N.p., 2012.

Connell, R. W. "Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking The Concept". Gender & Society 19.6 (2005): 829-859. Web.

Mirzeoff, Nicholas. How to See the World. 2015. Pelican Books. Print

"Moma | Constructing Gender". Moma.org. N.p., 2016.

My discussion and topic focuses on the idea of male and hegemonic masculinity and how gender binaries have affected and created disconnected forms of masculine and feminine physical and mental attributes. I wanted to specifically focus on the stereotype and idea that men have to repress their emotions and conform to emotionless, detached mentalities.

In my research process, I found an academic thesis by R.W Connell called “Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept”. In this text I found that hegemonic masculinity came to be associated solely “with negative characteristics that depict men as unemotional, independent, nonnuturing, aggressive and dispassionate beings”. (Connell, 840). Like women’s social ideals in society, men too have a large weight of social mentalities that society and media place on the stereotype- so men have to reconstruct their mental mannerism to fit within this standard of the “ideal man” who in today’s society should be emotionless, an excellent lover, hard-working and physical traits like tall, rugged, handsome and muscular.