Emily Nelson Blog 6

    After reading chapter three of Guyland by Michael Kimmel, I found a lot of what he had to say about masculinity to be very thought provoking. One of the first statements I found to spark my interest was about men trying to impress me, “masculinity is largely a “homosocial” experience: performed for, and judged by, other men,” (Kimmel 47). When I first read this, I immediately thought of the group of guys my friends and I hung out with in high school. They were so worried about image, none of them ever wanted to look dumb in front of each other. It really annoyed me a lot of the time because I could tell they weren’t very sincere. It relates to this quote because boys do try to impress other boys just to keep or gain status. They need to look well in the eyes of other men, and then the women come along after that.
    Kimmel later brings his passage to talking about violence associated with men and the results of the guy code. “Most guys are good guys, but that doesn’t lessen the reality of the violence that surrounds them,” (Kimmel 58). I completely agree with this part of the piece. This example shows how men are good, and that there are some out there that really do have good intentions. It is not fair for those who are good to have to be overshadowed by all the crime associated with the bad men in this world. Not saying there aren’t bad women, but from our activity in class, we can see that crime is more so associated with masculinity. I like the fact that Kimmel points out how men are good and men are bad, all we typically hear about is the bad, but at times it is refreshing to hear about how there are still good people around.