Often when thinking of people of a different culture the assumption that comes to mind is someone from a different country or region. However, according to Martin and Nakayama, culture is learned patterns of behavior and attitudes by a group of shared people (p. 88). With that being said a culture does not only exist in different geographical locations, but it exists everywhere in daily life. The culture of interest which I have chosen to focus on is the male culture. Besides the physiological explanation of what a male is, males can be defined by the idea of masculinity. Masculinity is defined as having characteristics of a man which includes attributes such as strength and dominance. Masculine characteristics are expected of males. This creates a culture group because it is a learned pattern of behaviors and attitudes which is mainly shared only by males.
When analyzing the male culture I kept the co-cultural theory in mind. The co-cultural theory is used to understand how people’s location in a social hierarchy influences their perceptions of reality regarding relational issues or problems (Martin & Nakayama p. 73). Co-cultural groups consist of a dominant and a non dominant group. When discussing males and females, males are often seen as the dominant group. They are considered the group with the most power (Martin & Nakayama p. 241). Males often use their physical or mental power to rule over others and it is mainly women which they use this power over (Phoenix, 2012). We saw it years ago when men were given the right to vote and women were not. This led us to believe that the male opinion was the only one that mattered. Today in society it is becoming less obvious which culture group is the most dominant, or is it? Women are making strives to be seen as equal to men but it seems as though the idea of masculinity is still creating that glass ceiling for women.
This is an image showing the expectations society has for the look of masculinity and femininity. You can see that the male has a more dominant power stance while the woman is more in the background and shows the characteristics of elegance and meekness.
When doing field work, I observed the male culture for 2 hours. I observed males individually and in a group and I also conducted 2 interviews. In observing, I found that men still view themselves as the dominant culture. Things I observed that suggested this were the way they talk about women. The terms and names used are not exactly positive. I would never hear males say a woman is beautiful or she has a great personality or that they would like to date her. They would refer to a woman hot, or they would comment on a physical characteristic or they talk about her as if she was just someone they wanted to sleep with (Jordan Stiens, personal observation, Oct. 28, 2012). These observations show that women are looked at as objects rather than a culture group of intelligence and equal quality to men. When conducting my interviews the answers given were very similar. Both interviewees described masculinity as strength or physical superiority, while they described femininity as compassion, caring, and elegance. Males see these characteristics of femininity as less important than the characteristics of masculinity. When asked why, the response was that “society wants strong leadership, and strength and physical superiority is the cornerstone of strong leadership” (Sam Shaw, Personal Communication, Nov. 7, 2012). I also asked if males thought that society would think of them differently if they embraced characteristics of compassion and caring as part of masculinity. Both people I interviewed agreed that society would look at them differently. They said “it is taboo for men to show female characteristics and they would likely be looked at as homosexual” (Sam Shaw, Personal Communication, Nov. 7, 2012). When I straight up asked the male participants if they thought they are the dominant culture when compared to females the response was, yes they do because “throughout history and even in today’s society leaders are usually strong intelligent males which shows that people look for those qualities in people whom they trust and follow” (Sam Shaw, Personal Communication, Nov. 7, 2012). Throughout my observations and interviews the three key themes that I learned were: 1. Men are still seen as the dominant culture group in society today 2. Masculinity is defined as strength, confidence, and physical superiority and 3. Females have pressure from society to act and look a certain way but males have these same pressures as well just in more subtle forms. These three themes are nothing new but they do prove that even though women are intelligent human beings of equal quality there will always be a dominant and non dominant group between genders but the idea of male dominance is not likely to change anytime soon.
Below is a video that shows how masculinity and femininity are portrayed in media. The topics shown in this video are parallel to the ideas given by the men that I interviewed and observed.
Sources:
Martin, J.N., & Nakayama, T.K. (2012). Intercultural communication in contexts (6th ed.).
Boston, MA: McGraw Hill.
Phoenix, G. (2012). Male dominance: Under attack or dead concept?. Retrieved from http://malexperience.com/2012/04/male-dominance/
Sam Shaw, Personal Communication, Nov. 7 2012
Derek Sutton, Personal Communication, Nov. 7 2012
Jordan Stiens, Personal Observation, Oct. 28 2012
