“masculinity is a homosocial enactment” (34). What exactly does Kimmel mean and do you agree or disagree? Provide examples (either from the readings or personal experience) to support your argument.
Kimmel means that Masculinity is a continuous process that must
always being played out and a man can never let his guard down for
doing so can reveal weakness or inadequacies.Women become a kind of
currency that men use to improve their ranking on the masculine
social scale. (Even those moments of heroic conquest of women
carry, I believe, a current of homosocial evaluation.)Men boast to
one another of their accomplishments-from their latest sexual
conquest to the size of the fish they caught-and how we
constantly parade the markers of manhood-wealth, power, status,
sexy women-in front of other men, desperate for their
approval.
That men prove their manhood in front of other men is both
a consequence of sexism and one of its chief props. "Women
have, in men's minds, such a low place on the social ladder of this
country that it's useless to define yourself in terms of a
woman.Masculinity as Homophobia If masculinity is a
homosocial enactment, its overriding emotion is fear.
In sociology, homosociality means same-sex relationships that are not of a romantic or sexual nature, such as friendship, mentorship, or others. The opposite ofhomosocial is heterosocial, preferring non-sexual relations with the opposite sex.
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