I am back once again but this time my blog will not be about sports, it will be instead about a project I have been working on for the past couple of weeks for my honors college seminar on Masculinity. For our final project we were asked to challenge a prevailing stereotype of Masculinity. I chose to examine the stereotype of the typical Frat boy as a arrogant and usually athletic guy who only cares about drinking, partying, and hooking up with as many girls as possible. I chose this stereotype for obvious reasons, I am currently in a fraternity (AEPI) and I was a little tired of hearing that certain actions or decisions were the typical frat boy thing to do. For my project I used 4 different 8 open ended question surveys each designed for a different group of people (Frat boy, sorority girl, non-fraternity boy, and non-sorority girl) which I sent out to my friends via Facebook.
This project has taught me a lot about myself, the stereotype of the frat boy, masculinity, and society in general. First of all, I have learned that pretty much everyone I interviewed felt like the media had a lot to do with the way fraternity men are stereotyped and that the stereotype is sometimes reinforced in real life and thus has some validity while not being entirely true. Also, my responses showed a clear divide between guys in fraternities and people not in fraternities, guys or girls. Fraternity men while acknowledging that the stereotype existed and that some frat boys do reinforce the stereotype focused more on the positive aspects of fraternity life such as friendship, brotherhood, and philanthropy work. While the rest of the respondants, while acknowledging that the stereotypical frat boy was not all encompassing and that there are some people in fraternities who completly go against that stereotype, seemed to say that most frat boys do fit the stereotype. This showed me that there are times where being a member of a specific group gives you a perspective and view point that people who are not part of that group don't have or can't understand.
Another thing I learned through this project is that in most cases people do buy into stereotypes but at the same time will take the time to get to know every member of the group being stereotyped and judge them on an individual basis rather then lump them as another member of the group. Furthermore I now see that the stereotypical fraternity boy does have some validity to it but I can't let it bother me and I just need to live my life and do my part to represent fraternity men in a positive way. Another thing I learned from this project and the class in general is that masculinity has a much wider definition and scope then most people, including myself before this class, think and I hope more people do what I did thanks to this class and expand their definition of what it means to be a masculine man instead of stereotyping and fitting men into categories. since this is part of a project I welcome comments on this topic and masculinity as a whole.
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First off I want to congratulate you on completing your project on masculinity. As someone who took part in the survey it is important to me to understand the results and to challenge them further. Therefore, I have several issues with some of the printed results that I wish to discuss here.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your results, I feel as if most of the conclusions were rather obvious and could have been acquired through common sense. For example, a stereotype for Jews is that they have large noses. Albeit it is partially true, everybody understands that not all Jews have large noses. Another example is the stereotype that black people carry weapons and are aggressive people. However, it’s obvious that this is untrue and hence by definition purely a stereotype. Therefore the same thing goes hand-in-hand with the fraternity man stereotype.
You have stated the following: "Another thing I learned through this project is that in most cases people do buy into stereotypes but at the same time will take the time to get to know every member of the group being stereotyped and judge them on an individual basis rather then lump them as another member of the group."
This is another example of where your research produced a conclusion that was also obvious and unambiguous. Stereotypes are never 100% true, and everybody understands that. For example, the stereotype that everyone hates Jews is commonplace. However, when a person approaches a Jew, and, as you said “takes the time to get to know” that Jew, they will realize that there is no reason to hate the Jew (unless that Jew really is a bad person).
You later continued with the following thought: “Furthermore I now see that the stereotypical fraternity boy does have some validity to it but I can't let it bother me and I just need to live my life and do my part to represent fraternity men in a positive way.”
ReplyDeleteWe all agree with the fraternity stereotype and that cannot be argued. But who are you to say that has some negative connotations? Even still, why do you let it bother you that you don’t hold true to the fraternity man stereotype? If you don’t agree with the stereotype, then you shouldn’t let it bother you that you are not upholding it. In fact, it’s good for you to not live up to the stereotypical expectations. Lastly, what are you doing that is more positive for the fraternity man than what these stereotypical men are doing? There is nothing wrong with what the stereotype says about the people. For example, just because a college student likes to go out and enjoy him/herself (i.e. drinking, smoking, hooking up with girls), it doesn’t change the fact that they are a student in college gaining a degree that will set them up for the future. Same thing goes for the fraternity man; despite his stereotypical habits, he still partakes in philanthropy events, betters the community, and provides a better social network for the campus. You are, therefore, stereotyping those that are stereotyping the fraternity man.
What does “represent fraternity men in a positive way” mean? What does “positive” mean? Does that imply that the stereotype is negative? Who are you to say that? And what specifically are you trying to do that will be considered positive? Are you going to stop drinking, hooking up with girls, and playing sports because they’re negative, according to your stereotype? I am uncertain with your intentions. Please clarify.
Last point (for I am getting tired of tired of belittling your experiment and I have some more important things to do), you provided this unnecessarily long sentence: “Another thing I learned from this project and the class in general is that masculinity has a much wider definition and scope then most people, including myself before this class, think and I hope more people do what I did thanks to this class and expand their definition of what it means to be a masculine man instead of stereotyping and fitting men into categories.”
For the sake of clarity, please insert several periods to separate your thoughts. It is very difficult to understand your content and forces the reader to read it multiple times.
I feel like, as the saying goes, I am “beating a dead horse”, with the common sense issue.
How did you learn that masculinity has a much wider “definition and scope” than most people think, through your experiments? Your answers were from people who understood that there is more to masculinity than a simple stereotype. According to www.dictionary.com, a definition of masculinity is, “having qualities traditionally ascribed to men, as strength and boldness.” After reading this definition, it is more than apparent that there is more to masculinity than the stereotype you described. There was no need to go through a whole process of figuring that out.
My conclusion is that your conclusions proved that your surveys were a waste of not only your time but the time of the participants who had to answer eight questions in open-ended form. The time wasted could have been used in a more positive way, such as finding a cure for cancer or world peace. Your conclusions were something I could have discovered in five minutes through observations as opposed to spending a few weeks analyzing it through benighted surveys.
Sincerely,
Socrates
P.S. you may have noticed already that throughout this response, I have repeatedly used the term “fraternity man”, and not “frat boy”, as you have used.