"Testosterone Poisoning"

While reading What Are Little Boys Made Of? by Michael Kimmel, I was surprised by Gurian’s ideal that testosterone is what “drives [boys] toward aggression and risk-taking”; if this were so, then ALL boys would be equally destructive and that is not the case. I agree with Kimmel; the violence in boys is not biological, it is caused by the social construction of gender which has placed certain privileges on boys. These privileges have become the “mask of masculinity” which causes boys to hold back emotions and embrace a tough attitude instead. The “mask” has made violence a masculine attitude that has become dominant in many males. As a result, our society has accepted boys as violent creatures and created the “boy crisis” we face today. This reading offered a fresh perspective that derailed from the oppression of women; women may be oppressed, but society has suppressed men along the way as well.

I have dealt with a piece of this “boy crisis” thanks to my younger brother who completely changed once he entered his adolescent years. He has gotten into more trouble in a year than I have in my whole life; his violent actions have got him kicked out of schools and into conflicts with other boys. He rarely shows his real emotions unless it is to kick a door or scream; I feel that this reinforces the point that boys often hide their real feelings and vulnerability by masking it in violence instead. He tries to maintain a tough exterior and I feel this is because of all the shows he watches which enforce masculinity, the men in our family who hide from emotions, and the friends he has which are bad news. Overall, he has grown up with images and examples of what society expects of a man and he is trying to follow these by refraining from emotions, becoming independent, rebellious, and violent. I do know that my brother is not violent because of the testosterone, but because he watches shows like Gangland and has discovered that society doesn’t necessarily accept “mushy, emotional” males.

Like Kimmel states, “one key to enabling boys to express a wider range of emotions is to challenge the power and privilege that is part of their cultural heritage”; society should lift enforcements on masculinity and instead work to confront sexism. Feminism could actually help lift these barriers to create new definitions of masculinity and help end this “boy crisis” filled with violence and socially constructed privileges.