Download Lesson 1: Sociological Constructs and Theories

Lesson: Masculinity
and Violence
Robert Wonser
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Milford, Connecticut, Chris Plaskon asked Maren
Sanchez to attend prom with him at the end of the year
at Jonathan Law High School. They’d known each other
since 6th grade. Maren said no. Witnesses told
authorities she declined and told Chris she would be
attending the dance with her boyfriend (here). Chris
knew Maren had a boyfriend and, likely, that she’d be
attending with him. After being turned down, Chris threw
his hands around Maren’s throat, pushed her down a set
of stairs, and cut and stabbed her with a kitchen knife
he’d brought to school that day. It was April 25, 2014.
Maren got to school just a bit after 7:00 that day and
before 8:00, she was dead.
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Psychologically Disturbed?
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Jackson Katz tells us that we need to think about these
tragedies as contemporary forms of masculinity.
When young men have their masculinity sullied, threatened
or denied, they respond by reclaiming masculinity through a
highly recognizable masculine practice: violence.
When events like this happen, it’s easy to paint the young
men who perpetuate these crimes as psychologically
disturbed, as—importantly—unlike the rest of us.
 But, stories like Chris Plaskon follow what has become a
predictable pattern.
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Adolescent Masculinity, Homophobia,
and Violence: Random School
Shootings, 1982-2001
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Since 1982, there have been 28 cases of random school
shootings in American high schools and middle schools.
Kimmel and Mahler find
(a) that the shootings were not a national problem but a
series of local problems that occurred in “red states” or
counties (places that voted Republican in the 2000
election);
(b) that most of the boys who opened fire were
mercilessly and routinely teased and bullied and that
their violence was retaliatory against the threats to
manhood;
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(c) that White boys in particular might be
more likely than African American boys
to randomly open fire; and
 (d) that the specific content of the teasing
and bullying is homophobia.
A link between adolescent masculinity,
homophobia, and violence is proposed.
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Social Identity Threat
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When you threaten someone’s social identity, and they
care, they respond by over-demonstrating qualities that
illustrate membership in that identity.
Michael Kimmel writes about a classic example:
“I have a standing bet with a friend that I can walk onto
any playground in America where 6 year-old boys are
happily playing and by asking one question, I can
provoke a fight. That question is simple: “Who’s a sissy
around here?””
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Masculinity Threat
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By asking the question, Kimmel is inviting
someone’s masculinity to be threatened and
assuming that this will require someone to
demonstrate their masculinity in dramatic fashion.
Sociologists have a name for this phenomenon:
masculinity threat.
New research relying on experimental designs
suggests there’s a lot more to these claims than we
might have thought.
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Christin Munsch and Robb Willer conducted an
experiment to see whether gender identity threats might
affect perceptions of sexual coercion.
Their study clearly showed that when college-aged
men’s masculinity is threatened, they are much more
likely to espouse attitudes supportive of sexual assault or
coercion.
In a nutshell, men who might feel they have to
demonstrate their masculinity are less likely to see
sexual coercion as sexually coercive and much more
likely to blame the victim (a woman) in the scenario.
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Masculine Overcompensation
Thesis
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The masculine overcompensation thesis asserts that men
react to masculinity threats with extreme demonstrations of
masculinity.
In study 1, men and women were randomly given feedback
suggesting they were either masculine or feminine. Women
showed no effects when told they were masculine; however,
men given feedback suggesting they were feminine
expressed more support for war, homophobic attitudes, and
interest in purchasing an SUV.
Study 2 found that threatened men expressed greater support
for, and desire to advance in, dominance hierarchies.
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Masculine Overcompensation
Thesis
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Study 3 showed in a large-scale survey on a diverse
sample that men who reported that social changes
threatened the status of men also reported more
homophopic and prodominance attitudes, support for
war, and belief in male superiority.
Finally, study 4 found that higher testosterone men
showed stronger reactions to masculinity threats than
those lower in testosterone. Together, these results
support the masculine overcompensation thesis, show
how it can shape political and cultural attitudes, and
identify a hormonal factor influencing the effect.
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Over-Conformists to Masculinity
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When we hear about cases in the news like
the savage murder of Maren Sanchez, the
easy way of dealing with this is to look for all
of the signs that Chris Plaskon is not “one of
us.”
But, Katz and Kimmel suggest that we ought
to think about these men not as failing at
masculinity, but as “over-conforming,” and
this research supports those claims.
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A Learned Behavior
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For a long time, feminist scholars and activists that talked about
violence among boys and men as “learned behavior.”
Violence is also a “taught behavior.”
And these lessons are not just taught by individuals, they’re a part of
all manner of social institutions; they structure the ways we learn to
think about, recognize, and enact masculinity in our daily lives.
We simply can’t think about violence apart from gender.
Boys and young men who participate in the kinds of violence
enacted upon Maren Sanchez show startlingly strong patterns.
While many are much more socially ostracized that it seems Chris
was, the common factor is that they perceive their masculinity as
having been threatened (by other boys and young men, by lack of
recognition to which they feel entitled from other women, and more).
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The Solution?
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This research suggests that protecting boys
and young men from masculinity threats is
an incomplete solution.
Rather, real change would require
investment in new ideals surrounding
masculinity not predicated on dominance
and violence.
Doing so can only result in a safer world for
all of our kids.
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