workplace inequality?

For today’s blog, I will be analyzing the workplace.  The idea behind this is to draw conclusions from industries that are traditionally male dominated.  Since I only have in experience in one industry, I will be analyzing to United States military.

I enlisted in the U.S. Air Force immediately out of high school at the age of eighteen.  Although the Air Force had higher numbers of women in its ranks, it is still mostly considered a man’s profession.  Because of this, the unit I was assigned to, the 824^th Security Forces Squadron, had a few females in it.  Out of 160 some people I want to say we had about 20 women.

Now my unit was designed to deploy to anywhere in the world at a moment’s notice to respond to any contingencies the Air Force determined a need for us.  During my tenure, we were heavily involved in both Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.  Also, because our unit was designed to perform our missions “outside the wire,” men AND women were put in direct combat during every deployment.

This instantly flies in the face of official military policy which prevents women from being involved in combat roles.  Unfortunately, this doctrine was written during a time when wars were fought with definite “fronts” and “rears.”  With this, women were mostly involved in the rear, away from most combat. 

Nowadays, this has disappeared as we have journeyed into a world full of “asymmetrical warfare.”  This is when there are no fronts or rears, merely bases placed in the middle trying to control certain areas. 

Women are now moving into a combat role within the military, which represents a huge shift in how women are viewed.  Even though this has been done for years in the Israeli Defense Force, the U.S. military has declined to allow it, citing unit cohesion and battlefield pressures.  As our thoughts and perceptions change on women, the military is slow to catch up.  The Israelis proved that women are very capable warriors, yet our society and its ideas of hegemonic masculinity has failed to keep up.

Recently, the Pentagon has begun to accept the fact that women will play a larger role in combat in the future.  There are still some military occupations in which women do not have access to, but if we continue our shift from devaluing women in the military, I feel this will change.

Besides, if you want to know the real truth, my SNIPER partner when I was in was a female; not to mention one of the best shots I have ever seen.  Let me tell you, if you ever hear that a woman named Ashley-Ann is on the hunt for you, don’t run; you’ll only die tired.

attempts to prove masculinity...

In our society, men are expected to prove themselves to be masculine.  But who do we do this for?  How do we do it?  Does context matter?  These are just a few of the questions I will be attempting to answer in this week’s blog post.

Let’s look at the basics of proving masculinity in order to better understand this phenomenon.   Proving masculinity lies squarely on the shoulders of the person attempting to attain it.  It is not a status that is just “given away,” it is achieved by the individual.  Young boys in our culture are not thought to be born masculine.  This is achieved through various rites and passages put on us by society.  The only problem is that the idea of “masculinity” is twisted and turned into what fits society at that present time.  Boys grow up knowing they have to be “manly,” but with no clear path on how to do so.

This is why I believe context can heavily influence persons attempting to prove masculinity.  If we observe sports rituals, we can see the idea of context being played out.  On the field of competition, one is expected to outperform the others and lead their team to victory.  This is one way of assessing masculinity in contemporary society.  In cultures of past, it was going into battle with one’s enemies.  We still have this in the military, but more emphasis is placed on sports and performance.

Context has enormous effects on another part of masculinity: who the “show” is for.  Now, one would probably instantly think this performance is possibly for a future mate, which is how I initially viewed it.  But upon further investigation, it is clear that performances of masculinity are actually for the other males in the area.  We use this to assert dominance over one another and gain our own ranking on the “totem pole.”  To be “masculine” in the animal world can have huge consequences: anything from mate selection to food appropriation.  It seems as if we still feed off of this pack mentality today.  If I need to prove myself as masculine, I should target the male that all the others look up to, as this will assert my place on top.

Now the question lies in how we attain masculinity.  That is where it gets murky.  It seems we receive a lot of information on how to be masculine, but it comes from many sources.  To the younger brother, it could come from his elder.  To the boy spending hours watching TV, it could come from advertising agencies.  To the religious child, it could come from his church or place of worship.  To the child ignored by parents, it can come from friends.  Herein lays the problem: none of these ways is directly from some “source” that holds the definition on masculinity.  Instead, it is all via second-hand knowledge.  Because of this, unintended consequences persist.  These include homophobia, sexism, ableism, racism and a general devaluation of segments of the populace. 

So what does this truly say about our performances of masculinity?  Well, to quote Professor Williams, we are merely “imitating a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy with no original.”  And it is when we are no longer allowed to be “originals” ourselves that lead to this need to prove our own masculinity; typically at the expense of others.

objectifying objects objectively...

Today’s blog centers on objects and the values we place on them in reference to gender.  One glance across the media landscape and we are inundated with images on what is manly and what is feminine.  Every day we process these images and internalize them as if they have some real meaning.  But the truth is that they have no meaning at all.  Everything we are told and sold comes with a price.  That price could be monetary, and the advertising agencies thank you for that, but we also place a value that is completely constructed by society.  Through these false images and lies we are told what is appropriate for our gender.  Sadly, we begin to tell ourselves these constructions are truths, and do not doubt them.

1.)  The first object I noticed was one I use every morning: my deodorant.  Now, me being a man who is constantly trying to be a man, I know that I need to cover my disgusting scent every day.  And I do this with Old Spice Swagger.  How could I not when I have an ad with LL Cool J endorsing the stuff?  To be a real man in our society, I need to be pleasing and desirable to every lady out there, even if I am not interested.  LL Cool J is pretty well known for his contributions to hip hop, but he is probably better known for his sex appeal and the way women love him.  I mean, his name does stand for “Ladies Love Cool James.”  Because of him and the other random men in the Old Spice ad campaigns I know what kind of product I am getting: something that will make me not only attractive, but will make me a real man as well.

2.)  Later during the day I got into my car for my daily driving.  I flipped through the cd’s in my glovebox until deciding on one to cruise to: “A Badly Broken Code” by Dessa.  I figured that since I would be driving the back roads out in the north part of the county that I would enjoy being serenaded by Dessa’s sweet voice.  However, I still had to drive through most of Vancouver just to get out to country.  This is where my conundrum arose: listen to the feminine Dessa or put on something more manly?  Yes, I did indeed take the path of least resistance and put on some Lamb of God, a metal group which I love to “rage out” to.  This disappointed me.  Why did I care about what other people thought?  I had no real chance of seeing these people ever again.  But it was an image thing that was deeply ingrained within.  I could not be seen driving around listening to such femininity blasting through my speakers.  I needed something that screamed, “I AM MAN!”  Stupid society.

So, why is it that I allow society to construct these images of “a man” for me?  Is it because I lack the proper knowledge to think for myself?  Is it that I am so used to seeing things this way and don’t know the difference?  Or, is it something else?  Whatever it is, it needs to stop.  I know that it probably won’t at a macro level, but I can do something about my own personal existence.  I need to take away the value I place on objects.  I need to do something about my own world, then move on to the larger view. 

For my parting shot, I will now do a Google Image search for "manly objects."  Oh boy...