The Women’s Center will discuss the idea of masculinity and how its stereotypes can negatively affect men in a Brown Bag Lunch event.
In hopes of bringing attention to the stereotypes of masculinity and its negative effects, the next Brown Bag event from the Women’s Center will address the negative stereotypes of men and combat them through a discussion session.
The event titled “Healthy Masculinities” will be held Thursday in the Women’s Center.
The idea of society’s stereotype of masculinity and how it affects young boys and men is often a problem that goes unaddressed in the spectrum of gendered issues, Sarah Jenkins, the program coordinator of the Women’s Center, said.
“There’s been a lot of discussion about the ways that we raise boys and men that really could lead to a lot of emotional regression or stunting of emotion,” she said.
Being unemotional, logical and sometimes aggressive and violent are traits society often values in men. Meanwhile, young boys are told to never cry or show emotion, Jenkins said.
“That makes it really hard to live your life as a full human being, because (your emotions) are really important parts of being human,” she said.
Terry Koons, the associate director for health promotion for the Campus Involvement Center, will be facilitating the event.
The event will center around the stereotypes and will ask the question of whether these stereotypes are healthy for people to emulate, Koons said.
“We want to break down the barriers of what is it society expects people to behave like,” Koons said. “The whole goal (of the event) is to have an open conversation … about what it means to (the participants) to be a healthy person who is male identified.”
The event hopes to have people, particularly men, attend and talk about what their feelings are and think more broadly about what a “real or true man” would be, Koons said.
“It’s important for women to come to this event as well, because we have all at some point policed someone’s masculinity,” Jenkins said.
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According to Jenkins, examples of policing a person’s gender would be from making fun of someone who is crying to questioning what a person may be wearing.
“Even if we don’t mean it, it’s important for us to notice when we’re doing those things and to avoid policing another person’s gender,” she said.
Koons said he hopes people will understand that it is okay to have humanistic qualities aside from the stereotypes that are shown in media.
“It’s OK to be caring and it’s OK to share your feelings,” Koons said.
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