Brut: the essence of Man

I just thought this video was appropriate for our class. Its very random, but take what you want from it I guess.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVa9XLM31lU

French Hetero-Masculine Protest Against Gay Marriage

Shirtless, Masked and Gagged Straight Men Protest Gay Marriage in France

After learning that my home state, Minnesota, has recently become the 12th state to legalize gay marriage (hell yeah!) I decided to search the opposing parties reactions. However, I found something better. The html included above will bring you to Queerty, where a report on France's anti-gay marriage protest has left people with mixed feelings about the way in which these men display themselves. These half-dressed straight men have caused members of the gay community to question the intent of these men, based on their "sexy" attire, or lack of. I thought it was interesting to compare France's anti-gay culture, or more specifically this event to our country's more conservative approach. I also wanted to highlight some of the reactions from readers:

@Dakotahgeo:

"Want to make a bet that at least some of these tools are having issues coming to terms that they are themselves homosexual?"

  
Cam: 

"This “Protest” reminds me of those interviews with the anti-gay “Ex Gay” groups that claimed that close holding and touching between men was a good way to stop being gay because they claimed the men were just gay to try to replace affection they should have gotten from their father. In other words, they weren’t “GAY” they just had an excuse in their group to cuddle up with a bunch of men. These French guys aren’t “GAY” they are just so anti-gay that they want to run around shirtless with a bunch of other shirtless men dancing to ABBA. Funny how being topless is legal in France but none of these “HETROS” saw fit to invite a woman."

These men not only embrace their masculinity by exposing themselves (and muscles) but also gain empowerment from one another as a collective group, who describe themselves as "peaceful" and "determined". Another question that has been raised by the public is whether or not these men are responding to a pro-gay marriage event where feminists appeared shirtless as well. Overall, France has received a lot of heat by anti-gay marriage advocates since February, after the gay marriage bill passed. This article just goes to shows how far things have gone!

For more information I would recommend this website:

http://www.thelocal.fr/page/view/hommen-gay-marriage-femen#.UZF4IVfj51M

What Would the Ponies Do?

So, from the recent discussion of bronies, I wanted to take a look at what the psychology of bronies actually are. I am particularly interested in what types of psychopathology some bronies may be suffering from, besides anxiety and depression (which this study already looked at). It seems as if MLP is almost a coping mechanism for some of these individuals, while also serving as a social element for a highly introverted crowd. Out of the types of bronies - the "hidden bronies" may be of the most imperative crowd to understand, since they're so secretive with such a low guidance level; if this crowd had participated more greatly in the study, some of a pathological results may have changed.

 

What will be truly interesting in seeing is if this "hidden" group of bronies are the culprits within the problem of Rule 34 (the pornographic site) or are the more mentally ill group of people who may have pedophilic ideas (even though maybe not acted upon). Since the third study has already ended, it will be interesting to see the results as well as the continued 3-4 year follow-up of this study.

But, just as a bit of awkward humor and videos circling the web, here is a take on PSY's "Gangnam Style" ... slightly offensive? of course. Probably more than slightly in some instances. But a lot of the issues with this video are also discussed in the above video within the psychological study.

Jennifer

Konerak Sinthasomphone - we still remember, they still forget.

Have we ever heard cases of single women, or groups of women, who have imprisoned kidnapped men for decades? Women will abide, assist, and avoid men who do these types of crimes. But rarely will they commit these crimes without a man present.

Men do it, and get away with it, why?

I don't have the time to research the data of long-term captivity crimes in the US or globally. You can find scattered lists here and there. Deep research is not necessary to reveal the clear gender segregation in this crime. It follows with all sorts of sexual violent crime - a preponderance of male perpetrators on one side, and criminal/legal institutions who fail miserably on the other.

Why do accosted women go unfound, but medicinal marijuana brings SWAT teams and all their brutality? The War on Drugs knows no bounds, the War on Sexual Violence is . . . what?

Getting the Facts Straight
Elise Cintron, neighbor of the Castro brothers on the 2200 block of Seymour Avenue in Cleveland's Tremont neighborhood, south of downtown, reported this a few days ago,

"said her daughter once saw a naked woman crawling on her hands and knees in the backyard several years ago and called police. 'But they didn't take it seriously,' she said."

Well, one call, you can imagine might not be enough.
Oh wait, there was more?

Israel Lugo said he, his family and neighbors called police three times between 2011 and 2012 after seeing disturbing things at the home of Ariel Castro. Lugo lives two houses down from Castro and grew suspicious after neighbors reported seeing naked women on leashes crawling on all fours behind Castro's house.

Others had spoken up. We can't say it was entirely because people didn't intervene. The same system that has its eyes and ears out for weed plants growing indoors can't seem to muster the same intensity to find imprisoned females. A naked woman crawling on her hands and knees in the backyard not taken  seriously reminded me of a story.

Though I hate to bring up his name, the Jeffrey Dahmer case provides a similar history of general neglect towards victims. Konerak Sinthasomphone was one of Dahmer's victims. His story is uniquely tragic because he almost got away.

Two women, Sandra Smith and Nicole Childress, discovered the victim, 14-year-old Konerak Sinthasomphone, after he had managed to escape from Dahmer's apartment, naked, bleeding from the rectum and heavily under the influence of drugs. They called 911, Balcerzak and his partner Joseph Gabrish were dispatched. Though the Laotian immigrant had been in the country for ten years and spoke English fluently,^[1] in his drugged and brain-injured state, Konerak was unable to communicate his situation to authorities. Dahmer found the boy with the police and convinced them that the boy was his 19-year-old lover. Smith and Childress recognized the boy from the neighborhood and were convinced that Sinthasomphone's life was in peril. They communicated this to the officers and tried to save the boy. However, Balcerzak and his partner returned Konerak to Dahmer's apartment, against Konerak's and the women's protests. The officers noticed a strange smell in Dahmer's apartment, which was the decaying corpse of a previous victim in the bedroom, but made no attempt to investigate. Later that evening Dahmer sexually abused, killed, and dismembered the boy.

Whoever is planning it, or implementing it, or recreating it day by day, I can't say exactly. All I know is that we live in a world where victims like these are ignored, dismissed, and denied full humanity by institutions that resist doing things any other way. The perpetrators and institutions in question are nearly all entirely men, or controlled by men.

The policing of sexual violence must be a cornerstone issue of gender equality and human right. Yet it bumps head on with a deep-seated core organizing principle of masculinity - on a structural, legal, intellectual, and emotional level - that violence against certain marginal groups in society is not sufficient cause to intervene in the private affairs of men with a certain level of power. It doesn't take much power to glide above the system - the Castro brothers weren't special; Dahmer was a sweet-talker, but nothing special. These weren't hegemonic men by a long shot, but they still had enough of whatever it takes to keep the fuzz away from your home dungeon. That right there, in one particularly disgusting and gruesome form, is what I think Connell would call the "patriarchal dividend."

Hand Shakes to Nose Rubs !

 

As cliche as it sounds , this picture is indeed worth more than a thousand words and the perfect Kodak moment.  Considering our analyses of masculinity , where do we begin to unload the formations of masculinity in terms of body language, personality and of course the big message, presented in this picture. Nose rubbing is such a personal interaction almost intimate in many cultures and for me not the typical way to greet or show respect for someone , much less to be exhibited by an example of Hegemonic masculinity in that of Governor  Martin O'Malley. The expression on his son's face further reiterates a "going outside of the box phenomenon" and how this is  challenging social expectations. In same token , I applaud the respect and the reverence shown for the Dalai Lama Check out  the link below for the article

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/omalley-rubs-noses-with-the-dalai-lama--literally/2013/05/07/c3c32d96-b746-11e2-aa9e-a02b765ff0ea_story.html

TEDTalk on Gender and Success

This TEDTalks elaborates on what the article "Guyland" outlines-- in terms of how habits divided between gender lines in youth affect confidence and success later down the line.

http://www.ted.com/talks/sheryl_sandberg_why_we_have_too_few_women_leaders.html

Viagra sold Online !

I found this article about Pfizer losing sales to illegal generic forms of viagra sold over the internet. Considering Loe's article and our discussion ,what I found interesting about this article is the way in which they describe the use of viagra for men. Coupled with that, the article relays Pfizers intentions mostly to maximize profit rather than encourage customers to be mindful of health risks involved in taking un-approved drugs. Most importantly, it argues the notion of embarrassment surrounding erectile dysfunction which translates to the embarrasment of lost of ones masculinity. Additionally, losing ones masculinity means losing power and control projected through gender and sexuality. With information posted in articles on popular sites like Yahoo, only continues to perpetuate this "embarassment" men should believe they need experience. This is very problematic but a necessary strategy to ensure profit.  Ensuring profit and consumer control is an important factor here and Pfizer knows that some men need penises to  maintain power relations and cathexis.

Here is the link :http://finance.yahoo.com/news/bashful-buy-little-blue-pill-070427474.html