Masculinity or, How to Conceal One's Emotions.

So its been a long while since my last blog post; sorry about that.  I thought I would re-enter the blog universe with a trending topic.

In this post I will not only cover the most recent events of mass-murder that is the Santa Barbara shooting, but I am also covering the idea of masculinity and male-based roles in society.

As you may have heard, there was a major shooting near the Santa Barbara area leaving seven people dead, including the shooter, as well as six others injured.  His intentions were revealed through a video posted on YouTube later that day.  In the video, he states that he was still a virgin at the age of 22, which is the main cause of the shooting, and also mentions that he was "perfect" compared to the men girls reject him for.

I can sympathize with the fact that he felt lonely after 22 years of hormonal desires, and that he was rejected constantly by girls.  Being gay, I feel it just as hard to sit back and watch as everyone around you is able to sexually relieve themselves.  However, I won't be the one rampaging through to innocent people's lives due to the fact that I cannot find someone.

Now you must understand that I am a strong believer in social equality.  The main focus is not to mock the dead or undermine those who are depressed, lonely or straight-up sad.  I simply want to state my opinion and my understanding upon this topic.

So what is masculinity?  Most people will say that it is simply a male-quality, and in a way they are kind of correct, as the majority of men do offer it to various extents.  However, it is the idea that we must conceal any emotions.  Modern society has altered and socialized the idea that masculinity is of male qualities.  Webster's dictionary defines it as "of, relating to, or suited to men or boys."

The truth is, that many times men are understood to hold off any emotions, which leads them to violent thoughts, and in extreme cases, violent actions.  The mass shooting was an extreme example of masculine violence; however, there are smaller actions men use on women to assert dominance.  Verbal abuse is another form of violence.  When someone refers to another person as an object, something easily disposable or flat-out "a piece of meat", they are creating a form of verbal violence and automatically objectifying them.  Now I am not saying that women are not guilty of this as well, but I am stating that is more common for men to objectify women.

I hope this post enlightens readers, and if anything, to make them think before they say any objectifying remarks to the receiving party.  I'm going to leave you with a link to a video, which breaks down the ideas behind Elliot Rodger's, the shooter, intentions.  A lot of my ideas come from this video, as you will see.

Until next time!

ELLIOT RODGER: MORE THAN A MADMAN