TITLE:
The Dilemma of Toxic Masculinity in Eastern and Western Societies; With Reference to the Novel “Men in Prison”
AUTHORS:
Dalia Mohamed Mostafa Mabrouk
KEYWORDS:
Toxic Masculinity, Cultural Ideology, Misogyny, Manhood, Victor Surge, “Men in Prison”
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.8 No.6,
June
24,
2020
ABSTRACT: This
paper will focus on the notion of toxic masculinity that has a lot to do with
deforming the male identity figure. I am here really concerned with probing
within the need of conforming with the traditional masculinity ideology in the
East and the West, and how it hinders males from discovering what it means to
be a male. Actually, the
scope of research in this paper exceeds one culture to include both the Western
and the Eastern cultures, which have proved with evidence to share many
attributes. I am also revealing how this masculinity has been misinterpreted
over the years to encompass weird attitudes and behaviors as suppressing
emotions or masking distress or showing violence as an indicator of power. How
the idea of the necessity of being “tough all the time” may affect their mental
and psychological wellbeing and what is less than that could stigmatize them
for being “feminine” or “weak”. In this paper, I will also try to reveal how great sector of women
unintentionally feeds this ego of toxic masculinity to their sons since
childhood days. By connecting all these factors to the development of the
characters in Victor Surge’s novel “Men in Prison”, we are simply highlighting
the psychological dimension and consequences of suppressed men. It is regarded as an unfiltered
view of humanity in the early 20th century. The depraving brutality that Serge
experienced behind bars is mirroring a society subduing men in various levels.
I hopefully seek to break down factors that trap men in a certain framework out
of which there is no escape.