Geder and Social Roles

According to the typical masculine stereotype, men are not allowed to display their weak emotions, such as sadness and fear. Consequently, with the passage of time, the long-term suppression of these accumulated emotions explodes into anger and aggression. Usually, boys externalize anger and aggression through the use of weapons: they hit out at other people and hurt themselves in suicidal acts. In contrast, the emotional center of girls revolves around their bodies. Therefore, they internalize their feelings to the extent of developing eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia (Garbarino 163).

Although boys and girls respond differently to their emotions, they are affected by similar societal forces. Contemporary culture, in the form of movies, video games, advertising, the Internet, and other media, plays a powerful r

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ceptions of life stem from their observations of an increasingly violent society: adults are no longer capable of protecting them from harm. Therefore, they learn to depend on themselves (Garbarino 109). Their loss of trust in adult protection leads them to join gangs: " "If I join a gang, I'm fifty percent safe. If I don't join a gang, I'm zero percent safe"" (qtd. in Garbarino 111). Consequently, most boys drift away from their families and rely on their own perceptions of life culled from violent videogames, films and their peer groups (Garbarino 169). Their definition of masculinity follows the cultural stereotype, where macho attitudes are flaunted and women are placed in a position of dependence (Garbarino 169). Furthermore, contemporary American culture has shifted away from spiritual and moral anchors to materialism. Violent boys are caught up in a drive to acquire possessions such as expensive clothes and jewelry, to fulfill their inner emptiness (Garbarino 157). The materialistic contemporary American culture also plays a large part in carving the identities of girls and women today. Brumberg's book provides a historical perspective that illuminates how girls are trained from the moment of puberty to pur
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Approximate Word count = 1725
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)