ssentialö (Sanders 45)?
Linking masculinity with violence and aggression can often lead to other social issue for males. Kulis, Marsiglia and Hurdle (167) report on one study that found ôaggressive masculinity was generally associated with higher risk of drug use.ö William PollackÆs Real Boys provides the authorÆs belief that conventional codes of masculinity, the problematic nature of boys faced with acknowledgement of their homosexuality, the separation of mothers from sons due to social stereotypes and other pressures are responsible for the frightening statistics on the number of boys who are suspended from school, fail to go to college, and commit crimes. These are the outcomes of what Pollack (6) calls the ôgender straitjacketingö that occurs in U.S. society: ôThe Boy Code puts boys and men into a gender straitjacket that constrains not only them but everyone else, reducing us all as human beings and eventually making us strangers to ourselves and to one another.ö
There are also negative effects on girls who are often socialized by the media to believe they must maintain some ideal body type or appearance to be attractive to men or worthwhile. In Chinese culture, idealized images of women often led to starvation practices resembling anorexia nervosa, a phenomenon that is growing among females in the U.S. In contemporary society, anorexia nervosa began to increase among adolescent females because of media portrayals of the ideal of beauty as slim and boyish. Supermodels and heroin chic portrayed in the media led to low self-esteem in adolescent females who compared themselves unfavorably with idealized and often unhealthy images. According to Pearce (192), ôWestern, social and media forces continue uncompromisingly to promote the slender sylph.ö Ironically, now that the media has begun to exploit the male body and notions of ideal beauty in menÆs products, an increasing number of males are developing eat...