Social Construction of Masculinity

This week in sociology we talked about how masculinity is viewed in our culture, and what we have constructed for masculinity to look like. In our culture, men must be strong, to the point of invulnerability and unreasonable rash behavior. Violence is idolized, and sexualized, yet at the same time when violence occurs we blame the individuals rather than the social construction that made them think the way they did. While I do not think that people who commit terrible crimes against people should be written off as healthy or normal, I think that it is not entirely their fault. The society we live in as Americans both loves and hates violence. We love violent horror films, and the more violence is shown in a movie the more appealing it is. If they can figure a way to fit sex into it too, then we're sold. It isn't a matter of people consciously perpetuating this more in society, but the way that males are shown is completely the opposite of how they should really act in a way that is respectful both to their fellow men and to women.
It is considered so strange for men to open up and talk about anything that has happened to them, and you never hear men talking about going to therapy or counseling for problems that they have in their life. It's ridiculous to think that humans, in their struggle to gain power over nature would reject complex emotion, one of the things that makes us truly human and actually sets us apart from the rest of nature. Challenging the ideals of the culture only get you to a place where you are attacked for "not being a real man" or "being a girl," which truly makes no sense.
To me, all of the most manly people that I know are men who I know aren't afraid to challenge the cultural norms. They live their lives in ways that take much more strength. To sit and take the abuse that they get for challenging the culture takes much more strength than passively attacking someone because you don't want to think what it would actually feel like if someone said that to you (because of course you aren't allowed to feel to begin with). I think that this is a norm that needs to be challenged, and a profound change needs to occur in our culture. The way men treat each other, and especially women is a disgrace to who we should be as people. We should be better than this.