{"id":1027,"date":"2022-11-02T21:59:31","date_gmt":"2022-11-03T01:59:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/?p=1027"},"modified":"2022-11-02T21:59:31","modified_gmt":"2022-11-03T01:59:31","slug":"toxic-masculinity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/2022\/11\/02\/toxic-masculinity\/","title":{"rendered":"Toxic Masculinity"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the play Angels in America<\/em> the character Roy Cohn represents a form of masculinity that society often portrays as very manly but also toxic, to hide his homosexuality by talking down on woman and having a big ego.<\/p>\n

In Act 1, Scene 2 Roy argues with a client on the phone because he missed their court date and says \u201cYOU THINK I\u2019M THE ONLY GODDAMN LAWYER IN HISTORY EVER MISSED A COURT DATE?! Don\u2019t make such a big fucking\u2014 Hold.\u201d (Kushner 12), emphasizing how he is not treating his client with respect, yelling at him, and trying to present himself in a superior position, which can be read as very \u201cmanly\u201d. It contributes to the stigma that still exists in society, that men need to act strong, tough, focus on material success and take a superior role in society. However, this behavior is highly toxic and just strengthens the idea of a men needing to act and present themselves in a certain way for society to accept them as \u201cmanly\u201d. Ever other form of self-representation could be interpretated as feminine and connected to homosexuality.<\/p>\n

The aspect of Roy having a big ego and acting on toxic masculine behavior can also be observed as the\u00a0 talks down on two women in the same scene. On one hand, he calls his secretary multiple times \u201cbaby doll\u201d (Kushner 12) which shows the little respect he has for her and, on the other hand, he talks down on Mrs. Hollins as he says \u201cYeah, yeah right good so how many tickets dear? Seven? <\/em>For what, Cats<\/em>, 42nd Street<\/em>, what? No you wouldn\u2019t like La Cage<\/em>, trust me, I know. Oh for godsake\u201d (Kushner 12). This situation shows how Roy questions Mrs. Hollins capability to make a good choice and instead makes it for her, by not validating her opinion.<\/p>\n

Both described aspects are relevant to understand that Roy is trying to cover his homosexuality through his behavior, which he believes underline his masculinity and the associated heterosexuality. I believe that the character Roy is great example of how homosexual men are pressured to have the need to be portrayed with manly considered attributes to not be questioned in their sexuality. In addition, I assume that many closeted homosexuals fear rejection from society if they are associated with female read characteristics.<\/p>\n

All in all, I believe that this scene shows how much work we still have to do in society by breaking up stereotypes about \u201cfeminine\u201d and \u201cmale\u201d behavior and how these characteristics don\u2019t give an answer to people\u2019s sexual orientation or identity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the play Angels in America the character Roy Cohn represents a form of masculinity that society often portrays as very manly but also toxic, to hide his homosexuality by talking down on woman and having a big ego. In Act 1, Scene 2 Roy argues with a client on the phone because he missed … Continue reading Toxic Masculinity<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5020,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[344620],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall-2022"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5020"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/lgbtqlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}