My Name

November 9, 2013
Professor Christensen
Chapter 5 Essay
Comparative Essay
In the excerpt Bros Before Hos by Michael Kimmel and Jean Kilbournes Two
Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt both authors play with the idea that men are shaped by
outside influences that effect how they treat the rest of society. In Michael Kimmels
excerpt Bros Before Hos, Kimmel examines the cultural myth of what it means to be a
man. Kimmel breaks down his writing into subsections that focus on different aspects of
the Guy Code. These subsections focus on the meaning of being a man among men,
the gender police, and the beginning of the Guy Code. Kimmel explains that young men
can be forced by their peers to follow these unwritten rules that are considered the
criterion for being a real man. He explains to readers what young men are raised to
believe is a real man. According to Kimmel the requirements to be accepted as a manly
man in this society is to constantly show disinterest and be greedy. Kimmel tells readers
that from a young age boys are taught to not cry nor show emotions, and eventually
grow up to be emotionally repressed young men. According to Jean Kilbourne, the
media encourages cultural abuse on women by allowing society to think it is acceptable
to exploit women and also supports violence against women. In Two Ways a Woman
Can Get Hurt Kilbourne proceeds to describe certain propaganda that she believes
promotes this cultural abuse. Jean Kilbourne explains why it is so dangerous to be a
woman in todays society by pointing the desensitizing effects of violent promotional
ads. Kilbourne also describes different circumstances where young women are
constantly harassed in school and ignored when they cry for help. Michael Kimmel and
Jean Kilbourne both show cause and effect of their respective genders from a young
and influential age up to adulthood. Both authors blame certain aspects in society for
shaping young adults into the disturbed people they have become.
Kilbournes strategy of using cause and effect to help show how common social
issues are developed in women successfully raises awareness in her audience. In her
writing Jean Kilbourne describes the mistreatment young girls are exposed to on an
everyday basis. She tells readers of different incidents where young girls were being
sexually harassed by young men and not offered any way out of the situation. By doing
this Kilbourne highlights the cause as sexual harassment from peers then leads up to
explaining what happens to these young girls for being subjected to this behavior on an
everyday basis. According to Kilbourne, girls at some point seek an outlet for the
physical and emotional mistreatment they have been exposed to in their adolescence.
To explain the effect this cultural abuse has on young women Kilbourne says it hurts,
it does damage, and it sets girls up for addictions and self-destructive behavior (598).
Because drug addiction and alcohol dependency are particularly common problems
among society Kilbourne hopes to draw in her readers by providing reasons for these
problems that are plaguing the society that they live in. Readers will want to know what
is causing these problems and would want to know how to avoid them. Kilbourne uses
cause and effect to easily point out why young girls seek certain outlets, and hopes that
someday we can escape this ongoing cycle.
Michael Kimmel also uses the cause and effect strategy in Bros Before Hos to
explain the cause of common problems with young men. Kimmel shows that by forcing
young boys to suppress their emotions and follow the rules that determine what it
means to be a man causes them to grow up into hostile and depressed young men.
(616) Kimmel begins to examine the cause of the problem by asking readers Where do
young men get these ideas? (611) This prompts Kimmel to show readers different
discussions with young men who have said theyve been told by different men in their
lives how to be a man. Kimmel concludes his writing by showing the effects the Guy
Code has on young men. He rationalizes the violent behavior in young men by
explaining that violence and anger are the only emotions they are allowed to show
within the codes rules (616). Just like Kilbourne explains to her readers that young
women are led to finding an outlet, Kimmel shows the outlet young men resort to as
well. This outlet happens to be out of control behaviors and violence. Kimmel further
describes the effect the Guy Code has on young men by describing it as suppressing
what was left of boyhood exuberance and turning it into sullen indifference (616). By
doing this the author is reminding his readers that young men are capable of being
happy human beings as long as they dont follow those ridiculous rules. Kimmel
believes that if society stops forcing these unwritten rules on men from the beginning
they will grow up to be mentally stable and healthy adults.
Throughout the first half of Kilbournes excerpt Two Ways A Woman Can Get
Hurt she focuses on the medias influence on societys views on gender. To get her
point across she uses advertisement propaganda to prove that a simple advertisement
can have a malicious underlying message. In this way Kilbourne successfully proves
that certain media techniques show men that the objectification of women is
encouraged and that violence is acceptable. Kilbourne makes it obvious to her readers
that she blames the media for leading men to violent acts toward women and treating
them like play things. Kilbourne says Men are also encouraged to never take no for an
answer. Ad after ad implies that girls and women dont really mean no when they say
it, that women are only teasing when they resist mens advances (579). She supports
this accusation of the media by describing several ads where women are perceived as
vulnerable to mens power. Kilbournes technique successfully pinpoints the root of the
problem between men and women by exposing certain ads for what they really are. The
author takes, what may seem to be a harmless ad, and interprets the symbolism to
expose the hidden message within.
Michael Kimmels excerpt Bros Before Hos uses a similar approach to
Kilbournes in finding the source of the problem between genders. Kimmel begins by
pointing out that from a young age boys are encouraged by their male role models to
abide by a certain code of conduct. And as boys grow up to be young men these role
models are replaced by their peers, Kimmel refers to them as the gender police.
According to Kimmel the function of the gender police is to regulate their peers, [they
are] always waiting for [men] to screw up so they can give [them] a ticket for crossing
the well-drawn boundaries of manhood (612). Crossing these invisible boundaries may
warrant the worst put down among men. Kimmel traces the fear of being ticketed by a
peer to Homophobia, the fear that people might misperceive you as gay (613). The
definition of Homophobia provided by the author offers a great deal of insight to readers
as to why young men act the way they do. Some might think that the out of control
behavior observed by young men is to catch young girls attention for a bad boy look;
but really it is to avoid any opportunity of being perceived as gay. Kimmels explanation
of mens fear of being labeled as unmanly by their own peers helps readers understand
why young men overcompensate by being extremely indifferent or rebellious.
Both authors focus on exposing the causes of common societal issues that
hinder societys way of life. Jean Kilbournes main focus is the dangers of being a
woman in todays society, while Michael Kimmel concentrates on the requirements
young boys are forced to follow to qualify as a man in this society. Yet both authors
have a common goal in hoping that by addressing the causes of the problems of their
corresponding genders they can help society evade them. Kimmel and Kilbourne both
strive to pinpoint the root of what causes men and women to grow up unhappy and
unstable. For Kilbourne, the media is to blame for allowing men to think mistreating
women is acceptable. While Kimmel blames male role models and peers for
perpetuating the cycle of unhappy young men. The two excerpts focus on different
approaches to gender roles yet they have similar techniques in addressing flaws of the
cultural paradigm.





Works Cited

Kimmel, Michael. Bros Before Hos Rereading America: Cultural Contexts for Critical
Thinking and Writing. Ed. Gary Colombo, Robert Cullen, Bonnie Lisle. 8
th
ed.
Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2010. 608- 617.
Kilbourne, Jean. Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt Rereading America: Cultural
Contexts for Critical Thinking and Writing. Ed. Gary Colombo, Robert Cullen,
Bonnie Lisle. 8
th
ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2010. 575- 599.