Masculinity and Ethics: A Look Into the "Macho Man"

Julia Gogol
jg152015@ohio.edu

The conversation around the ethics of the "macho man" has been on the rise ever since the election of our infamous "grab her by the pussy" president.  Are ethics different for men, and should they be different?  And how does the media's portrayal of men lead us to accept and even encourage these differences?

Wilbert Cooper, senior editor at VICE Media, pointed out during his interview at Ohio University's 90 Minutes series that the black man in particular is in a sort of limbo of ethics.  As a man, he is supposed to be masculine, but as a black person, he is oppressed.  The in between, he said, is where the anger and frustration emanates from.

"[My father] always tried to speak to me like I was a little man," writes Cooper in his article, Dead or in Jail: The Burden of Being a Black Man in America.  "And not because he was on some cheap machismo trip or because he had a taste for the macabre—it was because he legitimately thought if I didn't understand this lesson early on, I might not make it to age 25."

Men of color in particular have a unique take on different ethical questions.  As Cooper said, they are taught from a young age to be masculine and not to show any emotions.  During the interview, he recalled one of his college girlfriends telling him she knew he wasn't mad at her, but that it was the only emotion he ever put out for the world to see.

Men should not, under any circumstance, feel forced to hide their emotions.

Our society has put men on a pedestal where they watched and judged.  Cooper relates the situation today back to slavery.  In plantations, white men were the masters, their wives were property, and the slaves were less than property.  Cooper believes this is the reason why so many black men today feel the need to take over that "master" position and treat their women as property and be the boss.

Take, for example, this image below:

Image courtesy of Patheos

The Ugandan Minister of Ethics literally said rape is okay as long as it is men raping women.  How does this mindset become ingrained and accepted within a society?

Cooper has worked to change this type of mindset in his own life.

With the help of his fiancé and friends, Cooper has worked to achieve and is still working on his mindset that it is okay to cry and show emotion, and it is okay to tell someone you love them.  That isn't weakness — it's strength.

In an article by the National Review, Tallahassee mayor Andrew Gillum talks about how he believes Republicans are using his ethics scandal to "reinforce stereotypes about black men."

Whether that be true or not, I think we can all agree the media plays a huge role in what society believes about any person or group of people.  While we all have our own personal codes of ethics, the rules should be the same for any person of any gender or skin color.  No man, white or black, should treat women like property, and no man, white or black, should be afraid to cry.