The ideal man, and his dominant image in the western culture

Introduction

The hallmark of this period is that the man begins to reflect on himself and momentarily stops paying attention to external reality. Now the focus of concern is the purpose and nature of human life, rather than the world around him. Properly philosophical reflection on the man himself begins with Socrates, but before him and although in a merely incidental, not philosophical, who took care of this problem were the Sophists. In the past, man's social position was not to challenge, even with the ground that he entered politics in serious roles, manufacturers, etc., that kept the whole family. A woman ran home, tuned up and doing shopping. In a society of consumption is the reconstruction of the male phenomenon of freedom, which no longer is associated with power and domination, but with a sensuality and vanity (Sanday, pp. 71).

Several decades, Western culture has become increasingly the idea of domination of people over the non-human world, of men over women, healthy and strong over the weak and the sick. The era of modern times has become a turning point in the development of society and respectively, the social sciences. There is a change in traditional attitudes the role of men and women in society, the nature of sex differences, formed throughout antiquity and the middle Ages. The social and cultural structure of western society is quite capable of modifying and reconstructing the biological and evolutionary trends, inherent in the people who create opportunities for male aggression and containment Dominance.

Discussion and Analysis

Male dominance legitimizes the use of force, the authority to control nature and to be the representative of the world. The andocentric vision credited with the ability to run the hegemonic control on the grounds that nature has granted an anatomical difference that determines a cultural distinction. Biological determinism is the justification for believing that man is stronger, smarter and more capable. The mere existence of an external male organ provides the excuse for the sexual division of labor, the exclusion of women from citizenship and the public sphere. The man must not only be male, more still needs to show it.

Traditional masculinity as a hegemonic model

Gender ideologies are articulated in a model. We understand the dominant paradigm of masculinity as a model, that is, in both senses of symbolic representation of reality (thus conceived of masculinity) and standard (thus guides the conduct of a man). Hegemonic masculinity is an ideology that guides know, motivates and challenges to particular individuals constituting them as subjects, while waiting for an answer "attached" to the rule. At the same time, the existence of a dominant model assumes the possibility of male subjectivities that are related in different ways with the paradigm, accepting, denying or perverting its mandate according to the context in which they are. The internalization of gender relations is vital in building our identity also favor strengthening our behavior and adaptation of institutions and social structures. This process is defined as the ...