An Analysis of "Tough Guise 2"

The Point of the Film

(Photo created by the St. Louis Circuit Attorney's Office)

"Tough Guise 2" is a film about violence and how it closely relates to masculinity as a concept. The film states that violence is primarily a men's issue and that American society is unable to properly view the issue of violence in America in that way.

Scapegoats, Distractions, and Language Shifts

The film mentions how media outlets look to blame violent video games, films, drugs, etc., as the primary cause of violence instead of masculinity. The film states that we generally fail to focus on men's issues in any meaningful way. Media outlets will oftentimes imply that violence is "genderless" as a means to prevent/distract people from examining violence as a men's issue. Or if the media does focus on a group, it is never explicitly white, heterosexual men. The media only involves race, for example, if a minority was involved in the violence it is covering.

American men are brought up in a "culture of violence" as the film mentions. Men are taught to be violent, to "be a man", it is not anything inherent. Another point the film mentions is the differentiation of violence being "taught" versus being "learned". The change in language shifts how we think about violence by making us examine the source of it with more scrutiny.

Knee-Jerk Reactions to Threats to Masculinity

(Image created by Shazad Qureshi)

A final major point from the film is the concept of "the wussification of America". One can see the reactionary tendency of people who support masculinity in its "traditional" form. Men are "overconforming" to manhood which is becoming something increasingly unrealistic every decade since the 1960s.

(Image created by Alex Scott-Samuel)

The media is projecting masculinity more and more and any retreat from this progression is perceived as an attack on men and masculinity, this has been especially prevalent in recent years. Emotional men, men who do not conform to the expectations of masculinity are oftentimes driven to homicide as a way to "protect" their masculinity. This is because violence is usually the "socially recommended" solution for men as portrayed in media and American culture broadly.

Other Examples Where the Film may be Relevant

Race

Much like how we never focus on men/masculinity as the dominant group in media, we do the same thing for racial minorities in America, particularly related to violence. Minorities are "over-targeted" by policing according to (Howarth, 2019). This harkens back to what the film mentioned regarding the will to examine social groups outside of what is considered "normalized". Violence/crime is presented differently if the offender is white versus if the offender is a person of color.

Another such example is from (Sun, 2018) regarding media perceptions around race and violent crime. Crime perpetrated by minority groups is often over-examined and media only further conveys the sentiment of prejudice against minorities throughout American society. This is regardless of the crime rates of white men. It shows how the media can be an effective tool to spread social "truths" throughout society just in the way it frames certain issues. This, as I have mentioned, can also have negative effects on society, such as the perpetuation of racial/ethnic prejudice.

I believe the culture of violence in America associated with masculinity and how it is conveyed through the various types of media we consume is an example of Foucault's concept of power being everywhere.

References

• Howarth, Eponine. “Overrepresentation in Criminal Justice Systems.” LSE Undergraduate Political Review, June 26, 2019. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lseupr/2018/01/25/overrepresentation-in-criminal-justice-systems/.

•  Sun, Elizabeth. “The Dangerous Racialization of Crime in U.S. News Media.” Center for American Progress, November 29, 2018. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/dangerous-racialization-crime-u-s-news-media/.