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Sarah Robins
Professor Granillo
English 103
7 November 2018
For some individuals, feminist theory is foreign, and just by the name of this theory a
person can assume it is all about women, but that’s not true. Feminist theory reveals oppression
not only set on women but also men, along with an idea that masculinity is toxic to our society.
Men are portrayed in this society as having to be masculine with lack of emotions, while women
are portrayed as the opposite, exhibiting sensitivity with nurturing characteristics. In a typical
household structure of a family, men are the breadwinners and women are supposed to take that
bread and make turn it into a meal, along with cleaning and taking care of the family. Men and
women have always been bound to this traditional role that has led to the feminist movement
which challenges the stereotypes of men our society has once accepted by looking at different
factors; traditional gender roles, gender studies, and breaking free beyond patriarchy to reveal
how a sexist society has also affected men. In the song “Drugs,” by EDEN from the album I
think you think too much of me, shows how our society has implanted that men have to present a
strong masculine appearance that leads them into believing that expressing any sensitivity is
wrong, this then directs men to be emotionally distraught choosing irrational decisions that's
In the music video of “Drugs,” by EDEN, a husband and a wife appear to be very happy
and in love in the first flashback. In the second scene, it shows him walking across town with
obvious signs of withdrawal and something weighing deep on him. As the video goes on it
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continues to show him wandering experiencing vivid flashbacks across town until he finally
shows up at a rundown apartment building where he then buys what we assumed are drugs. After
he leaves the building with the drugs, he walks to his own apartment where is wife lays in critical
condition. She has lost all of her hair and is hooked up to dozens of tubes that are connected to
multiple machines. She is most likely in the final stage of this a terminal illness and has chosen
to pass in her home where she would be most comfortable. Her husband loses it for a brief
moment before he walks through the door. Shortly before he enters he pulls himself back
together, and clears his face of any sadness in my opinion correlating with how masculinity is
portrayed in males. For a man to show any type of sensitive emotion, let alone see a male cry in
It is a somewhat rare occasion to see child of different sexes, being raised the same way.
If a little girl falls, usually a person would comfort her when she cries but when a little boy falls,
usually we tell him it’s nothing to cry about and for him to get back up. This is letting the
stereotype of men needing to be masculine or else they are weak protectors for women. We see
through in the music video that his wife is sick so this man has to be the strong. He is hurting
emotionally but his wife is hurting more so putting in a smile when he sees her helping her
(5:02). Raising our sons to be able to put emotions aside helps him when make hard decisions,
and it always protect them when crisis hit close to home. With women’s biologically being more
nurturing and men’s biologically being more muscular, it is a design for men to protect his
family, even though times have changed and we do not live in a world where men have to
physically protect women all the time. Men are like the columns in the household and to have a
house that last a long time, you need these columns to be strong for a house to be ready to
encounter anything. For masculinity can sometimes be a good thing in crisis, Michael Flood’s
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article, “Will Toxic Masculinity lead to Men's liberation?” he discussed some effects of toxic
masculinity, “In Narrow and stereotypical norms of masculinity constrain men’s physical and
emotional health, their relations with women, their parenting of children, and their relations with
other men.” This means if masculinity is bestowed heavily in men’s lives then the effects is
negativity impacted not only to them but with the people they surround themselves with.
With the feminist theory, the gender role for men is to not express their true feelings
because from birth they are taught that showing their more sensitive emotions is weak. These
men are taught what emotions are appropriate to their gender, determined by the prevailing
cultural norms. Lyrics in this song that are a good example of this toxic masculinity are, “I'll
never let you know. No, I can't tell you nothing,” (1:49) this correlated with the video because he
is supposed to be the strong one in the relationship because he is not sick and dying, his wife is.
He feels he must turn to drugs and is unable to tell her how he feels because what she is going
through is way worse than what he perceives he is going through. Along with repeating lyrics
throughout the song, “ ‘cause I'm a fucking mess sometimes but still I could always be whatever
you wanted but not what you needed,” (1:52), meaning he is not handling the ordeal well and
instead of expressing what he is going through he has decided to turn to drugs to numb his
emotions. She still wants him by her side but he can not mentally be there for her because his
own emotions are crippling at his existence. They were happy before she got sick so of course
she wanted him but now that she is sick he feels that he is not strong enough and she needs
someone who is but he refuses tell her anything that would hurt her more. His turns to drugs to
help cope with the mask the memories, pain, and emotions. In our current society, we don't have
a balance between women's and men's emotions or anything for that matter. He would be in a
much better mind state if it felt like it was okay to express and talk about his feelings. The way
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our society has shaped gender roles has oppressed not only women but men with showing a more
Gender identities are not as simple as the words male and female but how a person
represents themselves. Gender study is an interdisciplinary study devoted to gender identity and
gendered defined in Lois Tyson in Critical theory today. In American culture, there has always
catered to the idea of girls get a pink doll and as a boy, he gets a blue truck. This supports the
standards for gender roles that leads to one sex being superior. Our society is feeding into gender
roles with standards set at birth, theorist Simone de Beauvoir, writes in her book Second Sex,
“The division of the sexes is a biological given, not a movement in human history” (9). This
means instead of the personality of a man being a deciding factor, the moment child is born with
the sex being male then he must take on the traits that match his sex. Most of society raises their
boys with gender stereotypes instead of letting the him decide what he wants and a majority of
parents continue to feed into traditions of the proper ways to raise boys. Different people feel
pain at different levels and should be able to express it regardless of being a male or female, but
in this case the male in the video keeps it to himself and turns to drugs to cope. As a man, he
feels he’s supposed to be strong and numb the pain, which in turns translates to that males are
not supposed to cry or show any emotion even to his wife, which contributes to a patriarchal
system.
Breaking free from patriarchy and masculinity which views characteristics of females
that are supposed to have like motherhood instincts, passivity, and nurture to be considered weak
and males being the opposite to women making them superior. Ann C. McGinley and Frank
Rudy Cooper discussed in, “Masculinities studies and multidimensional Masculinities.” on how
feminist theory shaped the theory of masculinity which posited the patriarchal systems that
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allows males to utilization power over women because of the damaging effects of forced
masculinity. In the song, she says that he is not himself when he goes down the path with drugs
but that’s what he wants, “You say, ‘You ain't you when you're like this, This ain't you and you
know it,’ But ain't that just the point?” (1:18). He doesn't know how to handle life without the
drugs, and the song explains the different routes he could take but it’s just the chemicals. It’s the
drugs affecting his chemical balance to try and help him forget and feel numb but when he
comes down, flashbacks overwhelm him so he continues to get high. His wife knows he using
drugs because he can’t handle seeing her in her worst state and slowly dying. He wants to be able
to get beyond patriarchy to better be able to express his emotions but since he can not do that, he
went down a dark path. Patriarchy has always been enforced straight from birth but leads men to
be raised to believe that they need to be emotionally strong, making them also believe that being
empathetic is unfeasible. If patriarchy did not exist and somehow men and women were seen as
equal especiality with showing their emotional, then the route this man took in the song would
probably not have been drugs because he would have never bottled his emotions in the first
place.
Men have almost always supposed to be masculine figures which are harmful to our
society because it is leading men to take extreme measures to suppress their emotions. As
illustrated in in the music video, “Drugs” by EDEN, from the album, I think you think too much
of me, we glimpse into one of the many possible scenarios of how suppressed emotions can steer
a person to irrational measures by using a feminist lens with the use of traditional gender roles,
gender studies, and trying to get beyond patriarchy with harmful effects masculinity to gaze at
the inequality between sexes. Feminist and masculinity are very much intertwined with
balancing on one another because as a society females have always been seen as lesser than men
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instead of equal, with men in the past having full control but not with emotions. Changing what
was considered a norm starts with awareness of of the inequality of both males and females.
Work Cited
Beauvoir, Simone de. The Second Sex. Paris Translation copyright, 1949, Pg. 4.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjZ75qI5BOk
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Flood, Michael. “Will Toxic Masculinity lead to Men's liberation?” Voice Male. Fall 2018, Vol.
McGinley, Ann C. and Cooper, Frank Rudy. “Masculinities studies and multidimensional
Masculinities.” Nevada Law Journal Winter, Nevada Law Journal, 2013. LexisNexis
Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today. Third Edition, Routledge, 2015, Pg. 79-128.