Who are we, anyway?

Eric Silvestri
is a senior majoring in political science.

If we were to make a list of ten words that constitute being a man in American society, what do you think we would write down? The optimists among us might be tempted to jot down words like honesty, courage or dependability. However, that would be an exercise in wishful thinking. No, given today’s images of men in the media, some more apt words might be violent, immature or homophobic.

As I have undoubtedly now prompted some righteous and perhaps justified indignation, let me clear something up. This is meant not as an indictment of men. I am in fact a man and rather like being one. Rather, I mean to issue an indictment of mainstream male culture, of how we are portrayed in the media and how men, even educated men on college campuses, reflect that image.

Male culture has an identity crisis. We have no idea what it means to be a man, so we imitate what we see. We tolerate, if not glorify, violence in virtually every media outlet. We are taught to talk about women and sex in debasing and disgraceful ways. Men, it’s time we held up a mirror and started discussing the challenges we all face. Let’s start at the top.

There is an epidemic of violence against women conducted, primarily, by men. One in four women experience unwanted sexual intercourse on college campuses.  

In America as a whole, a woman is sexually assaulted once every 45 seconds. No man with any shred of decency should be able to sleep well while that statistic holds true. It might well be that these assaults are perpetrated by a small group of men, but the many working against the few can end this problem. We just need to start working.

There is rampant homophobia in male culture. Just recently, top soccer players in the Professional Footballers’ Association, the male heroes of European society, refused to contribute to an anti-homophobia campaign for fear of being ridiculed by opposition players. If being a man is at all about being brave, what can we say about these men? Meanwhile, a Google search for “NFL anti-homophobia campaign” yields absolutely nothing of relevance.

These are destructive problems.

The percentage of college students who are male has been falling for years, despite a recent stabilization, and fewer males graduate high school than females every year.

We need to do better. We need to forge a 21st-century man who stands up for tolerance, stands against violence and is ready to meet the world head on.