Comments on: Episode 87: Manhood: Are You A “Real Man”?

By: dizi

dizi — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 19:21:34 +0000

I was searching about this issue everywhere,I was really curious about this…Really big thanks.I am thinking rent some episodes and movies soon.Looking for your next articles…

By: Chelsea

Chelsea — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 18:56:45 +0000

I am about a year late in listening to this. . . one of the perks of office jobs is catching up on old podcasts!
I have to pick a bone with the study that had students consider either the man or the woman who could not impregnate/become pregnant. Obviously, I do not have research of my own to support my disagreement beyond personal interactions with people in real life situations.
The students did not consider the woman being unable to bear offspring as damaging as for her as for the male. That may well be a true aspect of our culture.
My problem is that it is different when it is personal. If YOU (a man) cannot bear offspring, how would you feel? I know women in this situation who do struggle with feeling less like women. Who struggle with the fear that their men, present or future, will desire someone who can bear their offspring. This transfers to other areas of womanhood, such as women who must ungergo a mastectomy. My great aunt would only let her doctor remove her breast that had the tumor, even though her insurance would fully cover the removal of both. Her reasoning? “I didn’t want to feel like even less of a woman.”
Perhaps this topic has been/could be revisited using case studies. This way, we are getting more personal feedback. Manhood and womanhood are not just societal issues, but become deeply personal issues as well.

By: psychstudent

psychstudent — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 20:14:29 +0000

I just wanted to offer my input on this phenomena. If a woman is told she is less of a woman, then she must become more of a man. If a man is told he is less of a man, then he becomes more of a woman. Throughout history, our society has viewed men as the stronger and superior sex where women were viewed upon as inferior and weak. So calling one less of a man would be degrading him and making him seem weaker where a woman who is less a woman would be more of a man, in other words more of the stronger, superior sex. A correlation we see is that a tomboy (girl who likes sports and exhibits boy like characteristics) is viewed as cool whereas a boy who posses feminine characteristics is frowned upon by society.

By: Manhood And A Little Bit Of Psychology | Chocolate Mints In a Jar

Manhood And A Little Bit Of Psychology | Chocolate Mints In a Jar — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 11:54:05 +0000

[...] forgotten about for a couple of months and came across a really interesting podcast called “Manhood: Are You A “Real Man”?“. The podcasts are aimed at people who are interested in psychology and human behaviour and [...]

By: Michael

Michael — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 17:59:47 +0000

Quite a few connections to animal behavior occurred to me while putting this episode together. What comes to mind is what we’ve observed in the behavior of animal species such as apes and dogs in which the males fight each other for access to the females. Here’s another example of how males need to prove their strength, their power, their “manhood” – in a social way. And yes I agree with you Halle: the most hurtful names to call a man usually involve some implication that he is “less than a man”.

By: Halle

Halle — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:55:46 +0000

This was an interesting podcast, I’d love to hear a follow-up about the sociological theories behind this. Society makes men feel that femininity is a bad thing– hence the reason men were offended when their “masculinity” ranking was closer to female than male. If you think of the worst names you can call a man (too derogatory to name here), they are all have female connotation.

Anyhow, I wonder how much of this problem is evolutionary psychology and how much is society defining what it means to be a “man”.

By: survivordean

survivordean — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 02:09:47 +0000

Wow, this is an eye-opener podcast- the reason why i love psychology. Like what you said, there are several stereotypes about manhood and womanhood and oftentimes, these differences can only lead to acting as one but not his real self. Perhaps, many people are born with inevitable urge to judge someone’s identity based on one’s irrational observation. That’s a part of life and it is frustrating.

That’s why; I thank you for this podcast and I get to understand the issue behind labeling and stereotypes.