The Masculinity Crisis

It's difficult to disassociate the relationship between the HIV/AIDS crisis and the homosexual population, but what was highly researched also was the effects it had on men and how they performed gender in the 1980s. This decade saw a rise in consciousness from ordinary people that the LGBT population was not some hidden sub-group of society as they previously had thought, but that they were members of our family, our friendship circles, our work community, etc. This, of course, caused a spike in homophobic attitudes from governmental forces as well as within general social attitudes. The below table illustrates the chain of events over the past century:

(Anderson et al., 2016)

As shown above, it is clear to acknowledge these facts. While society is quick to recognise the damage this caused to the LGBT community, people often fail to acknowledge the lasting effects this has had on masculinity. Sociologist Michael Kimmel states "Homophobia is more than the irrational fear of gay men, more than the fear that we might be perceived as gay. [...] Homophobia is the fear that other men will unmask us, emasculate us, reveal to us and the rest of the world that we do not measure up, that we are not real men." (1994: 214) Due to this perception that homosexual is synonymous with feminine -  and men do not want to be associated with such a trait, a culture begins to emerge where men must prove their heterosexuality; and thus masculinity becomes homophobia. It was typical for men to encourage other men to play sports, drink beer, be a womaniser, and endorse stereotypically masculine behaviours. From this, a hierarchy of masculinity emerges, with macho, buff men at the top, and effeminate, emotional men at the bottom (Connell, 1995).

Representations of these kinds of men can be seen throughout the 1980s. One of the most iconic symbols of masculine ideas came through the film industry with Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator film (1984), in which he plays a terminator who can pass for human, and has only one mission, to commit a violent act (killing Sarah Connor).

Another hypermasculine representation comes in the form of Action Man action figures. As the brand entered the 1980s, they created differences in the image they wanted to portray. For example, they created increased muscle density and had muscular areas on display, as opposed to the 1970s version which wore a jumper, trousers, and boots. Both representations create a militarised ideology of masculinity, an image which isn't realistically available.

Emotional repression also became a sign or hypermasculinity in the 1980s. Kivel asks the question: "How are boys trained in America?" and goes on to declare "From a very early age, boys are told to 'Act Like a Man.' Even though they have all the normal human feelings of love, excitement, sadness, confusion [...] resentment, loneliness, low self-worth, and self-doubt, they are taught to hide the feelings and appear to be tough and in control. Most of all, they are told not to cry." (1989: 148) This fits precisely with Brannon's 1980s characteristics of manhood - no sissy stuff, be the big wheel, be a sturdy oak, and give 'em hell (1984). Here, we witness two identities in a battle with one another - homosexuality and masculinity. Although it could be argued that it is one-sided.

Today, some argue that many of the same attitudes remain the same, while many academics now claim that male society is entering a state of inclusivity, where boys aren't afraid to show physical or emotional tactility with one another, and homohysteria is almost non-existent among adolescents (Anderson, 2009). Some still claim that the effects of these male attitudes in previous decades still effect our boys, however, and that they still play a large role in playground dynamics (Asher, 2016), even though this can be discredited. Masculinity in a crisis form can be found in popular culture today through stoic male figures in film, music, and television. This ideology was even the focus of a short MTV film last year:

References
1. Anderson, Eric, Rory Magrath, and Rachael Bullingham. 2016. Out in Sport: The experiences of openly gay and lesbian athletes in competitive sport. Abingdon and New York: Routledge.
2. Kimmel, Michael. 1994. "Masculinity as Homophobia. Fear, Shame and Silence in the Construction of Gender Identity" in Theorizing Masculinities (ed. by H. Brod and M. Kaufman). Newbury Park: Sage Publications. 
3. Connell, Raewyn. 1995. Maculinities. Berkley: University of California Press.
4. Kivel, Paul. 1989. "The Act-Like-a-Man Box" in Men's Lives (ed. by M. Kimmel and M. Messner). Boston and New York: Pearson Education.
5. Brannon, R. 1984. A scale for measuring attitudes about masculinity. Psychological Documents. 14: document no. 2612.
6. Anderson, Eric. 2009. Inclusive Masculinity: The changing nature of masculinities. London and New York: Routledge.
7. Asher, Rebecca. 2016. Man up: Boys, men and breaking the male rules. London: Harvill Secker.
8.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJ-Pyhk7GQA <accessed 9 February 2017>