Napier Week 13

The article “Hegemonic Masculinity on the Mound” by Nick Trujillo illustrates and talks about how masculinity has grown to be the dominate hegemony within sports today, and gives Nolan Ryan as the perfect, all-star athletic example.

Trujillo talks about media critics and scholars narrowing hegemonic masculinity down to five features within American culture: Physical force and control, Occupational achievement, Family patriarch, Frontiersmanship, and Heterosexuality. In journalist idolizing Ryan, it implied to the view that they should strive to be more like him. This is similar to the days of Babe Ruth where he was idolized and made into a hero who should be admired, when in actuality it was a façade.

In looking at many different authors and philosophers in my studies here at Temple, there is always an oppressed group. For example, it can be argued that in America, like in this article, masculinity is the dominate force over femininity; femininity being mostly attributed to females instead of males thus perpetuating this idea. The same can be said about black and white, rich and poor, the working –class vs. white collar.

Since the majority of news rooms have always been men, these masculine traits will not be pushed out easily. Only through diversification in the newsroom, of both female and minority journalists, can we begin to break apart these norms.