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kjmason's picture

Mankini. What's the verdict?

 

According to a website called "The Masculine Heart: Secure Masculinity" Jim Carrey is asserting his masculinity and his comfort with his sexuality by dawning this incredibly sexy swimwear that actually belongs to Jenny McCarthy. Part of me celebrates when someone like Carrey does this sort of thing because no one is going to call him a "fag" or a "homo" for doing this. I however find the body language in the picture interesting though. The way his hand is clasped in front of Jenny's signals his feelings of dominance in the relationship. The site aknowledges that "Jim Carrey is secure in his masculinity. That's a little easier when Jenny McCarthy is on your arm." 

Another sort of phenomenon that I think mirrors this sort of tenuous "security" is the "only real men wear pink" shirts that were very popular a couple years ago...

This is just kinda stupid in my opinion. It's like running around with a shirt that says, "HEY HEY Everyone LOOK! I'm a REAL MAN and all these other dudes aren't! YEAHHH!" By further promoting the idea of a "real man" the shirt widens the potential for a man to feel less than masculine, promoting the sort of behavior and mentality that cmorais talks about in "Sexy Bitch". How do men be more manly? Well these guys that have swarms of nearly nude women clamoring for their attention keep referring to these ladies butts and calling them sexy bitched...lets try that!

I think a lot of the things that feminist theory struggle against with some men being degrading to women actually comes from the way these men feel they have to act in order to assert that they are "no homo".  Masculinity and Femininity are intertwined in this ongoing struggle to assert power and distance from the other. They only exist as the other's opposite.

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