Mind Over Muscle By Rebecca Walker Analysis

Many people can agree that females have the hard life, but many people do not think about how tough the life of a male can be. In society, for many years, there has been a stereotype that females have little to no advantages, while males have many. No one really stops to think that while women deal with the phrase “like a girl”, men deal with the phrase “be a man”. Social expectations have forced men into rigid gender roles that have limited their ability to express themselves and restricted their behaviors to those only regarded as socially acceptable for men.
Even though women are often looked at as the underprivileged gender, men also have struggles of their own growing up. Being an adolescent in the body of a male is very difficult as Rebecca Walker described in her essay, “Putting Down the Gun”, as her son struggles to “fit in” in his middle school. She says “...I would have to devote to ensuring that my son’s true self would not be entirely snuffed out by the cultural imperative”. In society, many are consumed by its expectations and what it wants them to think. As a mother, Walker has to ensure her son does not change who he is for the
During most of America’s history, the men were the ones working on farms, steel mills, construction sites, and other jobs that required manual labour. They had to be physically strong for their jobs, so this idea of a man’s “manliness” being defined by physical courage and strength actually makes sense. However, Brooks noted that in today’s world, this physical strength is not vital. Looking at the education system, it became obvious that a man’s physical strength is not of significance anymore. There are 133 female graduates in college per every 100 male. Colleges are now in favor of women, with the average being 60% women and 40%