Video Analysis
VideoAnalysis
PARTONE
Questionone
Thedocumentary is about research on male masculinity by Jackson Katz. Heexplains that men are the main perpetrators of violence in oursociety. The main aspect that the video tries to show us thatviolence in males is not something that they are born with. Males arenot born violent because it’s not in their nature, but it is aresult of masculinity.
Violentmasculinity is what makes men violent. They are violent because theywant to prove that they are tough men. The documentary is calledtough guise because of the act males put to feel like real men.Jackson Katz suggests that masculinity is used to hide thevulnerability a man has and is used to show status quo in men.
Questiontwo
Thereis a connection between masculinity and social class from the videoit is evident that the perpetrators are people of high social classstatus. High social class members have access to guns and informationthat builds to their masculinity. The video also shows how a group ofkids randomly attacks homeless people for fun. The group of kids’behavior is as a result of watching videos that make them feel thatthey should attack the homeless to fill the void of vulnerabilitythey feel themselves.
Classand economic status have a significant impact to masculinity becausea male being that has money can have access to anything they want.The video gives a statistic review that there are close to 300million guns in the USA. Therefore, this shows that one citizen isequivalent to one gun. The video extends the statistic review byindicating that close to two-thirds of the guns are owned by 20% ofthe population. The statistics prove that it is only the majority ofthe wealthy or high social class that have these guns. The need forguns in the USA has moved from buying a gun for hunting to buying itfor protection. Does a poor man need a gun or a homeless person forprotection? It clearly shows that only a certain class of wealthypeople have access to these guns.
PARTTWO
Questionone
Thecommunity of Sharptown is known to be a dropout factory meaning thatthe rate at which students drop out is very high. The problems thatstudents face 70% of them are external factors not related toacademics. The video tries to focus on four students who are affectedby external issues. The names of the four students are Marcus,sparkle, Lawrence and Marco. Marcus is an intelligent student andfrom the video,he doesn’t show up to school in the first two classes because ofthe family issues that he has at home. He is also talented because heis good at football and luckily if hegraduates, he might land himself a scholarship to college. Sparkle isa young woman who doesn’t want to talk about her life and doesn’twant to feel weak among her peers. Sheis a perfect example of how societywants strongpeople even though it’s at the expense of one’s inability toshare their problems. Lawrence is almost graduating,but he has anger issues that tend to affect him a lot. Marco is theonly student that is not self-aware of himself, but out of the fourheis the only one who gets to graduate in the course of documenting thevideo.
Thefour students are affected by poverty because they lack the basicneeds that an American child requires. In the case of sparkle, she istold that her primaryfocus should be goingto school,but she claims that her main worries should be where she will sleepfor the night and make sure she has a meal every day. Such exampleshows how neglected the children are in Sharptown and how povertyaffects them. Racial discrimination is evident because the populationis made up of African American and Latinopeople.The government has neglected the people of this town.Hence,the poverty level is very high.
Questiontwo
Thestudents do not see education being an important or beneficialprogram because they are affected by majorexternal factors that make it hard for them to concentrate in class.A good example is Sparkle,who does not see the need to go to school because she doesn’t havea permanent place to sleep and get food. Marcus is an intelligentstudent but the fact that he starts a fight on the last day of schoolshows that he does not care about college. The involvement of Marcusin the fight could tarnish his chances of going to college and hisfootball career.