Modern Mans Violent Urges

Carin Miller 02/10/09
English 1010-11 Reaction Essay

In the earliest days the role of a man was to hunt food and protect their families from the predators that could and would eat them if given the opportunity. Enemies lurked around every corner so a man had to be strong, aggressive, and fearless. There was no room for hesitation, in a moment life could end and usually in violent, tragic ways.

The women in those days were required to look after the children and tend to the hearth. They would collect herbs and berries for food and medicine. Woman’s role was to meet all of the immediate needs of the family but due to their smaller build women were dependent upon man’s strength in order to survive the dangers that threatened to disrupt or end their lives.

All of that has changed drastically. In modern society there is no need for man to hunt for food, hunting has become a sport. These days he can just walk into the local grocery store and find whatever he wants to eat. Women, rather than tending to the hearth, carry briefcases and go to work while the children are in school all day. The wild animals that once threatened to ravage human beings are kept at bay by invisible city walls, a boundary that they rarely cross.

With over 10,000 years of genetic programming the human race has been required to acclimate to the lifestyle of the contemporary world in only 100 short years. That then begs the question; what do we do with all of the internal instincts that we have been programmed with from the dawn of human existence? There has to be an outlet for all of the aggression that men would be using for survival, no?

It makes sense that men would turn to sports and movies in order to find a way to release all of the pressure fighting their instinctual nature creates. With the competitive drive of sports like football and baseball, action heroes like Jason Bourne, outlaws like Scarface, and savvy crime fighters out to save the world like agent 007, men can rest assure that their role as aggressor and protector will remain firmly in tact.

The raw, rugged appearances that these men emulate make women instantly feel protected. There is something distinct about the way men like this walk, talk, eat, breathe, and smell. These apparently violent men are hot and functional! In other words not they are not “just another pretty face.” They know what they want and they take it. No questions, no apologies, only a knowledge that, despite the danger they may confront nothing will stop them from attaining their goal.

Women see commercials for products Levi’s and Braun and they are intrigued by the rough and tumble qualities these men portray. It is generally presumed that these ingredients are the requirement for a man to be “a real man.” Men in turn want to buy these products so that women will find them more appealing. This attraction helps ensure that women and men, while gradually merging into the same social roles, still are interested in the opposite sex enough that the human race will continue.

With that being said I think I would be remiss not to mention women are increasingly moving into violent, aggressive, spectacular roles in the movies and advertising as well. Take for instance Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. She is elegant and sexy, yet she can take on five guys at the same time and kick all of their asses without so much as smudging her lipstick.

It occurs to me that as we continue to move forward into a more liberated equal perspective of the sexes, gender roles will be forced to continually redefine themselves. I can only speculate based on the current manifestation that women and men alike will become increasingly more androgynous as the characteristics of what defines the sexes becomes increasingly less distinct on either side. One way or the other, only time will tell for sure.