Are You A Real Man? – Tony Porter: Deconstructing Manhood

Are You A Real Man? – Tony Porter: A Call to Men – Deconstructing Manhood

I happened to bump into this video over the weekend and it immediately struck me as being something that I needed to share with the world, especially all the brothers. In this video, Tony Porter, a native New Yorker and former tenement inhabitant, discusses the “man box,” a set of beliefs and behaviors that young men are socialized to adopt.  Mr Porter candidly discusses some of his experiences as a young man coming of age, being heavily pressured to operate within the framework of the ‘man box.’ He also speaks to some of his experiences as a caring father of a son and a daughter and the ways in which he has unknowingly forced the ‘man box’ on his own son.

It is time to raise awareness to the problematic understanding of masculinity in Western society and the tremendously harmful impact it has on how men perceive, believe about and interact with women. Tony Porter closes his speech by highlighting that if women are to be liberated from patriarchy, misogyny and sexism then men must also be liberated from these forces as well. I am posting this video because for many older men and young men, we fail to realize that we have been incarcerated and confined by the “man box”. Coincidentally, in the documentary by Byron Hurt, Beyond Beats and Rhymes, he also addressed these same concerns about masculinity and how they manifest in Hip Hop music and culture.  It is time to wake up, save ourselves and our communities from the ‘man box!’  Watch, enjoy, learn, share and comment!

Related articles

• A Call to Men – Committed to Ending Violence Against Women (acalltomen.com)
• A Profile of Tony Porter (ted.com)
• A Critical Film on Hip-Hop – Beyond Beats and Rhymes (amilcook.com)

A Critical Film on Hip-Hop – Beyond Beats and Rhymes

The following film by Byron Hurt, Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, is a new classic. This documentary was released in 2006 and analyzes the Hip-Hop world from a critical and loving perspective. Byron Hurt touches on issues ranging from hyper-masculinity, misogyny, violence to homophobia and corporate exploitation in Hip-Hop music in culture. He interviews some of the leading figures from both the Hip-Hop world and the intellectual world…from Jadakiss, Fat Joe, Busta Rhymes, Chuck D, Mos Def, Russell Simmons and Talib Kweli to Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, Dr. Jelani Cobb, Kevin Powell and Nelson George. He emphatically shows how Hip-Hop goes far beyond beats and rhymes! Enjoy the entire film and share!

Related articles

• History Of Hip Hop (donbelo.wordpress.com)
• A Hip-Hop Fan Hunts the Reason Behind the Rhyme (The Washington Post)
• U.S. hip-hop film sparks debate on masculinity (Reuters)