Month: October 2018

Chauvinism (noun): an attitude of superiority toward members of the opposite sex; also: behavior expressive of such an attitude.

Source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary (online)

In The Boys at the Back, Christina Hoff Sommers says the following: “I became a feminist in the 1970s because I did not appreciate male chauvinism. I still don’t” (4). In Sommers statement, she implies that the word “chauvinism is more closely associated to a negative connotation. I first thought it meant like some sort of hatred, but the definition helped to understand that it refers more to the status and superiority of a male. Since (most) men believe they are above women, this is the reason Christina became a feminist.

Diana Galvez

Misogyny. A noun defined as “a hatred of women” by Merriam Webster Dictionary. In the article, ” What Feminist can do for boys” by Jessica Valenti talks about how feminist ideas can really help a man in so many positive ways. In the article the author included the line “Whether it’s mysogynist terrorism ,the rash of young men feeling sexually entitled to women or the persistent stereotype of “real men” as powerful and violent. When I first read this line I did not really understand what it meant. But after reading it slowly and the context clues I came up with the conclusion that the word just means a man having strong hate towards a women and just thinking of them as a sex object.

Grapple: to seize another, or each other in firm grip (verb)

I came across the word grapple on October 30th during class, when reading an article called ” What Feminists Can do for Boys.” Which briefly explained reasons on kinds of feminist examples that boys and men can benefit from. Towards the end of the article, the word grapple came up, I had no idea what it meant but reading the sentence, ” Until we grapple with how to stop misogynists  themselves” I guessed that grapple had something to do with grasping information, and I was close. However grapple does only have to be used to grasp information, but it can be used for other cases too. The author wanted readers to know that in order to stop boys from becoming misogynists, we should grapple the present ones. Thanks to reading this article, I can now add grapple to my future vocabulary.

Nayideh Rene

According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary,stoic is identified as a noun. It means”not affected by or showing passion or feeling.” In the reading “What Feminists Can Do for Boys”, the third to last paragraph states, “Feminist ideas can help men — be it the rejection of expectations that men be strong and stoic or ending the silence around male victims of sexual violence.” The word stoic is being used to explain how females can help males express their feelings because males tend to not talk about their emotions.

The Merriam Webster’s defined stoic (adjective) means showing no emotion especially when something bad is happening. In today class we discusses on how male should have the same right as women have. In “What Feminists Can Do for Boys” it state that, “Feminist ideas can help men — be it the rejection of expectations that men be strong and stoic or ending the silence around male victims of sexual violence. But boys also need the same kind of culture we created for girls.” This quote shows that men have a lot of pride; they think that society will see them less man if women help them. 

According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, diligence is defined as steady, earnest, and energetic effort. In the reading “How to Raise a Feminist Son” by Claire Cain Miller, the word appears in the third paragraph as stated, “women’s roles can’t expand if men’s don’t, too. Men are falling behind in school and work because we are not raising boys to succeed in the new, pink economy. Skills like cooperation, empathy and diligence — often considered to be feminine — are increasingly valued in modern-day work and school, and jobs that require these skills are the fastest-growing”. Now knowing what the word means, the author is saying that most men fall behind in school and work because they are not raised to succeed in works that require steady, earnest, and energetic effort. In order for society to fully progress, men need to be able to express their emotions.

Oriented(Adjective)

According to the dictionary Webster-Marriam the word Oriented mean” intellectually, emotionally, or functionally directed”.

In the article “Teaching Men To Be Emotionally Honest” by Andrew reiner,“Boys were also more socially oriented than girls,” the report said.

After this quote The I know the word oriented meaning,it let me know the meaning of whole sentence which boys are more emotionally than a girl, shows that boy in this society will most likely want to express their own emtion more than girl does. This sentence encourage boy to express their emotion.

According to the Merriam-Webster, the word stammered means “to make involuntary stops and repetitions in speaking(verb)”. “Allowing Teenage Boys to Love Their Friends”, ” His voice quavering, the young man stammered something unexpected from a frat brother, about how women can be as insensitive and hurtful as guys.” The word stammered is used to show how the male keeps stuttering when he tries to show his situation. Later on the male says how he got this which means that he is not trying to show his emotions. He is trying to put on a mask to show how tough he is.

Palpably is a adjective word. The word palpably mean readily or plainly seen, heard, perceived, etc.; obvious;. This word is located in the article of Teaching men to be emotionally honest by Andrew Reiner. “As Dr. Kimmel masterfully deflected an outpouring of protests, the atmosphere grew palpably tense”. The word palpably can be use to describe a object. 

According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of bromance is ” a close nonexual friendship between men”. I found this word in the article, “Allowing Teenage Boys to Love Their Friends” by Jan Hoffman. In this article Hoffman man talk about the friendship with their friends. Boys only talk about their feelings with their friends. The word bromance was used to talk about the physical relationship between man.