Category: Entry 4

The word Impugning is a “Transitive Verb”. The definition of Impugning according to Merriam-Webster is ” to assail by words or arguments oppose or attack as false or lacking integrity”. I found this word in the reading “The Boys are Not All Right” by Michael Ian Black in this he talk about man’s emotions and masculinity. That they are not allowed to show their emotions to the world. For example, ” I see him, 16 years old, swallowing his frustration, burying his worry, stomping up the stairs without telling us what’s wrong, and I want to show him what it looks like to be vulnerable and open but I can’t. Because I was a boy once, too”. This show that man are promoting masculinity too because if they show emotion they have to face a lot hate towards their personality. The word Impugning tells us that if u show society your soft side they’ll attack u from their words.

emas·cu·late (transitive verb)

The word emasculate means to deprive strength, vigor, or spirit: weaken, according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary. This word is found in “The Boys Are Not All Right” by Michael Ian Black on the first paragraph when it states, “If you want to emasculate a guy friend, when you’re at a restaurant, ask him everything that he’s going to order, and then when the waitress comes … order for him.” Now understanding the meaning of the word, I now know that what the author was trying to say is that if you want to take a guy’s strength or make him feel weak in a sense, you should ask him what he’s going to order and then order for him when the waitress comes since it’s usually the other way around or he orders for himself.

During class, as the whole class was reading the article “A Masters Degree in Masculinity” by Jessica Bennett together. I came across a word in which I was not familiar with; ‘Phenomena’. I at first thought that this word looked extremely similar to the word ‘phenomenon’ which also I was not familiar with. I’ve seen these two words many times when reading articles, books, or even posts on the internet, but never bothered finding out what it means. The word ‘Phenomena’ according to the Merriam-webster dictionary had no definite meaning but tells me that it is the plural form of the word ‘phenomenon’ instead. So according to the Merriam-webster dictionary ‘phenomenon’ means a fact or situation that is observed to exist or happen, especially one whose cause or explanation is in question. In plural form, it would mean an observable fact or event. In the article piece, the word appears in the sentence “It would also allow scholars to take seemingly unrelated phenomena – make suicide and the fact that men are less likely to talk about their feelings”. Now that I know what the word means I can interpret that this context means that scholars would now look into what it may seem insignificant clear fact that men are less likely to talk about their feelings.

Skepticism(Noun)

According to the dictionary “Marrian Webster” the word Skepticism mean “an attitude of doubt or a disposition to incredulity either in general or toward a particular object”.

In the class we learn an article”A Master’s Degree in … Masculinity?” byJessica Bennet. In a quote “Like many new fields, masculinities  studies brings with it varying degrees of skepticism”.

After I searched the mean of the word skepticism, I will be able to know that the quote telling us, is studying of masculinity will let us have a lot of doubt on it, which left us a lot of question about what is masculinty, how masculinity acting in this word, how is different from girl, and this is also a new field so we find the best way to explain what is masculinity is.

According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, paternity is defined as granted to a father. While I was reading “A Master’s Degree in Masculinity” by Jessica Bennett, the word appears on the fifth page as stated “As partners and husbands,” Mr. Leek said. “Whether we do our fair share of housework and child care. Whether we opt to take paternity leave. (Even when companies offer paternity leave, research has shown that many men are reluctant to take it.)”. Now knowing what the word means, I can understand what the passage means in better detail. Men, parenting their children affects many aspects of their lives. Men see themselves as being tough and brave, and parenting is one of the many things some struggle with. Their relationship is “with other men”.

Based on the Merriam-Webster Suppressing (Verb) means to put down by authority or force. while reading in class about “A Master’s Degree in Masculinity” the suppressing word called my attention because now that I know that meaning it represent the article in way that men have the pressure of society to act tough, show no emotions and most important to never cry. On  “A Master’s Degree in Masculinity” it states, “It means suppressing any kind of weakness.” this quote shows that in the society that we live today men are not suppose to be weak because they are man but, women are suppose to be weak, because we grew up with that image that our parents taught us about what a real man is and how they are suppose to act.

According to Merriam-Webster, the word commensurate is defined as corresponding or equal to measure, extent or degree. The word commensurate it an adjective that is described in the article entitled, “The Boys Are Not Alright” by Michael Ian Black. On September 30th, 2018 I encountered the word while reading this article describing masculinity and how men do not act vulnerable in the way they should. The word commensurate can be found on page one of the article towards the ending of the page. When I stumbled upon the word, my initial reaction was that this was a new heard of word to me. I was thinking from context clues that the word meant to be hidden or left behind. It states, “Boys, though, have been left behind. No commensurate movement has emerged to help them navigate toward a full expression of their gender”. When I read the word first, I thought to be left behind because the prior sentence was discussing the topic of boys being misguided and hidden from the movement. I now understand the word after looking at the dictionary meaning of it because I see in this case the term is used to describe how to movements involving feminism are not as equal as any movement or discussion involving boys. For years now we have built up a female priority in discussing women abuse and violence they deal with, but, fail to correspond or equalize to the men who deal with the same.

Supressed: to keep in or repress (verb)

This is the meaning of the word supressed according to dictionary.com. I saw this word when I was reading the article “A Master’s Degree in Masculiny” in English class on Thursday, September 27th, 2018. The sentence was in the article as a response to the question of “What does it mean to be a real man?” The response said “It means supressing any kind of weakness” I understand what that means because I see many people hold back their true feelings because they think that they might be seen as weak or vulnerable. They hide and hold back any vulnerabilities to always appear strong.

Disdain. A noun defined as “a feeling of contempt for someone or something regarded as unworthy or inferior” by Merriam-Webster dictionary. In the short story The Ride by JL Williams. It talks about the situations that come up on a daily basis on MTA public transportation. He goes from describing a young woman wearing clothes way too small for her body to a crackhead high off of drugs. But in this certain excerpt he dealt with a black woman with a baby carriage trying to get on the train. But she was being extremely disrespectful to one of the passengers. The author included the lines “… irritants that they feel the need to convey their disdain for a while we share a confined space for a limited time. JL Williams is basically saying how some people on the train are on a mission to make you despise them, acting outrageous is second nature to them.