Will Smith and always new masculinity

Will Smith, this week, is one of the few cases that could lead to a course in new masculinities. Smith, a kind guy known for roles that in some cases involved new male models and performances that bet on free love relationships, struck another man in prime time. Victim Chris Rock recently made a nasty joke about actor Jada Pinkett, the actor’s partner. Will Smith purposefully stepped onto the stage, punched Rock in the face and returned to his seat, shouting, “Take my wife’s name out of your mouth.” And that’s how Will Smith performs better than anyone else, a liberal-type role who has learned to speak but is unable to perform it.

“Men’s long-awaited task is self-regulation, emotional management and consistency in speech and Performance“. It’s a phrase that equality and masculinity consultant David Caplun combines with what happened at the Oscars, what he observes in activism and in society: men who have a learned discourse they believe in but cannot self-regulate. When key moments come.

“A new wave of feminists is focusing on us and the issue of masculinity is spreading a lot. It is a message that reaches a more cognitive, mental, ideological approach, but not to the depth that it requires, because it is about changing consciousness, changing attitudes, emotional, changing relationships … “- explains Caplun. This profound change goes beyond knowing how to cry or express emotions, he argues, but is fundamentally related to self-regulation: “knowing when it’s time to listen, instead of talking or being smart.”

Smith’s attitude is related to masculinity that ends with reproducing the same model he criticizes, even physical or verbal violence when, for example, another man says something to a friend or partner. Caplun recalls the need for a coherent personal context that gives unity to speeches and even, in the case of an actor, to characters with whom Smith sometimes seems to intensify paternity or the relationship between men and caring.

Always a new masculinity, about the journalist and writer Antonio J. Rodriguez, in his homonymous book, refers to “new models of masculinity that are no different from traditional masculinities or their DNA.” “After all this talk about feminism, there were two big reactions: one, the appearance of particularly brazen, reactionary masculinities, and the other, the figure of new masculinities or their synonyms, which seems more noble and often meets some feminist demands, but it is true. Essentially they have not changed that much. This indicates somehow before and after that bad is not the worst way, but I think a more radical approach to masculinity means going further. “The last line of masculinity for me is the two elements I put in the book: the renunciation of female body property and the renunciation of a state of constant war with other men,” Rodriguez said in an interview with elDiario.es.

See, Will Smith did not give up either. For Beatrice Ranea, author of The Disarmament of Manhood, this is a clear example of the masculinity that, on the one hand, takes on the role of protector of man and, on the other hand, addresses violence as a form of “solution.” Conflicts arise, especially when this conflict takes place with another man with whom there is some form of “competition” to determine who is more masculine.

“Chris Rock’s comment on Jada Pinkett is discriminatory and painful, inappropriate, but it does not justify this reaction. “It conveys the idea of ​​a protective man breaking up to protect another wife,” Ranea said. Will Smith’s subsequent speech, after winning the Oscar for Best Actor for Crying, not only did not apologize, but made it even worse. Although Smith apologized to the academy, he justified his behavior with a dangerous argument: “I am amazed at what God asks me to do and be in this world. I received a call to love and protect my people. I already know that in this profession we should be able to endure insults, tolerate insults, smile and pretend that nothing happens (…) love makes you crazy. ”

In three sentences, Smith multiplied the discourse that feminism has struggled with for decades. “This story that love pushes me to do all sorts of things … It’s the usual discourse that justifies gender-based violence under the umbrella of love and passion, it’s legitimizing the loss of consciousness for love, because it’s all about love. “It is justified,” said Beatrice Ranea. If we do not know whether there will be any consequences for Will Smith’s attitude, we can already say a few things. One is that the man who carried out the live attack and who justified it in the name of love was able to continue attending the gala in the front row, the only subsequent reprimand from the academy. Others, gentlemen, self-regulation.