Masculinity In Alice Walker's 'Putting Down The Gun'

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The central issue facing young men in society is that they are pressured to display the stereotypical type of masculinity in order for society to define them as men. In Walker’s piece “Putting Down The Gun”, she shares how her 11 year old son felt the need to play sports in order to achieve peer-approval. Walker’s son’s talents and personality were qualities of good virtue and innocence, yet this meant nothing to his peers for it had no relevance to sports or competition, and therefore had no “social currency”. Walker’s son had deliberated that playing sports would define him as a man, and in doing so, threatened his own definition of being a man. In the hit-movie based on a true story, “Billy Elliot”, lived a boy named Billy who aspired to

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