Tough Guise

Hip-Hop: Beyond the Beats and Rhymes is a documentary looking at how the hip-hop culture works and the gender roles created by it. One of the notions brought up within the movie was of Tough Guise. Tough Guise is the cultural construction for men in order to gain respect. A dominant masculine front put up to not be called negative things. Society takes the biology of men as being stronger then women. This is done so that woman can gain the respect of men. If a man receives a comment outside of the “box” of “manly” stereotypical words they are seen as weak and not a “man”. With there being no support for people outside of that box it is tough to live up to the notions put forth to being a man. This is why it is important for such things to be visible (being manly) so that the world can come to terms with themselves and to be able to deal with the stereotypes of the tough guise.