I have no previous experience in creating my own research project. When I first learned I would be conducting my own research in this class, I felt excited. I thought the newness of this experience would allow me to learn a lot about a particular topic. I was right. My research process allowed me to read, write, and reflect on concepts of masculinity.
My process started when we watched The Mask You Live In. I used my blog to continue my research process. In my blog post, Research Project: What is the Baby's Gender? I responded to the assignment prompt about how the film affected my being, doing, and knowing. I realized how the film made me angry and how I wanted to teach my baby, Farida, to not judge people by their race and religion. In my next blog post, Research Project: Toxic Masculinity, I defined toxic masculinity as "a narrow and repressive description of manhood, designating manhood as defined by violence, sex and aggressive." Eventually, my professor asked us to create our own research question as a way to respond to at least one theme in this film. In addition, he asked us to choose our genre, medium, and audience. With this in mind, I am writing an op-ed article in a Google Doc to answer this research question: Does the modern definition of masculinity oppress young boys? My hope is that parents can teach their boys how to redefine masculinity in a way that is kind and not so toxic. Here I will post my draft of my research
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