Masculinity podcast

The podcast "Brotherhood Unveiled" explores toxic masculinity within fraternities. The panel discusses the harmful effects of cultural norms and societal expectations on individuals, relationships, and society. They interview Adam, a fraternity member, who shares experiences of toxic masculinity in his organization, such as stigma towards certain majors and instances of physical and emotional violence. Adam also talks about the pressure to maintain a tough exterior and the lack of emotional support within the fraternity. The podcast concludes by emphasizing the prevalence of toxic masculinity in fraternity culture and the importance of understanding its impact. Have you ever wondered what goes on behind fraternity doors or what it means to be part of a brotherhood? Well, today we are going to unveil aspects of the brotherhood exploring toxic masculinity in this episode of Brotherhood Unveiled. Today our panel consists of Chloe Radecki and myself, Elise Pedote, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign students who have seen friends and men around them experience toxic masculinity as a result of being a part of these organizations. However, we also have Adam Davis here with us, a member himself of a fraternity here on campus. This episode will serve as an interview with Adam to understand the aspects of toxic masculinity he has experienced and or seen within his own brotherhood. So to begin, I want to ask you, Chloe, what is toxic masculinity? That's a great question to start us off here. So if our audience is not aware, toxic masculinity refers to a set of cultural norms and societal expectations around masculinity that can have harmful effects on individuals, relationships, and society as a whole. It doesn't necessarily imply that masculinity itself is toxic, but rather highlights certain harmful behaviors or attitudes that are often associated with traditional ideas of what it means to be a man. This leads us to our first question for you, Adam. In Playing the Gender Card podcast, we learned how career stereotypes can affect men, too, such as stigma from studying nursing or fields that are associated with women. Have you seen any men in your organization face a similar experience of this toxic masculinity? 100%, you know, a lot of our men are studying fields that uphold their masculinity, such as finance, engineering, and law. However, being a communication major myself, I've somewhat experienced remarks about how my major won't make me as successful as them or won't make me as dominant of an income. On the other hand, one brother comes to mind who's studying social work. This has definitely given him some tough jokes and comments from other men. It's definitely a relevant conversation. Do you think that that has changed aspects of your own masculinity? Yes. Being in a space that is so male-dominated has definitely had an effect on my own sense of masculinity. When I lived in the fraternity house, I was constantly surrounded by a toxic energy that I couldn't help but mirror. I think this has to do with the culture of men when living in such close quarters. It turns into a competition, you know? Yeah, well, speaking of terms of competition, have you observed instances of physical or emotional violence among your fraternity brothers? Oh, yeah. When I was living in the house, there was many altercations involving the older brothers. There were certain power dynamics that would cause the older boys to fight with and push around those who were younger. We never fought with each other for real, but there are violent tendencies amongst the fraternity. It's like they are attempting to prove they are stronger than the other by physical means. Oh, wow. That's really interesting to see, that there was a sense of power dynamic between the older men and the new men. I've definitely seen that around some of my male friends as well. It's like they're attempting to prove they're stronger than the other by physical competition. So, thank you for sharing this. On the other hand, we know that fraternities tend to preach the idea of brotherhood. What does this mean to you, and do you feel genuine connections with your fraternity brothers? Brotherhood is something that is preached constantly and right when you join a house. I feel very close to my fraternity brothers, but at the same time, a stigma with disclosing too much emotionally. It's like all the guys want to seem tough 24-7 with no room for emotional hardship without being seen as weak or gay. Most men have girlfriends or friends that are girls to turn to with that kind of stuff. It's not common to hear about something someone's going through. This is something I've thought about a lot. Well, from what you said about that, did you find any connections between yourself and the Lonely American Male podcast? When we listened to this podcast in class, I would say that it stuck with me the most due to the fact that being in a fraternity didn't really give me many opportunities to open up emotionally, honestly. It kind of created a little bit of a sense of loneliness for a lot of the guys in the house, I would say. Well, Adam, as our time wraps up, thank you for participating in this eye-opening introspection. As we conclude our interview questions, we've definitely taken away a lot from this episode of Brotherhood Unveiled. It's clear that toxic masculinity is very prevalent in fraternity culture. We want to say thank you to our audience for your time and listening. We hope you've learned and taken away something from this podcast. We've truly enjoyed this journey of exploring and discovering how toxic masculinity affects men within the Greek community here at the CU campus. Thanks for listening!