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| Angry Penguin (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
I learned a lot this term about men and anger, and I wasn't the only one. One of my classmates did her analysis on the film Training Day, based on her belief that the main character's need to "lash out" came from issues with his father (who was not in the home when he was growing up). According to what she found, there is considerable cultural support for that kind of behavior; she referred to a song by Tupac Shakur about the problem that fully described the emotions involved.
Another student (and I can't remember what film he used) was looking at how men rank each other, and anger, that is, not showing anger, was an important factor. It seems to me that this is actually true across the board, even in the urban setting of Training Day. I don't enjoy crime dramas, and I think the main reason is that they tend to present people -- both criminals and police --acting out their issues through rage, which I think is a cheap way to heighten drama. Maybe that's why I prefer science fiction (and westerns, for that matter): the men in those films tend to need a lot of self-control to get the job done. And maybe I've learned something else. Are men who can't control their anger capable of accomplishing anything?
