Supplemental Post 4 - Hana Lee

This week, I had the pleasure of meeting and hearing Justin Baldoni speak at USC. Justin is known for his role in Jane the Virgin, his TED talk on what it means to be "man enough", and various other entities. As a part of Speakers Committee, I often have the opportunity to hear from speakers of various industries and Justin's conversation is one of the best I've been a part of.

To start off the night, Justin came out, introduced himself, and went on to talk about how he wanted the entire night to be a conversation between all the students and faculty present. He started off asking questions to the audience and set up a comfortable environment from the start, one where we could chime in, interrupt, and ask questions whenever we wanted to.

Because a large part of Justin's life revolves around his initiative in sparking conversation about masculinity, we talked about practical steps we could take as the next generation of leaders. As he shared his struggles growing up as a more "feminine guy" with his dad equipping him with human qualities like listening, communicating, and empathizing, he shared how different he was from his peers who were taught to fish and hunt, things he knew nothing about. He went on to speak about body image and muscle dysmorphia, a disorder I didn't even know existed until that night.

With our discussions of the macho, muscle man that is Arnold Schwarzenegger, I think about the differences in our generations from films of the 80s and 90s trying to reinstate this image of masculinity to present day where we are trying to fight what society and Hollywood has defined as masculine. From the moment we're born, colors are categorized into boy and girl colors; the toys we play with, giving into society's expectations; the language we use with kids depending on their gender. All of this to try and place us in a box we never chose to be in.

So what can we do to battle the issues of hyper masculinity, body image issues, and overall inequality within our society? According to Justin, we need to get guys in on the conversation first of all. We need them to realize their privilege and then get them to listen, because often times boys aren't taught how to listen. Then, we must change the type of language we use with kids and be intentional in our own relationships to show them a good example. And with this, I hope that we begin to see even more progress in being vulnerable with each other and emphasizing that we're good enough.