The mask you live in deals with the male experience.
It gives insight and background on the male gender which is interesting to see.
One of the opening stories is with a man who is older and looks back into his childhood and recalls one of the first things he remembers with his father.
The story he recalls is about his father basically showing anger towards him for not being “man enough”.
The film dissects male culture through several layers.
Through children, it shows how young boys live in our society.
The way that the hierarchy works from a very young age and how that as young children the separation between female and male is very apparent.
One of the people in the film spoke about a young boy who was secretly friends with all the girls but wouldn’t be forthcoming with it because the “head boy” in the class would kick him out of the “boys club”. And it shows the want and needs to be apart of the male norm even at a young age.
The film then takes a look at aggression and how especially when boys go off to college how it is a recipe for disaster.
There isn’t much correction the right way so like one expert said you have a nineteen-year-old trying to prove themselves to a twenty-year-old and it causes issues when these actions become dangerous to themselves and others around them.
It transitions to the relationships between genders and how too many of these now men how the relationship with there parents change the way they view the opposite gender.
We get the story of a young man who grew up with his mother and watching her struggle to raise them. But as he was growing up he would be bullied for being not “male” enough so he changed his way of being and became what was deemed male enough. But as he got older he finally started to make the connection of what a man truly is and how he cares for his mother so he ended making a change for the better.
You also see the story of teenage boys who are apart of groups that help them express themselves and be better versions of themselves.