For Father’s Day, give us men who aren’t shown as fools and clowns
Men are regularly represented in the media and advertising as stupid and clumsy and it is denying younger generations proper role models argues Peter West of the University of Technology in this cross-posting from The Conversation.
Get your hand off it,” says the girl in the ad. Here is a cowgirl type telling men not to play with anything while driving. It’s the mobile that she means, ha ha.
Why should we be concerned? Because yet again, here’s an ad showing men as fools, clowns or rogues. Time and again we’ll be shown someone doing the wrong thing, then told off. It always seems to be the man doing the wrong thing, and a woman ridiculing him.
I see ads about littering on suburban litter bins. Here’s a man shown dropping a wrapper. And here’s a woman frowning at him, unimpressed and thus no longer seeing the man as desirable. Dumb men, wanting the affection of women who don’t welcome their interest.
Think of some well-known men in the TV comedies you watch. There are many dumb males in The Simpsons and the worst is Homer.
Househusbands has a clutch of guys struggling manfully (if that’s the word) trying to manage a few kids while earning money. They don’t seem to make a very successful go of it, either.
And the men on Home and Away always seem to be getting into fights, mischief and trouble. Brooklyn 99 is a new show on SBS. It’s fun, but the male cops are all lazy, work-shy and trying to impress, mostly unsuccessfully.
Once we held men up for boys and girls to admire. There were Galileo, Cook the brilliant navigator, St Patrick who converted Ireland, and tons of other saints, martyrs and heroes.
Today the only males held up for our admiration are young men with amazing bodies or superhuman powers. Think of The Bachelor or the movie Hercules.
Clearly, these are exceptions to the rule that most men shown in the media are fools and clowns. Sorry, most of us can’t look like these musclemen or do all those superhuman tricks.
Why does all this matter? Vast sums are spent on advertising. We’re told that Tony Abbott employs large teams of people to promote the good news about all his government’s achievements.
Propaganda supporting the current war has been with us for centuries, certainly since the first world war. Advertising and images in the media change people’s behaviour.
Jim Macnamara analysed images of men in the Australian media in a doctoral thesis, later published as Media and Male Identity. He found that overwhelmingly, Australian men are confronted by:
a misandric world that demonises, marginalises and objectifies men and tries to change them.
It’s not just advertisers but educators too
The discourse of the “flawed male” in the media echoes that in many educational institutions. The doctrine of “most men are bad” is reported by male students in university subjects in sociology, history and education. And nasty images of men in the media reinforce the negative views of men current in many sectors of education.
The effect of all the negativity is that men bunker down. They say, “Oh well, here’s another attack”. It doesn’t offer much hope to young males who are already searching for an acceptable masculinity.
Perhaps many women would like men who are more sensitive, who listen more attentively and commit more easily. But if we change men too much they won’t be recognisable as men.
When there’s a natural disaster such as a cyclone or bushfire, we expect men will come and help out. If Australia commits itself to war in the Middle East, it will be mainly men who are expected to fight.
How does this affect boys and young men?
Young men are affected by what they see on TV and in social media. Just this week, the boys next door were throwing buckets of cold water on each other. It was another example of boys imitating what they see around them.
We often hear that boys are trouble. As John Marsden says:
Teenage boys are among the most maligned groups in society.
They are called drug addicts, semi-illiterate, hopeless communicators and a leading group among school failures.
Young men on the street are depicted as sources of trouble, with endless arguments about how to stop their violence. The sins of a few are visited on all. Young men aren’t choosing teaching as a career and the only role models we offer are poor ones.
Do parents want their sons growing up in an atmosphere of such constant criticism of males, as males? Where is the scope for their ideas and ideals?
How can we give boys a lead and show them how to make a better world, if all they see is a relentless ridiculing of their sex? Boys are, after all, bound to turn into men.
So for this Father’s Day, I’d like to give males more hope. Let’s insist that advertisers present us with more positive images of men as well as of women. For the sake of all our dads. And the sons who will be dads, soon enough.
Peter West is a lecurer in edutcation for UTS Sydney.
This article was originally published on The Conversation.
Read the original article.
This asks the question: “How much social responsibility should Advertising have?” If the client pays the bill and the ads do the job – i.e. increase sales – does the buck stop there?
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I must say, as a young male, I applaud this article.
It’s not because I believe women should be ‘back in the kitchen’ or getting pa’s slippers ready for when he comes home drunk on whiskey and wants to beat her.
It’s because men, on a societal level, are being bashed like never before.
It’s obvious through all media and it’s being driven by research. It’s well known you can take the piss out of a man, but shall thou darst take the urine out of thine woman and you’ll burn in hell.
But it goes way beyond that, to a point in our ordinary lives.
A silly case in point. A woman arrives home at 1am drunk to her boyfriend. If said dude innocently asks where she’s been, he’ll cop a tirade of abuse, followed by half a month of silent treatment and dirty looks from all of his ‘wife without benefits’ BFF’s for eternity times three.
Boyfriend comes home in the same situation, you can imagine how different the story would be.
A modern, stereotypical woman wants a guy who’s sensitive, good with his hands, can work hard, fight fires but at the same time not only put dinner on the table but actually cook it then clean afterwards, while looking after the kids.
The girl in return offers… nothing.
That’s the stereotype, but there is a truth in that. And there’s also a reason most of Australia’s eligible bachelors are marrying women from overseas who believe equality is the best foundation in a relationship.
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… Can open, worms everywhere….This could be fun
For what its worth though, great point… Blokes are an easy target these days for many reasons. Good article.
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The fact remains that “Straight White Male” is life’s lowest difficulty level: http://whatever.scalzi.com/201.....-there-is/
Men get a few ads that make them look like loveable dopes. Women are actively passed over in their careers in case they decide to have a baby. People get more job interviews when they use a western surname instead of an ethnic one.
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I have to admit – I did laugh out loud when I watched that insurance ad.
That being said, poking fun at either gender is always a risky strategy. It can work if the humour is good enough and the insult is light but go too far and you’ll alienate everyone involved. Women don’t really appreciate advertisers painting their husbands and sons as idiots.
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@Congratulations
Do you honestly believe that mens’ alleged tarnished image in the media is actually being perpetuated by women?
Females only account for a minuscule amount (around 3%) of influential positions in the mainstream media. The people that are doing the supposed “bashing” are your fellow males. Not us. I think you have completely missed the point of Peter’s article.
If you think that the “problem” lies solely in women- then you best start educating yourself.
The problem at large is the hypermasculine media we consume day in and day out. where archaic stereotypes exist- women’s value lies in their looks and men’s in their ability to be the provider and protector, otherwise a dummy.
larger problem lies in the
Speaking as a (presumably) straight, white, middle class male… i don’t think you have too much to worry about, mate.
Please, take your small minded, misogynistic opinions to an MRA forum because they are not at all welcome here.
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@Congratulations
Do you honestly believe that mens’ alleged tarnished image in the media is actually being perpetuated by women?
Females only account for a minuscule amount (around 3%) of influential positions in the mainstream media. The people that are doing the supposed “bashing” are your fellow males. Not us. I think you have completely missed the point of Peter’s article.
If you think that the “problem” lies solely in women- then you best start educating yourself.
The problem at large is the hypermasculine media we consume day in and day out. where archaic stereotypes exist- women’s value lies in their looks and men’s in their ability to be the provider and protector, otherwise a dummy.
Speaking as a (presumably) straight, white, middle class male… i don’t think you have too much to worry about, mate.
Please, take your small minded, misogynistic opinions to an MRA forum because they are not at all welcome here.
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Bam Bam, have you got any sort of references for you claim of only 3%? (Don’t tell me to google it, you made the claim, you should be able to back it up)
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OH PLEASE!!!!!
This has nothing to do with women directly. This trend is just another face of the cringing, apologetic, head hiding, and doona scrunching activity associated with that huge social problem known as P.C. or Political Correctness.
Producers are scared to death to depict a woman as an example of a stupid, foolish, ill educated or clumsy human being, much safer to depict a man , because men are much less likely to complain bitterly and have 20 or more other men backing them up.
By the same token, producers are careful never to cast a person other than a white middle class male as the idiot. I understand it perfectly, I don’t agree with it, but I understand why they do it.
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@harvyk
http://therepresentationprojec.....tatistics/
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