WEEK 4 Q. What is your interpretation of the term masculinity?

1. WEEK 4 Q. What is your interpretation of the term masculinity?

2. Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI) is a measure of masculinity-femininity and Gender role. It was created by Sandra Bem in 1971. • BSRI is a widely used instrument in measuring gender role perceptions. According to BSRI, there are • 20 adjectifs for describing masculinity traits, • 20 adjectifs for describing femininity traits • 20 adjectifs for describing androgynous traits

3. FEMININITY TRAITS • Yielding (submissive) • cheerful • shy • Affectionate (displaying warmth) • Flatterable (pleased by complimentary remarks) • loyal • feminine • sympathetic • sensitive to the needs of others • understanding

4. Compassionate (merciful) • eager to soothe hurt feelings • soft-spoken • warm • Tender (fragile) • Gullible (easily deceived) • childlike • does not use harsh language • loves children • gentle

5. Media stereotypes about femininity: • "a woman's role is essentially that of pleasing and catering for the needs of men" • "a woman's first duty is to her home and family" • "women have to be strong and courageous, but the nature of their strength and courage is different to the strength and courage of men" • "a woman alone is a woman incomplete"

6. "women are there for decoration, as objects for the attention and admiration of the male gaze" • "a woman can be friends with a woman, but she can rarely be friends with a man" • "a woman is naturally a mother and a wife" • "a woman can be respected firstly as a person, and secondly for being a woman" • "independence in a woman is a virtue" • "female sexuality is dangerous and destructive"

7. MASCULINITY TRAITS • self-reliant • defends own beliefs • independent • athletic • Assertive (aggresively self-assured) • strong personality • forceful • analytical • has leadership abilities • willing to take risks

8. makes decisions easily • self-sufficient • dominant • masculine • willing to take a stand • aggressive • acts as a leader • competitive • ambitious

9. Representations of masculinity • How masculinity or ‘maleness’ is shown in media texts can have the power to define what masculinity actually is.

10. Media StereotypesaboutMasculinity • "A man must be a hero or he is nothing" • "Woman needs man, every man must have his mate" • "A man is naturally a hunter, warrior and a protector" • "A man's role is essentially that of pleasing and catering for the needs of women" • "Dependence in man is anevidence of a flawed character" • "Men must be vulnerable, compassionate, sympathetic and caring" • "Male sexuality is naturally wild" • "A man's first duty is to his wife and family"

11. Changes in Male Representations • •Since the 1980’s there have been significant changes in the representations of men • New stereotypes have emerged that are different from traditional masculine traits • Many argue this is mainly due to the ‘rise ’of Feminism and the equality of women in society

12. The Crisis of Masculinity- • Since the late1970-80’s men have been seen to be in a crisis-a crisis/confusion of identity • Traditional ideas of masculinity were/are changing • This led to a variety in their representations and roles in society

13. ContemporaryRepresentations of Masculinity • Modern characters are seen as in touch with their feminine side… • Showing their emotions and taking pride in their appearance • There has been a change in the relation of men to advertising as well.

14. Parallel to the entry of women into the workforce, men have become increasingly involved in everyday consumptionactivities which, only a generation ago, were defined as properly the field of women.

15. Male partners have gradually been forced to take greater responsibility for domestic works. The growth in the number of students, the rise in age at first marriage, the increase in divorce rates and the emergence of gay households have enlarged the category of men who, from the standpoint of day-to-day consumption, effectively live apart from women. Advertisers have thus increasingly had to take into account that men, too, are potential buyers.

16. Beyond the general extension to men of consumer status, there has also been an extension in the range of commodities aimed at them. Men confront an ever-increasing types of leisure goods, their clothing has been fully incorporated into the world of fashion, and mounting efforts have been made to sell them all manner of personal-care products and accessories.

17. How ads have come to encode masculinity, then, partly reflects the way advertising has sought to secure men’s identification with the standpoint of consumption itself. The very act of seducing men into shops can raise emasculating fears.

18. One answer developed by advertisers to such fears is exaggerating sexism in the ads directed to men.

19. Representation of men in advertising As in the case of women, the old patriarchal codings are still dominant in representation of men. Business, science and the military continue to be represented as so many forms and aspects of masculine power. But the sexual turmoil of the 1960s and 1970s has also left its mark. In certain respects advertisers have begun to treat male and female, for all their marked biological differences, as formally interchangeable terms.

20. In the ads of the 1950s in the USA the nuclear, role-divided family was the universal touchstone for defining social roles and identities. Male, no less than female, consumers were automatically presumed to belong to such a structure and were rarely presented outside its cheery frame. The automobile itself was promoted as a family vehicle- with the woman in the passenger seat and the kids in the back.

23. The family has made a comeback during the 1980s. But in the majority of cases, the people shown are shown alone as the absence of ties has come to be presented, particularly for men, as a desirable condition in itself.

24. The condition of being without ties is converted into an existential imperative and then equated with masculinity itself.

25. Even where men are shown with others, the family frame is generally absent. The common grouping, is the young mixed couple. However, couples are usually shown in dating situations.

26. http://www.youtube.com/user/justlaughvideos?v=W22IC2eH1sA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1ucUka0uCo

27. Patriarchal codings have been weakened by the disappearance of images depicting the family. Fuelled by urban redevelopment, an electronics boom and the arms race, the 1950s was a period of technological optimism. At the symbolic summit was technological Man himself. Ads have begun to deal with techno-power and masculinity issues

28. The displacement of men in ads from family roles and the wider retreat of masculinity as an ideologically fixed term have been complemented by a parallel loosening of masculinity as a sexual construct.

29. Since the early 1970s, advertising imagery shows evidence of having incorporated, alongside a code of gender difference and hierarchy, a code of sameness and equality.

30. Mand female are to be conceived as fluid, mobile categories which occupy equivalent or identical places in the world. • Men are active, instrumental, inner-directed, and identified with power, women are passive, expressive, dependent on others.

31. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M3x9xYXyO4

32. However, the vision of male-female liberation that advertising has begun to project is limited. This is only an abstract equality The equalization of gender status which occurs in this sphere of consumption is not the equality of free and self-determining beings.

33. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3FDT868QlI

34. Media Representations of Men: The Main Stereotypes • “From the ‘Boys to Men: Media Messages About Masculinity’ Report “(1999) from pressure group Children Now • They found there were now seven common stereotypical representations of men:

35. The Main Stereotypes of Men The Action Hero: is strong but not always silent. He is often angry and above all he is aggressive in the extreme and engages in violent behaviour.

36. The Main Stereotypes of Men • The Big Shot: He is defined by his Professional status. He is the typical example of success embodying the characteristics and acquiring the possessions that society considers valuable. • This stereotype suggests that a real man must be economically powerful and socially successful.

37. The Strong Silent Type: focuses on being in charge, containing emotion and succeeding with women. • This stereotype reinforces the assumption that men and boys should always be in control and talking about ones feelings is a sign of weakness.

38. The Metrosexual : The young single man with a high disposable income, living in the city-as it is near to the best shops. The Metrosexual man is not gay but is often confused with being homosexual. He is objectified and sexualised (turned into a sex object) which goes against traditional representations of masculinity.

39. The Jock: is always willing to compromise his own long-term health, he must fight other men when necessary and must be aggressive. • By demonstrating his power and strength the jock wins approval of other men and the adoration of women.

40. The Joker: A very popular character with boys/men • a potential negative consequence of this stereotype is the assumption that boys and men should not be serious or emotional. • However researchers have also found that humorous roles can expand definitions of masculinity.

41. The Fool/ Buffoon:The fool stereotype is a tried and tested formula (1970’s onwards.) • E.g. The incompetent / clumsy father in TV ads and Sitcoms. • Usually well intentioned and lighthearted, these characters range from slightly clumsy to completely hopeless in work or parenting and domestic situations. • On the surface it may seem a very pegorative representation of men • However they still always come out on top!

42. Examples of homophobic and trans-phobic advertising http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E70KiUGu0dE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6bNczNp4kc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhNZvpiWb1U