Thanks to media many guys are rethinking what it means to be a real man. Recently men have joined forces with women to determine what it means to be a man. In Tarrant’s article “Guy Trouble” she asks guys how they define violence and also how violence has been made into a pop culture money maker. A good example of media male violence is in the form of wrestling. Tarrant’s view point on that topic “…World Wrestling Entertainment’s Friday Night Smack Down regularly features a male wrestler assaulting his female love interest who, thrown from the ring in spandex and gummy-boo implants, writhes provocatively on the floor, visually melding sex with abuse.” This portrays not just abuse, but specifically sexual abuse towards women. Is the show giving young boys the perspective that it’s okay to abuse women. Not only have men physically abused women in the media, but they have also mentally abused women through name calling, by was of describing the status of their sexuality. While some men are all for women and violence in the media, there are a hand full of men who have put their foot down to end violence in the media. Tarrant goes on to say in her article Guy Trouble; “…Men look at masculinity and pop culture knowing that violent masculinity is not good for – to adapt the old antiwar slogan - women, men, genderqueers, children, plants, the planet, or other living things. And when it comes to nonviolent but equally limiting depictions of men and boys, critically analyzing masculinity in pop culture of the Man Box, expanding gender options and ending homophobia, transphobia, and sexual assault.” The media these days are trying harder to support non violent acts against not only against women, but every minority group around the world. The latest epidemic is violence in schools and these acts of violence are probably influenced by violence in the media. These acts of violence in schools such as Columbine can give boys negative messages.
Good start. This is a bit short especially given the number of words devoted to quoting the article. I'd like to see you go more in depth into the link between masculinity and violence - for example you could have looked at some of the media coverage of Columbine and other school shootings. Although the vast majority (all except one, I believe) of school shootings are committed by men, masculinity is rarely mentioned as a contributing factor in school shootings.
ReplyDeleteI really liked how in your blog you talked about the media showing young boys that violence on women is considered ok, and can even be sexual. In class we talked about how a lot of advertisements sometimes do that. That would have been interesting to have put in your blog as well!
ReplyDeleteIt was interesting how you brought up the subject of Professional Wrestling because it sends lots of messages about gender. I watched wrestling as a child with my brother and we would re-enact some of the sequences but would always both be the male wrestlers, because the women were always displayed as sex objects to be dominated by men (not winners). I think connecting an article to some other sources could provide an even more interesting next entry!
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