Masculinity and the Media

Masculinity is a cultural concept that does not have one clear cut definition. However in todays society being ‘masculine’ implies that, as a man, you have to be emotionless and stoic; ‘from childhood, many male children are socialized to avoid expressing vulnerable emotions and come to expect negative reactions from others following emotional displays. Thus, boys and men may come to associate their masculine identity with extreme stoicism, such that experiences of strong emotions may cause men to feel intense shame’ (Jakupcak, Tull and Roemer, 2005).

The idea of masculinity and what it means to be a man has been increasingly discussed within the media; ‘masculinity and the media, which first came into focus in the 1970s and gained increased scholarly attention in the late 1980s, has continued to generate work that theorizes, interprets, and evaluates masculinity with/in the media’ (Hanke, 1998). However within this debate there are always controversy surrounding masculinity and what typical male behaviour should be. An example of this can be seen surrounding the coverage of 2017s I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! Which is a reality TV show where 12 celebrities are put in the Australian jungle, having to perform a series of tasks in order to eventually become either King or Queen of the Jungle. During one of the episodes the celebrity boxer Amir Khan caused controversy by saying; ‘“men are not meant to cry” he also revealed that he ‘hadn’t cried since he was 13-years-old, and that he believed it showed “weakness” if men shed tears. “People walk all over you…never show weakness,”’ (radiotimes/Frances Taylor, 2017). This mentality shows how embedded the idea of masculinity, meaning a lack of emotions, is still in todays society. 

But why should we be concerned about this? Due to the majority of the male population being afraid to show their deep emotions there has been an increased rate of of male depression and suicide as many fail to seek out help due to society’s stigma surrounding men and their emotions; ‘A focus on the role of socialization in shaping gendered-emotion narratives has also been seen as key to tackling men’s underreporting of mental health issues, both separately and in connection with high suicide rates’ (de Boise and Hearn, 2017). This view that men are supposed to act and behave in a certain way is a clear example of gender inequality but from the perspective that we are not used to looking at; ‘understanding men’s emotions and getting men to understand emotions are vital in working with gender inequalities’ (de Boise and Hearn, 2017). The media plays such an important role within this discussion as the majority of the time they are perpetuating this idea of strength being intrinsically linked with masculinity even though this should not be the case. As a society we need to start looking at the differences between being a man, being masculine and being male as they all mean different things and we cant keep on grouping them together. 

Bibliography:

de Boise, S. & Hearn, J., 2017. Are men getting more emotional? Critical sociological perspectives on men, masculinities and emotions. The Sociological Review, 65(4), pp.779–796.

Hanke, R., 1998. Theorizing masculinity with/in the media. Communication Theory, 8(2), pp.183–203.

Jakupcak, M.T., Tull, M.T. & Roemer, L., 2005. Masculinity, shame, and fear of emotions as predictors of men's expressions of anger and hostility. Psychology of Men and Masculinity, 6(4), pp.275–284.

radiotimes/Frances Taylor. 2017. Amir Khan criticised by I’m a Celebrity viewers after saying men shouldn’t cry. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2017-11-25/amir-khan-criticised-by-im-a-celebrity-viewers-after-saying-men-shouldnt-cry/. [Accessed 4 March 2018].