From the time I was a kid, surrounded by nine ‘girl-cousins’ who only offered me Barbies to play with, I definitely knew that there were differences between what girls were ‘supposed’ to be like and what boys were ‘supposed’ to. At home, I had dinosaurs, hot-wheels s and sports toys, not dolls. But as I watched TV, eagerly waiting for my cartoons to reappear, what messages were being subliminally conveyed to my young mind? Media is still telling me how to be manly…but what exactly is this notion of masculinity?
Shaped by family, culture, friends and media, being a manly male is something that has been instilled in many men from a young age, but why? I would like to think that masculinity is something personalized, that it’s whatever a man choses to make it. But that is not what pop culture teaches me, it almost seems like a prescribed formula for being a man. It shows me ‘how real men ought to act, ought to talk and what they should look like.’ But it also says something somewhat reassuring; that men are cool, interesting and powerful.
Orwell’s 1984 plays up on these traits, and shows nearly all of its main characters as male: O’Brien, Parsons, Mr. Charrington, Goldstein, and Big Brother (in addition to most named coworkers). Most likely influenced by the tradition of female exclusion in public life, it seems like Orwell simply finds men more influential and interesting; even Winston’s (female) lover remains anonymous until we learn her name in subsequent chapters. Many female characters in the book are simply described but not named, whereas males are given an identity and therefore power.
Media gives us a much more direct idea of what masculinity is. Fiction, whether literature or audio-visual, often portrays the ‘ideal male-character’. The features that go along with him, good looks, strength, bravery and cunning, are those that all men should strive to have, yet all of these traits are good ones to have anyways, regardless of whether media propagates them or not. Advertisements on the other hand, use these positive traits to market products. Are their products invented to instil such wondrous qualities in the buyers, or to simply give the illusion of them? The answer is a matter of opinion, and of how brainwashed advertising has made you. Take clothing for example. What shows a higher degree of masculinity: a pink tutu or a tool belt? The fact that men have traditionally been blue-collar workers rather than women gives away the answer. BUT, if a guy feels manly wearing a pink tutu, more power to him!
Historical context and culture has largely defined what masculinity encompassed. The things men have been doing for millennia (labouring, protecting the family, hunting etc.) are naturally thought of as masculine. Advertisements use these traditionally male roles but also add modern ones like ‘the athlete’ or ‘the car-lover’. These new forms of masculinity play up on image rather than personality. The way ‘real men’ should be (the basis for society’s version of masculinity) includes appearance (clothing, hair, cars, music, and technology) just as much as personal traits.
“Masculinity” has evolved. No longer is it solely the role that men play in daily life, but neither is it the characteristics associated with these roles. We ultimately have the power to decide what defines our own masculinity, yet at the same time, media and advertising are telling us how we need to act and look in order to be a proper man. Masculinity means the things that are associated with being a man. What exactly those things are is not up to popular culture, media or even society to decide (perhaps to influence). The things associated with being a man can only be decided by each individual male, they (including me) decide what is proper for themselves and by their own standards.
