Let's hear it for the boys!

With all these past posts being mainly about female-specific advertising, and advertising's negative effects on females, I decided to devote this post to all those men out there who are so frequently overlooked.

Men are portrayed in media and advertising as "in charge, self-contained and often alone. When shown with other men, they seem ready to unleash their aggression at any moment. When shown with women, they must be dominant."--Center for Media Literacy


Men are the media's symbols for power.  They are shown as suffocated by commitment, or blundering fools for being in committed relationships.  Males are primed from a very early age to accept sexual advances by any attractive females--where a little boy surrounded by giggling swimsuit models is acceptable, and the boy is even considered "lucky," a young girl being surrounded by half-naked adult men would certainly never be acceptable by society's moral compass.


Probably the most detrimental factor in media's constant reinforcement of male gender roles is that men are expected to shut up, and not whine about them.  After all, men are supposed to be the mighty and all-powerful beings--men cannot show emotions, let alone even have a range of them, without facing major criticism.


Along with creating a warped sense of sexuality with little room for personal freedom, males are bombarded with the idea that they cannot establish healthy intimate relationships.  Heterosexual males who bond with their female partners are considered defeated by these women, run down, powerless in their doomed fates.  Heterosexual males are also criticized for having close friendships with other males in which they share anything beyond impersonal information.  In other words, males are expected to maintain relationships with little to no self-disclosure. 


And with men shutting up, sucking it up, and bottling it up...it makes perfect sense that we have problems with male aggression.  When males have no acceptable way to express their suppressed feelings except for anger, how else do they cope if not with rage?
We all have this idea that male testosterone is what results in domestic abuse, bullying, and sexual assault.  And yet, we rarely ever hear anyone questioning our socially constructed boxes we force men into as contributing.
This is not a male issue.  This is not a female issue.  This is a human issue, and an advertising issue.
It's time we address it.