The ideal man of 2012

My blog is concentrating on advertising in which men play the main role and how they are portrayed in these advertisements, plus it also concentrates on how men are shown in women magazines. The problem now is that there is a lot of pressure from the media not only on women but also on men. In the women magazines women often find out that their man is too much of a "macho" man and he should be more sensitive and more feminine in order to better understand certain problems that concern only women. In commercials men are shown also in a rather feminine way but also as successful men with muscles, long hair, fancy clothes and also nearly "Ken" like perfect looks. So, what should a man choose? Should he be more sensitive in order to please the females or should he be more strong and wealthy to make his male friends jealous? Maybe the best answer is a man should be a man. Tom Nakayama in his article " Images of Men in Advertising" has said that it is very hard to define now what a man should really be like. As if you see all these advertisements the men stereotype changes depending on the product that is to be sold and on the type of the audience. In the advertisements that are supposed to interest women the man appears usually half naked, in the advertisements that are supposed to catch the attention of men the model in most cases is in a tuxedo, he’s a successful man with lots of women around him. Nakayama also says in the article, which I think is true that it is the advertising that creates the stereotypes of men. It is true that usually men are portrayed as lonely, when it is and commercial for alcohol men are portrayed as those who have a lot of women and party with their friends all the time. Plus none of the ads show men that have a family.

The " Boys to Men: Media Messages About Masculinity" has shown different men stereotypes that are commonly shown in adverts. One of these stereotype figures is called "The Big Shot" and it is the man stereotype that is figures in advertisements for men. He is successful, strong and wealthy usually surrounded by lots of women. These types of men are shown in commercials for men perfumes because they are supposed to send the message " If you smell like me you will be a step closer to a successful, wealthy man that every woman desires." Danielle Limpinnian in the essay "The portrayal of Men and Women in TV Ads" clearly says that masculinity means different things to women and to men. The article states that what to men seems masculine such as watching football and drinking beer may to women seem childish. This clearly supports my claim that today's women feel that men should be more feminized.

As I will develop more in my next post male androgyny has become also very popular nowadays as the rock bands, which were the symbols of how a real tough man should look, are now adopting the androgynous style which was popular mainly in the 70s,80s meaning that feminine and masculine features are combined. The problem is that media shows images of men that look feminine and act in a feminine way and women say, " I want that kind of man". Truly a man who acts like our girlfriend but can change the light bulb is a perfect ideal man. However we cannot want both things at one time. In my opinion this will lead to a tragic end because women are portrayed as successful strong, independent in need of no man, with superwoman like powers and men are portrayed as more feminine. In a short time we will be living in a world where the woman will open up a beer play video games while her man is discussing the new Chanel makeup line with his lads on the phone.

Below you can see an example of a commercial for the BOD fragrance spray.

Links: http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Students/del0001.html

http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/men_and_masculinity/masculinity_stereotypes.cfm

http://www.medialit.org/reading-room/images-men-advertising