Society and Men - Advertising

Tough Guise: http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-9632437500432634#

I thoroughly enjoy how witty the title of the above video is. Again an awesome video, but you can get away with watching the first ten or so minutes to see the main message of the talk.

First off, I really thought that this was a nice change of pace from the traditional idea that women are the only people affected by advertising. It is an issue for women, without a doubt, but they're not the only ones. The idea of a man having to be physically strong, violent and generally dominant is an idea that has existed for some time, although it is interesting that the speaker pointed out how it seems to have become a greater and greater factor as time has passed (larger guns for actors in films, bigger biceps in children's toys, etc.).

The speaker really drove the topic home when he pulled out the statistics of male violence opposed to women. Taking a look at the ideas surrounding us, it doesn't come as quite a shock that dominance is a huge aim in the media towards answering the question of "What is a man?".

But we can't all be Chuck Norris.

I was watching a sit-com the other day and it connected to this issue very deeply. The man of the family refused to watch a romantic movie because he thought it was sissy, though his wife thought he should show his sensitive side. He ends up watching it himself and gets very emotionally attached to it, even crying. His wife finds out and is touched, but when they finally sit down to watch the movie together she is turned off by his "baby" attitude. Now, being a sit-com, I expected a touching solution to this problem. Perhaps the wife learns to accept her husband for who he is and the husband agrees to tone it down a bit. Instead when the wife confronts him on it he lies, telling her that he was just joking around about it. She believes him... that was it.

Disappointing According to Jim. Disappointing.

Shows like these are usually pretty light-hearted, but I couldn't let go of what this "solution" meant. The man was forced to put up a guard for how he was really feeling, hiding a part of who he was from the person he shouldn't have to hide anything from, his wife. What does this mean for their marriage? In terms of the sit-com obviously nothing, but if it were in real life I feel like there would be problems. The episode just seemed to resonate the message from the talk that men have to put up this tough exterior.

So what can guys do to combat this image? I feel that that shouldn't be all that a man is. Nobody should feel weak all the time, but at the same time showing weakness at times I believe can be a strength (especially since society has the idea we should be otherwise). The talk itself featured examples of highly respected men who break the stereotypical image and I thought that was great to illustrate. Men feel they need to be strong to get any respect and it's a terrible thought that they have to hide a part of who they are. No one should have to hide what they really want. Ultimately I feel that men should try to throw away their "faux" strength and replace it with true strength. The confidence that comes from being who you really are. No matter what anyone else thinks.
-Never stop questioning.