Masculinity in Advertisements

 

A man should never cry, a man should be the bread earner, a man should be strong and brave, and a man should not do household chores; this is what the advertisement teaches us. Men's bodies have been featured over a specified period in advertising, displaying an idealized body image akin to that of women. According to research, males are under social pressure to embrace classic macho male models in advertising. Martin and Gnoth (2009) discovered that feminine men favoured feminine models in private but chose conventional male models when their collective self was prominent. 

 

The authors hypothesized that this outcome represented social pressure on men to support traditional masculine values. According to Dworkin and Wachs (2009), the widespread image of 'healthy' and 'fit' bodies used by the media, exemplified by the muscular man and the slim woman, promotes the idea of an ideal and singular body type that should be strived for by both genders, but which may not fit with the reality of body type disparity. Studies like Mary Martin and James Gentry have discovered that teen advertising lowers teenagers' self-esteem by instilling excessive standards about their physical features through idealized models. 

Many advertisements imply that men are only interested in sex and often represent men as sex objects. According to one research on male body preoccupation, advertising for everything from cars to underwear included bodybuilder pictures with "toned abdominal muscles, enormous chests, and swelled shoulders, a combo of muscularity and leanness presumably attainable only through pharmaceuticals." Even though women's equality is growing in society, males have become more obsessed with muscularity since it is still viewed as a cultural emblem of masculinity. 

Furthermore, it has been stated that a muscular figure has become an attractive norm for both heterosexuals and homosexuals. Along with body image, gender roles also have been impacted by these stereotypes. Advertisements often show men as people who have casual relationships and are against commitment. Even though we see several changes in the stereotypical advertisements, the portrayal of masculinity and gender roles has a long way to go before seeing a proper and positive showcase of all genders.    

References 

Kolbe, R., & Albanese, P. (2013, May 31). Citations: Man to man: A content analysis of Sole-Male images in Male-Audience magazines. Journal of Advertisement. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/citedby/10.1080/00913367.1996.10673509?scroll=top&needAccess=true

Humphreys, P., & Paxton, S. (2004, September). Impact of exposure to idealized male images on adolescent boys' body image. Science Direct. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1740144504000518?via%3Dihub

Kimmel, A. J. (1999). Males, Masculinity, and Consumption: an Exploratory Investigation | ACR. The Association of Consumer Research. https://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/11390

Patterson, M. A. U. R. I. C. E., & Elliott, R. I. C. H. A. R. D. (2010, September 15). Negotiating Masculinities: Advertising and the Inversion of the Male Gaze. Taylor & Francis. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10253860290031631

Elliott, R. I. C. H. A. R. D., & Elliott, C. H. R. I. S. T. I. N. E. (2007, February 17). Idealized images of the male body in advertising: a reader‐response exploration. Taylor & Francis. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1352726042000263566