Masculinity In Mainstream Media

Mainstream media often portrays the idea of masculinity in a very linear way, to be a man you have to display certain characteristics and if you don’t have show these socially constructed masculine traits you can be ostracized because of it. Some of these traits “include a cultural ideal that emphasizes dominance, strength, accumulation of material goods, aggression, risk-taking, and adventurousness” (Connell, 1995). These traits are often negative and stereotype young men into these crafted categories that not everyone is going to fit into. Thus forcing men to go in a certain direction with their gender identity based off old ideas instead of letting them find their own identities and come to terms with who they truly are as a person. So as a man who consumes this mainstream media I would like to see less of this generalized gender identity being pushed on men. I

In the Engstrom reading he talks about how the school he was studying at discouraged the masculine trait of binge drinking with severe consequences such as community service and hefty fines to try and discourage these negative stereotypes associated with masculinity. However this only affects a very small portion of the masculinity traits pushed on men and Engstrom suggests that it’s more important to discourage “Hegemonic masculinity” which Engstrom describes as a cultural idea that encourages many stereotypes such as dominance strength, and accumulation of material goods among other ideals. So it would be very effective on helping reduce this idea of what it means to me masculine if society can begin to discourage these hegemonic traits. These traits that can be so harmful to young men can often hinder men’s personalities, if this is discouraged it would allow them to find their own identities and not be categorized by these negative