Is the representation of men and masculinity changing in popular culture

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Question 6.  New Masculinities

Is the representation of men and masculinity changing in popular culture?  If so how?  Are there new relations of looking that challenge the conventional dynamics where (white, heterosexual) men own the gaze and ‘others’ (eg women, blacks) are the object of the gaze?

The rise of the Women’s Liberation Movement and of modern feminism have brought about a deep questioning of what it is to be a woman.  An indirect, yet surely inevitable, consequence of this process has been a growing questioning of what it is to be a man.  This is seen to be in a whole range of changes in men’s expressed feelings, action and activities, as the attempt is made to redefine masculinity.  It may be noted, for example, the development of unisex or bisexual, and the frequently apolitical blurring of gender roles in pop culture, as in the Boy George, Marilyn Manson and other members of the ‘gender bender’ phenomenon.  Men also seem urged by both the leaders of pop fashion and commercial advertisers to change their clothes, wear make - up, skirts and jewellery.  Men’s images and masculinity are fragmented, softened, subtly altered by the reference and illusion.  Men occasionally appear in advertisements as sensual, caring, even effeminate; the ‘new man’ phenomenon, a true creation of the media, is promoted in magazines and television, and sportsmen and trade unionists weep in public in times of victory and defeat.  Increasingly, thought not for the first time, masculinity is in ‘crisis’.  This paper will assess how the representation of men and masculinity is changing in popular culture and if there are new relations of looking that challenge the conventional dynamics where men own the gaze and others are the ‘object’ of the gaze.

Alongside cultural changes there are at a more general, structural level, a number of major social changes for men, such as the loss if interest in the traditional male ‘breadwinner role’ with increased divorce, rising unemployment and even ‘men’s liberation’.  Perhaps most importantly is the direct and in - direct impacts of feminism, and men’s various responses to feminism - on one hand, feminist critiques of dominant masculinity, male violence and patriarchal power; on the other hand, a wide range of men’s responses, ranging from outright hostility to sympathetic stances, in the form of men’s anti - sexist groups and other such activities.

According to David Buchbinder, it is no longer as easy as it once was to define heterosexual men as masculine and homosexual ones as, if not feminine or effeminate, then at least non - masculine.  Machismo, which may be described as aggressive maleness or hyper-masculinity, is no longer the province only of the heterosexual.  Many gay men in the 1980’s adopted the macho look, and in addition, the public disclosure of their homosexuality by many gay men of various temperaments and appearance had tended to undermine the popular stereotype of the limp - wrested and lisping male homosexual.   “The rise of the ‘new age’ man has also jaded older, more traditional distinctions between what is considered manly or masculine and what is therefore unmanly, un-masculine”.

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Therefore, it may be argued that the representations of men and masculinity have seen changes in ‘everyday’ culture.  In the final decades of the twentieth century, feminism put ‘masculinities’ on the media agenda.  From the beginning of the modern women’s movement in the late 1960’s, attention has been directed at male sexuality.  The reasoning being that initially, men were the focus of attention because they were seen as the problem, the “…holders and guardians of the patriarchal power which kept women in a position of subordination”.  Barbara Creed argues that men are still seen as the problem, but the ...

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