As a
young child, the world is shaping and influencing you into the person you will
become, and most of the time you’ll have absolutely no idea it’s happening. For
boys, it’s what is going to make you a real man? Well, real men have massive
and loud trucks of course, for the masculine jobs they have where they get down
and dirty because no one likes a man who doesn’t want to get dirty.
As I
was walking with my boyfriend the other day, we hopped into his Chevy Silverado
and I wondered if he knew that subconsciously, the world in which he grew up
and was influenced by, made the choice for him to buy that truck. As he grew
up, he was influenced by many factors, including of the media which tells boys
that when they get older, buy a truck and it’ll make you a “real man” for your
“real man” job. Some mottos for these truck commercials include and are not
limited too, “Built Tough” or “Like a Rock” and they almost always have a man
with a really deep voice narrating telling you that you won’t be a “real man”
until you buy this expensive loud truck. In 2015, there was a Chevy Colorado
commercial that insisted that people will respect you more and find you more
masculine if you have a truck. The “masculinity” in the media goes farther than
just truck commercials. Products like “Axe” are geared towards men, always
having a more “masculine man” target a man who is more anxious or “scrawny” and
telling them that once they wash their body with this body wash, they’ll
suddenly become what society has normalized a man to be; big, strong, violent, tough
guy. Because if they don’t conform to these norms, they’ll be seen as a “pussy”
or “gay”.
I
snapped this photo while we were on a walk, never realizing that I would use
this photo to talk about masculinity norms in the media. This photo of Carson,
symbolizes how most boys never even realize they’re walking towards what
society has made seem normal, for this instance, big trucks. I made this photo
black and white because I thought it better portrays that boys have a black and
white view and they don’t really have a choice when it comes to who they want to
become. The fact that he is looking away in the photo symbolizes how most men
don’t like to admit that they were influenced by society or the media, and
Carson is blurred out because in most cases, society doesn’t pay attention to
men’s emotions or that they want something to do something different with their
lives. The media, masculine is a must.
1 comment:
From Carlie
I love how you represented masculinity within your edits of a candid photo. You mention how the photo is in black and white because men don’t have a choice when it comes to future opportunities, before reading your essay I thought the black and white edit portrays more on societies binary structure that you should be either masculine or feminine. I feel as if you are focusing more on the individual person instead of the bigger picture. I don’t think it is boys fault that society structured their future into being a part of the tough guise theory. Males don’t automatically have a black and white view of the world; they are taught that through social media and their surroundings. I like how you blurred out your boyfriend’s body because society almost seems like they are being absorbed by society instead of living in it. It is unfair that men should hide a large part of themselves in order to be accepted by their peers. In your photo the man seems as if he is putting his head down which symbolizes to me that he notices the stereotypes towards men, but still continues to go towards the truck aka societies norms anyways because fitting in is easier than standing out.
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