You were listening to

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You were listening to Ms Dynamite - It takes
more
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Media Identitylecture 5Masculinities Cláudi
a Gabriela Marques Vieira
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REMINDER Completion of the online assignment
each week is a prerequisite for passing the Media
Identity theory option.
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That which is considered normal and central in
hegemonic systems is largely invisible. Yet does
it exist at all?Stefan Herbrechter (2000)
From Trainspotting to Filth, in Russell West
Frank Lay (eds.) Subverting Masculinity
Hegemonic and Alternative Versions of Masculinity
in Contemporary Culture. Rodopi 111
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Terry When I was a lad, things werent half as
complicated as they are today. A man was a man
and a woman was a woman. That was it, no
argument! Now you dont know where you
are!(Background chorus of Yea, thats right,
that is!, etc.)Youve only got to look around
at the people who come into this place to see
what I mean. They look different and they behave
differently from when I was their age. Theres
blokes that come in here who hug and kiss each
other and theres women who weight train and kick
box. One of them even applied for the Marines!
Theres no doubt about it man-woman-wise,
everythings gone arse over tit, if you dont
mind my French!(Front bar of the Park Hotel,
Seatown, South Wales, October 2000)Stuart
Allan (2002) Foreword, in John Beynon,
Masculinities and Culture.Open University Press
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Anthony Clare On Men Masculinity in Crisis The
Dying Phallus, The Guardian Unlimited, 25
September 2000(Extract from Anthony Clare
(2000) On Men Masculinity in Crisis. Chatto and
Windus)
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In terms of who controls the media, Rob Lowe
suggests,The whole theory of masculity and the
idea of the males dominant grip on the media
industry is fast becoming history.Response to
assignment 4 Masculinity under Threat?
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masculinity and femininity have become far more
amorphous and difficult to define in our society
than even in the recent pastmasculinity was once
fixed and stable, or is this just part of
Terrys overall nostalgia for the world of
his long-lost young manhood? What can be said
with undeniable certainty is that as we embark
upon the twenty-first century masculinity is
being placed under the microscope as never
before, magnifying the fissures of which we may
not have previously been fully aware. This
examination is, of course, itself a product of
our times, in part a consequence of feminism and
in part a reaction to itMasculinity may be
having a crisis out there on the streets, but in
the academe it has never been in more demand as a
means of unlocking texts and settings.Stuart
Allan (2002) Foreword, in John Beynon,
Masculinities and Culture.Open University Press
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cover image of Masculinities and Culture
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changing representations of masculinities
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Georgia Knott - SEX AND THE CITY- Masculinity
Under Threat (pt I) Sex and The City is a
really good example of masculinity being under
threat, because the four main characters are four
very different, but powerful womenThe men that
appear in the programme all appear to be under
the power of the Women, whereas this used to be
the other way around. Samantha is a very good
example of this in the way she uses her sexuality
as her power over men, and she comes across in an
almost masculine way because of her confidence in
this area. In most of her sexual relationships
Samantha is the one with the control, and the men
she has sex with are the ones who come across as
much more timid in comparison. In the whole
series of Sex and The City there are two gay men
who are best friends with Carrie and Charlotte,
and these are probably the only men that remain
throughout the series and are clearly very camp,
with no stereotypical masculine traits. All the
other men that appear in the programme are mostly
men that some of the four have dated. An
interesting storyline was the one about
Samanthas boyfriend Smith Jerrod, who started
off as a struggling actor, but thanks to Samantha
turned in to a Hollywood Superstar, where again
Samantha has the control.
"Sex and the City" and the further decline of
women, The Gospel of Stephen, University of
North Carolina
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Georgia Knott - SEX AND THE CITY- Masculinity
Under Threat (pt II) Miranda is the more
intelligent female, who has Steve Brady, her
on/off boyfriend who again is not represented in
the most masculine of lights because of his love
for Miranda, and longing for attachment that
would be more thought of from a female
character.The main man in Carries life
throughout the whole series is Mr Big, whose name
actually suggests a very masculine, powerful
manit is Mr Big who is really the only man who
comes across differently in the show, and at the
end of Sex and The City, it is Mr Big that Carrie
finally chooses. He is extremely successful and a
complete gentleman, and does show these traits of
masculinity that isnt shown in any other man in
the programme. However at the same time he shows
us a new form of masculinity by his interest in
love and relationships and he does have a heart,
shown by his caring for Carrie and this is
something that is becoming more apparent today.
sex-and-the-city, Carrie and Mr. Big, fan art
deviation, Deviant Art
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The 1990s Nick Hornby thing
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Nick Hornby
And then theres Love Hurts and When Love
Breaks Down and How Can You Mend A Broken
Heart and The Speed Of The Sound Of Loneliness
and Shes Gone and I Just Dont Know What To
Do With Myself and...some of these songs I have
listened to around once a week, on average (three
hundred times in the first month, every now and
again thereafter), since I was sixteen or
nineteen or twenty-one. How can that not leave
you bruised somewhere? How can that not turn you
into the sort of person liable to break into
little bits when your first love goes all wrong?
What came first, the music or the misery? Did I
listen to music because I was miserable? Or was I
miserable because I listened to the music? Do all
those records turn you into a melancholy
person? Nick Hornby, High Fidelity (1995)
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(No Transcript)
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About a Boy discussion, Newsnight Review, BBC2,
26 April 2002
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Vikki West - Masculinity Under Threat I
remember watching this American film about six or
seven years ago called Men Dont Tell. It
wasnt well known - more like a TV movie, kind of
issue based from the early nineties with Judith
Light and Peter Strauss. It was about domestic
violence, but the other way around to what is
usually portrayed the wife was the abuser and
the husband the victim. In public, the guy was a
typical masculine man could defend himself
against attackers easil and stood up for himself
at work, but in private, he wasnt a good enough
husband to his wife who would beat him and
eventually their children. Everything else I
have read, seen or experienced of domestic
violence had been aimed at women and only seemed
to focus on the idea of the aggressive,
masculine man and the submissive feminine
woman. Although Ive never really believed in
generalizing to the point of these stereotypes,
this was the first time I had become aware of the
problem of spousal abuse against the husband, and
in turn, that men werent always as masculine
as they are supposed to be. In fact, men are the
victims in 39 of all domestic violence cases.
This has remained a relatively unspoken subject
for years as men are thought to be better able to
protect themselves from danger, and their
superiority over women allows them to be the
dominant ones in a relationship to question this
is to undermine their masculinity.
Peter Strauss in Men Dont Tell (1993)
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NYPD Blue
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NYPD Blue Lost Time, season 8, first broadcast,
USA, 8 May 2001
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Even in football
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Changing representations of masculine sexualities
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Lets have a look at some of your magazine covers
or ezine homepages. What masculinities do they
convey? media 2 gt
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21st century counterculture
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Mens magazines

• In Making Sense of Mens Magazines (2001),
  Jackson et al suggest that mens magazines show a
  pervasive lack of awareness of the constructed
  nature of masculine identity and that irony and
  humour is used to override insecurities about the
  meaning of being a man today.
• Alternatively, David Gauntlett argues that
  todays magazines for men are all about the
  social construction of masculinity. That is, if
  you like, their subject-matter.

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Other claims about mens magazines

• Jackson et al (2001) also say the magazines
  represent
• a celebration of autonomy and a fear of
  dependence
• and a desperate defence of masculine
  independence.
• Imelda Whelehan (2000) argues that magazines like
  Loaded, FHM and Maxim are an attempt to
• override the message of feminism
• promoting a laddish world where women are sex
  objects
• and changes in gender roles can be dismissed with
  an ironic joke.

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FHM cover (example March 2003)
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FHM sex advice features (example March 2003)
(First page of several)
(First page of several)
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Maxim cover (example March 2003)
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Maxim On the Couch self-help feature (example
March 2003)
(First two pages of five On the Couch pages)
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Maxim On the Couch self-help feature (example
March 2003)
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but the girls have their counterpart Scarlet
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appeals to the school boy who to be truthful
lives in all men everywhere.Amazon customer
review
Who needs a computer? Charles, 11, and
12-year-old Alex gets to grips with old-fashioned
warfare Christopher Middleton, Danger boys
having, telegraph.co.uk, 13 June 2006
Gonn Hal Iggulden (2006) The Dangerous Book for
Boys. HarperCollins
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Response to assignment 4 Manhood by Matthew
Waite (pt I) I think Maddox of the famous
bestpageintheuniverse.net fame takes masculinity
stereotyping to an ultimate irony, as a device of
protecting his own manhood. His use of shocking
storeys where he is a pirate who rapes and
pillages, while beating up children and old
ladies is obviously satire, but proves his point
that in a (in his opinion) mainly feminine
society, its still cool to pretend to be a pirate
and get lots of hot chicks. Some of his articles
are very articulate and others are more jokey but
all seem bizarrely balanced and well thought out
however.His comments on how women view their
farts differently to men do seem strikingly true.
He claims women think their farts smell like
rainbows and buttercups, when in reality they
smell like old men and broccoli. He claims mens
farts have a whaft you can soak in and enjoy like
a fine wine. This overt masculinity and
un-political-correctness is refreshing and
humorous for males and females alike. It made me
think - it was once manly to do big manly farts,
and it was once ideal to look impressively and
manly. These days, im expected to not fart
anymore and be more poncey and like Orlando
Bloom. Who I cant imagine ever farts ever. I
belive this speaking of farts and admitting -
women fart too - men are better at farting - adds
farting back to the male repertoire and perhaps
makes it more socially acceptable as it once
within circles was. Other Maddox articles cover
other topics but his book - The A to Z of
Manliness, surely does list everything manly.
Items such as body hair, sex, beer, all what men
are perceived as not meant to liking in order to
be more Orlando Bloomish and hence get
girlfriends. But Maddox makes them manly again
and it seems to send signals of ? its ok to be a
man boys and girls. Its cool your female, but im
a man. And as a man, go and cook me a pie. That
sort of thing. Sure its dated, but it makes a
point.
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Response to assignment 4 Manhood by Matthew
Waite (pt II) Personally I think Maddox is
clever in that he is now a millionaire, but
disagree with a lot of what he says about what it
is to be man. I dont drink beer or play
football, yet I am man. I think its wrong to be
so manly you catagorize women as useless, but I
equally hate those tampon adverts that make me
feel useless and say I cant multitask. Why does
Maddox do this though? I think perhaps he feels
threatened. He is a hairy short man with no
chance of being Orlando Bloomish so if he can
make man-sexy again for being hairy, and man
powerful again, in a world where he feels women
now rule, all the better for him. And he sells a
bucket load of books. To quote the Daily
Mail There is, apparently, a resurgence of
manliness in America. Superman has returned to
the big screen and unshaven, testosterone-charged
film stars such as Colin Farrell no longer look
socially marginalised. Years of feminism, which
insists on the absolute interchangeability of the
traditional roles of man and woman, are giving
way to a reassertion of the male attribute of
machismo, it is claimed. The metrosexual, that
urbanised, sensitive, emotionally and physically
androgynous model of 21st-century manhood, is
dead.