Media Stereotyping of Men

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Males are stereotyped in movies, books, magazines, television, almost any type or medium with a male figure exhibit some type of male stereotyping. The most common male stereotypes in the media are often very well known and referred to as normal traits that men are suppose to posses, and these male traits are the following: man are naturally stronger than the opposite sex, men are the family providers, bread-winners , men are tough, adventurous, brave, protectors, and most importantly a men must be able to shoot guns, jump off cliffs, ride motorcycles, and must be able to save the damsel in distress. While I have some idea of how men are stereotyped, my main focus here will be on how men are stereotyped within the media.

After reading an article by Dave Barry entitled, “Guys vs. Men,” which is an article that is about, well, guys and men and how much they differ from one another. While reading through the article I found that Barry provided quite a few male stereotypes, which was what his entire article was about. “Guys Like Neat Stuff, Guys Like Really Pointless Challenges, Guys Lack a Rigid and Well-Defined Moral Code, and Guys are Not Great Communicators,” were the titles of his four short stories about how guys differ from men, and within these four short stories is where my curiosity for stereotypes arose.

So after reading the Barry article I began to do some research on stereotype, and found a few interesting websites which lead me further into the world of stereotyping. As I did my search and read through some of the results I began to wonder why people stereotyped other people, which naturally led me to change my initial main topic and search for reasons to explain why people stereotype each other. Looking up why peo...

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...s; 4th edition. Eds. Andrea A. Lunsford and John J. Ruszkiewicz. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2003. 403-413

Children Now. “Boys To Men: Media Messages About Masculinity.” BoysToMen. 1999. http://www.mediate.com/articles/children.cfm.(20 April 2006).

Margaret W. Matlin. “Bimbos and Rambos: The Cognitive Basis of Gender Stereotypes.” http://www.psichi.org/pubs/articles/article_112.asp. 1999. (20 April. 2006).

Media Awareness Network. “Common Stereotypes of Men in Media.” 2006. http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/men_and_masculinity/masculinity_stereotypes.cfm.(17 April 2006).

Myra Junyk. “YOUTH: Media Models Say Muscles Make Men” 1989. http://www.medialit.org/readings_room/aritcle436.html.(20 April 2006)

Wikipedia. “Stereotype.” 1 May 2006. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotype#Stereotypes_of_groups_by_other_groups. (20 April 2006).

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