Items that are contradictory tend to confuse and aggravate society. In a world where everyone and everything has a specific purpose, place, and stereotype, most people do not want to accept contradictory ideas that upset the status quo and balance of life. These situations simply make people uncomfortable. Richard Dyer touches on this uncomfortableness in “Don’t Look Now: The Male Pin-up.” In this essay, Dyer focuses on how male pin-ups tend to create contradictory feelings towards society’s norms of pleasure and desire. I explain that through his examples and analysis, Dyer shows the male pin-up can become contradictory by the way male models look in pin-ups and the by way those pin-ups are prepared.
Through hegemonic norms of society, people …show more content…
Dyer states that all of the work put into preparing the image means that, “the image that the viewer looks at is not summoned up by his or her act of looking but in collaboration with those who put the image there” (60). To prepare the image, the photographer must create the sense that the male in the pin-up is not in a passive role, but rather a masculine role that assumes proper dominance. While women are simply in images to be viewed and create pleasure, men must be doing something that evokes masculine qualities. Images of men involving action, sport, and strength create a feeling of dominance because of the raw strength and power portrayed. If not shown in action, Dyer explains that, “the male image still promises activity by the way the body is posed. Even in an apparently relaxed, supine pose, the model tightens and tautens his body so that the muscles are emphasized, hence drawing attention to the body’s potential for action” (60). Regardless of the expression, position, or action of the male model, the image of the male pin-up is fixed in a way that still represents dominance, even in a passive …show more content…
In order to show power, male pin-ups are made to appear naturally masculine. However, the strain of sheer strength is actually not natural at all. Dyer mentions this contradiction when he states that, “developed muscularity – muscles that show – is not in truth natural at all, but is rather achieved. The muscle man is the end product of his own activity of muscle-building” (62). While the muscles and overall sense of masculinity may seem to fulfill a phallic desire or responsibility, the efforts are in vain. No matter how strong, manly, or stoic the male model is, he will never be able to fully live up to the phallic ideas of the world around him; it simply is not possible to be the ultimate man. Even though men in pin-ups do their best to assert a dominance over the female viewer, Dyer explains that even the best imaging cannot make the models appear as masculine as they desire when he states, “Like so much else about masculinity, images of men, founded on such multiple instabilities, are such a strain. Looked at but pretending not to be, still yet asserting movement, phallic but weedy – there is seldom anything easy about such imagery”
Through hegemonic norms of society, people …show more content…
Dyer states that all of the work put into preparing the image means that, “the image that the viewer looks at is not summoned up by his or her act of looking but in collaboration with those who put the image there” (60). To prepare the image, the photographer must create the sense that the male in the pin-up is not in a passive role, but rather a masculine role that assumes proper dominance. While women are simply in images to be viewed and create pleasure, men must be doing something that evokes masculine qualities. Images of men involving action, sport, and strength create a feeling of dominance because of the raw strength and power portrayed. If not shown in action, Dyer explains that, “the male image still promises activity by the way the body is posed. Even in an apparently relaxed, supine pose, the model tightens and tautens his body so that the muscles are emphasized, hence drawing attention to the body’s potential for action” (60). Regardless of the expression, position, or action of the male model, the image of the male pin-up is fixed in a way that still represents dominance, even in a passive …show more content…
In order to show power, male pin-ups are made to appear naturally masculine. However, the strain of sheer strength is actually not natural at all. Dyer mentions this contradiction when he states that, “developed muscularity – muscles that show – is not in truth natural at all, but is rather achieved. The muscle man is the end product of his own activity of muscle-building” (62). While the muscles and overall sense of masculinity may seem to fulfill a phallic desire or responsibility, the efforts are in vain. No matter how strong, manly, or stoic the male model is, he will never be able to fully live up to the phallic ideas of the world around him; it simply is not possible to be the ultimate man. Even though men in pin-ups do their best to assert a dominance over the female viewer, Dyer explains that even the best imaging cannot make the models appear as masculine as they desire when he states, “Like so much else about masculinity, images of men, founded on such multiple instabilities, are such a strain. Looked at but pretending not to be, still yet asserting movement, phallic but weedy – there is seldom anything easy about such imagery”