The Influence Of Male Stereotypes

The ideal man has been ever changing. In modern society, the classic male appears tall, chiseled, and strong. How does this image impact a man 's view of himself? According to one study, males who see men doing performance-based activities actually felt worse about their appearance, vs men who had just viewed an image of a muscular looking man, posing. “ ...participants who viewed the performance-focused images actually reported poorer overall appearance satisfaction and poorer fitness satisfaction than participants who were exposed to the aesthetic-focused images or scenery.” (Mulgrew, K. E., el al., 2014, p.457). This leads me to believe that a man feels that it 's important that he is viewed as muscular, strong and skillful, more so than …show more content…
Has this aggressive behavior represented in the media caused an increase in men acting more aggressive in their day to day lives? There are more violent crimes committed by males. Between 1976-2000, 87.9% of those charged with homicide were men (Scharrer, 2005, p. 353). However, is it fair to say that media has an impact on these males? Does aggressive behavior being watched make all men more aggressive, or does it only make those men who are more prone to aggression more aggressive? Does the type of media matter? In one study, the more realistic the show, the more likely it is to bring out aggressive hyper-masculine behavior, “The results also point fairly clearly to the conclusion that responses to violent television stimuli will differ depending on the nature of the violent depiction(Atkin, 1983; Berkowitz & Alioto, 1973; Jo & Berkowitz, 1994). The more realistic television stimulus—which also combined HM and violent portrayals—resulted in larger increases in aggressive responses to the constructed scenarios compared to the less realistic television stimulus that contained violence but no evidence of HM.” (Scharrer, 2005, p. 371). Furthermore, watching or reading about violence can cause a male viewer to view himself less favorably, “In a laboratory experiment, exposure to violent narratives predicted relatively more negative body perception, attitudes, and affect. A participant who read narratives describing aggressive and violent male protagonists were likely to later perceive himself as less physically attractive, be more favorably, inclined toward diverse muscle-building strategies, and be more anxious about his physical appearance than a participant who read