How are men represented in the media today?

There are many different roles that men are represented as in the media, but not all of them are positive. In this essay I will be using detailed examples of different types of men in the media and exploring how they are represented. 

Firstly I chose Brad Pitt as my first media text. Brad Pitt has always been a celebrity who woman love and men envy. This is because of his overt masculinity and sex appeal. Throughout his years as an actor he has always played a role which requires him to be strong, powerful and yet still protect people. Take his role in ‘World War Z’ as an example, he plays a former UN investigator who is called in to help save the human race from the virus which is turning people into the undead. He is not only forced to protect his team who are trying to help him find a cure for the virus but he also has to protect his wife and two daughters who -as they are all female characters- are all useless when it comes to doing anything manual. Brad Pitt holds many of societies dominant ideologies of how men should be as he is always in control and he is a natural born leader. He has also constructed a persona of himself outside of the big screen as a family man who loves and cherishes his children and would do anything for them. 

The second media text I have chosen to represent men in the media is The Big Bang Theory. I believe this is the perfect example to demonstrate how the media represents smart, intellectual men. The television programme uses stereotypes to help the audience understand the characters more. The encoders of the show believe that because a man wears glasses and is smart he must automatically be a comic book nerd who is shy around females, likes action figures and has no sense of how to act in social situations. Even though I do like the show I sometimes take an oppositional reading because I don’t like the way they stereotype the characters to death, they even have a foreign male!

The next media text I am going to analyse is that of the Heineken adverts. Heineken is a type of beer which is mostly drank by men, because of this the adverts target audience is predominately men. The advert from 2012 represents men as strong, masculine and attractive. It follows the male protagonist as he leads a woman -most probably his ‘prize’- through a busy kitchen into a Japanese nightclub. Every characters he comes across greets him with open eyes, connoting that is loved by everybody he meets. He is also portrayed as fun and easy going as he jokes around as they make their way into the nightclub. The character could also be seen as being a bit cocky though, as he presumes that because the woman is opting to spend time with him that she is definitely attracted to him. I believe that people in the media opt to use a male character who is confident, funny and masculine in advertising for two reasons. The first being that it is an easy stereotype to produce as it is easily recognisable. The second reason being that potential consumers could feel they are closer to the character. 

The last media text I am choosing to analyse is David Brent from The Office. I have chosen him because he is the perfect example of an incompetent man who is self obsessed as sometimes extremely embarrassing. I believe that the encoders represent David Brent as a buffoon because it’s just simply funny. I do think that foreigners believe that all English men are similar to the character of David Brent though and therefore they take an oppositional reading.

Taking into account my analysis I believe that men are mostly presented as being strong and masculine because it’s one of societies dominant ideologies.