Men represented in the media

Men represented in the media

Men are often represented in many different ways in the media for example; as the bread winner in the domestic household, they are often represented as a father figure who their children look up to, they are also represented as strong and heterosexual, however no media text can represent men completely some show men in a similar way due to following traditions and stereotypes. 

For example in this Coca-Cola advert https://youtu.be/xgimZUJp5FM, in this advert the man who is working as a gardener is forced to take his shirt off after is it soaked by a can of Coke which the women in the advert give to him. 

As he takes his shirt off he is shot from a low angle in slow motion with high key lighting behind him, this is done to highlight his physic especially the lighting which is shone from behind him highlighting his stomach and arms and the slow motion emphasises this. 

This advert represents men as having a strong and well built physic which is stereo typically needed to appease the opposite sex, which is shown in the advert, this also links to the stereotype that men should be heterosexual as is shown in the advert with the man trying to impress the women which is traditionally what is expected of men. This also effects the representation of women who are shown as the ones who are attracted to men rather than it being the other way around. 

This Maxi-milk advert supports a similar ideology to the Coca-Cola advert about men needing a muscular physic to impress, this advert shows a man rock climbing with no kind of support and hanging by just one hand, this suggests that he is fearless as he doesn't feel the need to support himself and is strong enough to hang off a mountain with just one hand. 

The image shows a cloudy sky full of darkness and looks dim but the man is brightly lit which makes him stand out more and also gives a sense that the encoder of the text wants the audience to admire the man and look up to him which is traditionally correct as men are represented in the media as admirable. In the advert the man's body is the main focus which can be recognized by it being in the centre of the image. 

The strap line 'Milk for real men' connotes that the man in the image is a real man and looks how a man should due to the protein he drinks after the masculine exercise he takes part in.

In the film War Of The Worlds the main character played by Tom Cruise is a father who is trying to take care of his children during potentially the end of the World, but instead of fighting against the aliens and saving man kind (which is stereotypically the masculine thing to do in Sci-fi/Horror genre) he instead chooses to take care of his daughter and not fight. 

This goes against the traditional representation of men in films as they are traditionally supposed to be brave and fearless. But instead of fighting against the aliens and showing his strength off and being fearless he chooses not to fight. Throughout the film Tom Cruises character shows fear as he doesn't want to attack as he doesn't want to suffer the consequences, this goes against the common male stereotype all kind of film, which proves this representation is untraditional and unconventional.