Males, Media, And Violence

Males, Media, and Violence

Why are American men so violent? Why are our crime rates higher than any other countries and why is such a disproportionate percentage of the violence and crime committed by men? One has to begin to think that there are some major issues with the men in our society and the culture in which they grew up in, but my question is; why are American men so violent? Is it the movies we watch? The games we play? The music we listen to or the role models we look up to? There is no single cause and affect answer. Media as a whole is responsible for the high violence rates among men in our society. Rather then blaming a violent video game or movie for the behavior you have to look at the media from a broad point of view. Understand the affect that the media has upon our society and how it can influence us.

Now I am not trying to use the media as a fall boy, blaming every incident of a man shooting another man or beating his wife on the media. Instead I want to point out that the media portrays a male image of acceptable violence and hyper-masculinity. For a young boy to grow up today the images and icons that he will look up to and see as a role model will probably be more and more like your stereotypical male. Strong, dominating, fearless, emotionless, and controlling just to name a few. When a young boy spends his whole life growing up to this as his idol that is it not hard to believe that they too will adopt some of these personality traits?

In order to begin tackling this question we must first define what the media is. The media I am talking about includes television, movies, music, news, magazines, advertisements, entertainment, and so on. It is any outside medium used to entertain, inform, or influence people. In the United States the media is everywhere. It is almost impossible to avoid it unless you trap yourself in your room. But even there you probably have a poster on your wall and even that is a form of media. The point is that the media is unavoidable and even if you are conscious of it, it will still affect and influence you in some way.

When you look at our society's violence it becomes quite clear that a disproportionate percentage of violence is committed by men. If fact approximately 90% of all reported violent physical assaults are committed by males in this country (10). There is no denying that we have a problem and we need to address this issue. There is a common belief that males are just violent by nature and that it is biological when really our views on masculinity and the proper male image are all inherited traits causing this attitude to be accepted in are society as normal behavior. While everybody is in some way affected by television young children are more vulnerable because they are more impressionable and have a harder time discerning what is reality(7). By the time a child reaches the age of 18 on average they will have seen over 200,000 violent acts including over 40,000 murders(7).

Let's start by looking at athletics. Sports are such a large part of male culture. Many men, both young and old, look up to athletes. Ask any child who his idol is and you would probably get an athlete a majority of the time. Now think of your favorite athlete. A big, strong, dominating player probably. Someone who is better then everyone around him and can prove his dominance in a game. Now look at some of the sports that are greatly popular in our society. Sports like football and professional wrestling which glorify aggression, dominance, and superiority captivate so much of the male youth in this country. These sports have kids look up to images of large, strong men asserting their dominance over each other by beating them physically on the playing field. What happens when a young child looks up to these figures and begins to idolize them? Athletes such as Ron Artest, Jason Kid, O.J. Simpson, Latrell Sprewell and such, all phenomenal athletes who have committed violent acts on and off the court and gotten away with them because of their celebrity. Does this not put an image of invulnerability into a childes eyes. It is common knowledge that a childes mind is easily influenced and while one single athlete may not influence them when they see repetitive instances of an athlete dominating everyone and not getting in trouble might they not think that that is a way a man is suppose to behave?

TV and movies are also vital in describing the role media plays in creating the male image. The lead role of a man in most moves directed towards men is very similar. He is a strong man both physically and emotionally. Never shows weakness or compassion. He is a stoic and controlling individual who also always gets the girl in the end and never gets in trouble. It's your Terminator or Rambo who displays his hyper-masculinity through large muscles and brute force and it's your James Bond who is equally a man because of his ability to take on any enemy while still being very much a ladies man. Now one movie is not going to influence a child, but when every movie they see conveys this same male image it gets beaten into their brains to a point where this image becomes an absolute that a young boy must strive to achieve. These movies like Rocky, Rambo, Terminator, or the Bond movies. All are classic and popular male movies that portray this hyper-emasculated male image in there own way. They pound this belief into young boys that they must be a strong, tough, and smooth. They must defend themselves with force, not words. Also a "real man" shows no compassion or sensitivity. These are all viewed as signs of weakness.

When examining the male image in the media in relationship to violence one are often overlooked is advertisement. Many advertisements do one of two things. They either glorify the hyper-emasculated male image or objectify women. One of the most classic examples is the Marlboro Man. A quiet, rugged, emotionless individual who doesn't need anyone else to help him live. A male image that has become widely accepted throughout society. It is a shoe commercial where once the shoes are put on the player he rises above the competition. They always show the man benefiting from use of the product by becoming more dominate and powerful, as if that is what the ultimate objective for all men should be.

Also many other advertisements objectify women as sexual objects for the man's enjoyment. They