Masculinity is constructed from gender identity, which is a product of our society. Masculinity is basically the relations associated with men that describe what is expected of them. The gender identity of masculinity refers to the social roles, relations, and behaviors associated with men, which have been constructed by our society with meanings that are attributed to such characteristics. In most cases, masculinity is perceived as the dominant gender portrayed as powerful, aggressive, and self-reliant.

Masculinity in Advertisements

Advertising is recently playing a significant role in promoting masculinity. Sexist advertisements do not only affect women, but also men by encouraging them to aspire to potentially harmful and unrealistic brand of masculinity. Many advertisements in men’s magazines send mixed messages on the ideal picture of a man. Unfortunately, many ads targeting men tend to promote beliefs that toughness and violence is manly, danger is exciting, and it’s acceptable to be insensitive to women. Nevertheless, many ads promoting masculinity are exposing their viewers and readers into normalized beliefs about an ideal man, and this results to social and medical problems such as violence towards women, aggressiveness, and drug abuse, most of which are probably coupled with stereotyping of women. Some of the popular advertisements promoting masculinity are Macho ads, AXE, NAUTICA OCEANS perfume, NIVEA, D & G, Gucci Guilty, etc. The list goes on. Nonetheless, there is constant uproar from the public and the regulatory agencies that the Macho and Lux Cosy ads targeting men are going too far with their content and messages regarding masculinity.

Masculinity in Video Games

Video Source: Jessica Gomez

Video games play a significant role in representing masculinity by promoting the dominance of the traditional male characters. For example, the Silent Hill is one of the popular survival horror video games that embody the representation of masculinity. The video games are

gendered towards masculinity in form of their goals and objectives which conforms to masculine activities of collecting weaponry, dominating space, and fighting. Grand Theft Auto Liberty City is another popular video game that advances masculinity. In this video game, men are represented as domineering, with all sorts of aggression that is accompanied with their callous treatment of women.