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Anti-Heros

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COMM 246
04/11/2012
Modern Anti-Heroes In modern media violence is worshiped and the hero is not always a law abiding citizen. The anti-hero is becoming increasingly popular. Many anti-heroes are criminals. Writers have the ability to have their audience fall in love and care about an anti-hero. Looking up to these anti-heroes might have some devastating affects on society. Violent media, particularly movies, could very well have an affect on the number of violent crimes being committed in the world. It may cause younger audience members to idolize the people in the media they consume, which could lead to the recreation of the crimes they saw, or a new interpretation of them. Some people are easily influenced. By studying …show more content…

Individuals seek alternative symbolic identifiers to establish their genders when traditional avenues of “doing” masculinity are blocked. Connell (1995) explains that changes in the workforce, the family, the economy and the political division of power has led to a crises in masculinity, in the United States, which increasingly threatens many men 's sense of what it means to be a man. In the precarious climate, some men may turn to crime as means to accomplish masculinity. “When other masculine resources are unavailable, particular types of crimes can provide alternative resources for accomplishing gender. (Messerschmidt 1993. p. 84). This means of gender accomplishment, criminality, seems, appropriate for males because, “crime is associated with power (Messerschmidt. 1986. p. 44)”, and power, whether legitimate or not, is tied to definitions of what it means to be a man.
This quote from page five of Crime in Movies by Sarah Eschholz and Jana Bufkin, explains that how certain men will turn to crime to help provide for their families or even just to prove their masculinity. They might think that they are justified because of stories like Robin Hood. When people condone certain actions by characters in media, then naturally they will find ways to justify their own actions. What about Jack Sparrow and Danny Ocean? Why are they popular? Their ethics are slightly lacking. They steal for personal gain. The

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