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Masculinity Compare And Contrast Essay

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Student Number: 1540945
Module: FM3007

Compare and contrast the representation of masculinity in two films or TV series of your choice.

Masculinity can be defined as the behaviours, social roles, and relations of men within a given society in addition to the meanings that are attributed to them. The term masculinity stresses gender, unlike male, which stresses biological sex. Despite, this we often times see masculinity being represented as directly correlating to men with an inability to adhere to this is shown making you less of a "man". As put by Katz (1999) there is an expectation that men on screen must be void of emotion, not backing down from a fight, tough and an embodiment of the male gaze. Katz (1999) argues that essentially what …show more content…

Hypermasculinity refers to the idea that in order to be a man you must in no way resemble a woman and that being seen to be in any way feminine completely strips you of your masculinity. Thereby meaning that stereotypically feminine traits such as tenderness, compassion and empathy are strictly off limits (Michael, 2017) This can be seen in a number of films such as Live and Let's Die (1973) and To Catch and Thief (1955) both of which represent the man in ways which can be described as hyper-masculine. This is something can also be seen with the representation of male characters in both Think Like a Man and I Love You, Man. Within Think Like a Man, the idea of men sleeping around is almost normalised and presented as a characteristic which defines their masculinity. An example of this is the character Zeke (who is played Romany Malco) who is nicknamed Zeke the Freak by his peers, he is known for simply sleeping with women and then moving on to the next. Another example of this can also be seen in Alex (who is played by Chris Brown) who is seen sneaking out from Mya (who is played Meagan Good) apartment after previously having slept with her the night before and in another scene Alex is also shown calling Mya by the wrong name, simply because he has slept with so many girls he is unable to remember all their names. Similarly, …show more content…

Both I Love You Man and Think Like a Man take similar approaches in ways in which they take the approach of representing hegemonic masculinity as being a necessary yet subtle feature of masculinity. An example of this can be seen when Peter's brother Robbie sets him up on a mandate with a man named Lonnie who is easily identifiable due to his voice often cracking, which most likely to indicate femininity as therefore his lack of masculinity. When Peter and Lonnie go to a soccer game, Lonnie gets into a fight with another spectator, which is seen as strange for a character who seemingly embodies a number of traits which are traditionally associated with women. Similarly, in Think Like a Man, Cedric is seen to be lacking some form of masculinity due to him constantly having to answer to his wife who seems to intimidate him making him the laughing stock amongst his friends. This is something which is reflected in his inability to successful chat up women with him again been seen as a joke. Moreover, the very plotline of the film shows seems to reinforce the idea that in order to be seen as masculine, men must align with hegemonic masculinity thus, it is an important trait in masculinity. For example, Michael (who is played by Terrence

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