Dumb stereotypes take heart out of boys' hopes

Sam, Saturday, 20.09.2003, 14:52 (vor 8174 Tagen) @ Horst

Als Antwort auf: Spiegel-Titelgeschichte vom nächsten Montag von Horst am 13. September 2003 18:31:59:

Ein Artikel aus dem "Sydney Morning Herald" vom 19. September:

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Portraying men as cads or wimps empowers no one and only increases bitter social division, writes Andrew Bock.

Riding on the back of his fine Arab or the Valiant Charger, the hard-drinking, hard-living, macho man still saves the day fairly regularly. But media that appeal to women are more likely to portray men as bungling, incompetent fall guys in the workplace and in relationships.

New male stereotypes have been prevalent in news, TV drama, films, articles and advertisements for more than a decade and, in a reversal of fortunes, men are now starting to protest.

John Marsden, the best-selling adolescents' fiction writer, and author of the non-fiction books Secret Men's Business and The Boy You Brought Home, said, "Teenage boys are among the most maligned group in our society ...

"The media portrays them as either drug-crazed, illiterate, unemployable, suicidal, failures at school, sex criminals or vandals. So adults tend to treat them more suspiciously, and that causes them [unconsciously] to become angry or frustrated or alienated."

(...)

Articles in the print media can contain more prejudicial generalisations about men partly because women dominate the field of writing about relationships, and because in an article, unlike a drama, there is no dialogue and therefore less need to paint even half-real male characters.

Biases run many ways across the media, but an overriding bias in modern media seems to run away from positive images of men. Criticism of female stereotypes and what they implied about men's attitudes was an important platform of early feminism. It would be more than ironic if men were criticised for questioning media stereotypes about men and relationships.

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Quelle:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/18/1063625153160.html

Gefunden hier.