How The Media Portray Men
Boys’ Learning
Research group on men and their families. REVIEWS
HOW THE MEDIA PORTRAY MEN
A REVIEW OF J.R. MCNAMARA’S MEDIA AND MALE IDENTITY
PETER WEST*
* Dr Peter West is Head of the Research Group on Men and Families at the University of Western Sydney, Sydney, Australia. He can be contacted at
p.west@uws.edu.au
HOW THE MEDIA PORTRAY MEN
A REVIEW OF J.R. MCNAMARA’S MEDIA AND MALE IDENTITY
PETER WEST*
WAR IS PEACE. FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
-Orwell, 1984.
In totalitarian societies, people are told what to think. Conventional thinking is hardened into ‘the way things are’. There is no need to wonder about what is right, because people are told what’s right.
George Orwell’s slogans above capture the nature of the double-think necessary to all ideological thinking. In today’s democratic, free-thinking world, many people would be appalled by the idea that they are told what to think. But our thinking is narrowed and in many ways compressed by the power of the media. THE BOOK IN A NUTSHELL
Jim Macnamara’s new book Media and Male Identity (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006) is an updated and revised version of his doctoral thesis. It should make any thinking person wonder about how free countries like the USA, the UK, Australia, and Canada are. It explains how we have accepted that we must be careful what we say about women, how women are portrayed, and how we must not limit women’s opportunities. But the same benefit is not extended to men. In short, men are portrayed in the media as fools, clowns, child molesters, and murderers. There is very little positive material presented about men as a group, and most of it holds up shapely young men’s ‘abs’ and ‘pecs’ for admiration. That doesn’t leave much tolerance for most of us. Very few people are brave enough to challenge this conventional wisdom or to tell the media how unbalanced they are. We men are expected to be strong; and strong men don’t complain.
Macnamara asks first, does it matter if media
Research group on men and their families. REVIEWS
HOW THE MEDIA PORTRAY MEN
A REVIEW OF J.R. MCNAMARA’S MEDIA AND MALE IDENTITY
PETER WEST*
* Dr Peter West is Head of the Research Group on Men and Families at the University of Western Sydney, Sydney, Australia. He can be contacted at
p.west@uws.edu.au
HOW THE MEDIA PORTRAY MEN
A REVIEW OF J.R. MCNAMARA’S MEDIA AND MALE IDENTITY
PETER WEST*
WAR IS PEACE. FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
-Orwell, 1984.
In totalitarian societies, people are told what to think. Conventional thinking is hardened into ‘the way things are’. There is no need to wonder about what is right, because people are told what’s right.
George Orwell’s slogans above capture the nature of the double-think necessary to all ideological thinking. In today’s democratic, free-thinking world, many people would be appalled by the idea that they are told what to think. But our thinking is narrowed and in many ways compressed by the power of the media. THE BOOK IN A NUTSHELL
Jim Macnamara’s new book Media and Male Identity (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006) is an updated and revised version of his doctoral thesis. It should make any thinking person wonder about how free countries like the USA, the UK, Australia, and Canada are. It explains how we have accepted that we must be careful what we say about women, how women are portrayed, and how we must not limit women’s opportunities. But the same benefit is not extended to men. In short, men are portrayed in the media as fools, clowns, child molesters, and murderers. There is very little positive material presented about men as a group, and most of it holds up shapely young men’s ‘abs’ and ‘pecs’ for admiration. That doesn’t leave much tolerance for most of us. Very few people are brave enough to challenge this conventional wisdom or to tell the media how unbalanced they are. We men are expected to be strong; and strong men don’t complain.
Macnamara asks first, does it matter if media
References: Baron-Cohen, S. (2003) The Essential Difference. Penguin, Sydney. Sax, L. (2005) Why Gender Matters, Broadway, New York. West, P. (1996) Fathers, Sons and Lovers: Men Talk about Their Lives from the 1930s to Today West, P. (2002) What is the Matter with Boys, Choice, Sydney.