Sandhya Senthilkumar; period 3 online

1. MARLBORO MAN- The Philip Morris Company used a picture of a man who
postured smoking a cigarette with his eyes gaze not meeting the eyes of the
viewers to transform the Marlboro cigarettes from the feminine appeal to a more
rugged image. Two years after this campaign started, the sales of the cigarettes
skyrocketed as it was believed that the campaign gained a lot of male attention.

The picture gives a stereotypical ideal portrayal of what it means to be a man:

Being tough, rough, hard-working, and oozing machismo.

2. BEING A MAN- Throughout the essay, Theroux expresses his disapproval for
stereotypical gender roles and expectations men and women are given from the
time they are born; he also talks about the negative effects of what it means to be a
man. He compares and contrasts the gender roles of men and women and comes to
the conclusion that men have it hard to prove their masculinity just as challenging
as how women struggle to prove their femininity.

Men are obliged to be tough and aggressive while women are expected to be
fragile and submissive to men. Theroux asserts that men feel oppressed by the
society just like how women do; Men have it hard to prove their masculinity just
as challenging as how women struggle to prove their femininity.

3. ABOUT MEN- Ehrlich talks about how cowboys are stereotyped into men who
are tough and Rough. She expresses how cowboys are not how they are depicted
to be and in reality, they are very hard-working, nurturing, and soft-hearted.

Cowboys are stereotyped in movies where they are depicted to be men who are
strong, silent, and tough. Ehrlich defends against this stereotype and asserts that
cowboys are actually very kind, soft-hearted, tender, and hardworking. She asserts
on how cowboys are the maternal caretakers of the animals.

4. PUTTING DOWN THE GUN- Walker talks about how gender stereotypes
prevent men and women from being who they actually are inside. Men and
Women struggle to prove their masculinity or femininity throughout their life due
to social beliefs on what it means to be a man or woman. She uses her son as an
example on how he is forced to act a way due to gender roles.
 Walker asserts on how people, in order to fit into the society and be “normal,”
force themselves into being someone who they truly aren’t by heart and that by
following those social norms, children lose their individuality.

5. WHY JOHNNY WON’T READ- Both authors shed light on the fact that the
number of young males reading books had dropped significantly greater than
females. They depict how certain concepts in the literature curriculum may have
been the major cause of this issue.
The authors assert that girls’ study while boys don’t. The authors also assert on the
literary preferences of boys and girls, with boys into adventure tales, war, sports,
and historical non-fiction genres while girls are into stories about personal
relationships and fantasy.
6. MIND OVER MUSCLE- In this article, Brooks states on how women are getting
more and more intelligent and educated than men and brings awareness that the
drop in academics of men is a serious issue. He gives ideas on how this issue can
be fixed and concludes by saying that just like how people focused on feminine
equality, it is now the time to focus on the crisis faced by males.

Brooks asserts on how women are excelling in education far better than men and
how females are prospering in graduating and going to college.
 Essay

The existence of gender inequality, different gender roles, and social norms that

men and women have to follow in order to prove their masculinity or femininity achieved

nothing but depriving people of their individuality. The rules on what it means to be a

man, or a woman have controlled most of their lives, restricting them from doing things

that they love. These rules and expectations are passed down from generations after

generations and also have a big impact on the society when they are promoted through the

media. Both men and women feel the pressure to prove their masculinity or femininity in

everyday life, even in terms of their likes and dislikes, what they wear, emotional

characteristics, etc..

The standard gender roles and social norms that men and women are obliged to

follow come from the popular culture of their region. Passed down from generations after

generations, males, and females, from the time they are born, are taught to perform and

enact specific roles and characteristics by their guardians. When these become the basic

rules for them to follow, in order to get accepted into the society, they are forced to follow

them, abandoning their true desires and dreams. Males are “the man” when they are tough,

rough, and strong. Being fragile and soft is completely out of the question. This is the

stereotypical view of men. Creating a family, being the breadwinner, carrying out all the

heavy load jobs, viewing the females as inferior beings, never to express their

vulnerability, never to cry or show their weaknesses- these are some of the gender roles
and expectations men are obliged to follow in order to be viewed as normal. Even if they

miss out a single element, they are considered not to be true men- this is what the society

forces them to do. Even if they want to view other females as their sisters who are on par

with them, even if they don’t want to be strong, but rather gentle and kind, and even if

they want to cook for their beloved, they can’t do it as they would be ridiculed even by

their own family members. Women are no different. According to popular culture, women

are expected to be as gentle and as fragile as a flower. Giving birth to children, taking care

of them, cooking, cleaning, being submissive to men and having their entire life revolve

only around the four walls of her house are the gender roles and expectations placed upon

females. At some point in history, they were even considered as tools for reproduction.

Being taught of these things throughout their childhood burned their individuality into

ashes. Popular culture on gender roles basically made men and women to put on masks:

Men were forced to be strong eventhough they were vulnerable at times and women were

forced to be weak, even though she is the only one who can endure the pain of child birth.

Through media, like commercials, movies, etc.. these stereotypes are put in front

of the public. After people see these, they start to view the portrayed as the ideal, and start

to feel inferior which result in them trying to change their selves in order to fit into that

ideal image. The commercials of Old Spice products are an example. Their commercials

always contain strong, fit, tall, and bulky men. Their slogan is “Smell like a man, man.”

They depict the stereotypical physical image of a man. Males are all in different shapes

and sizes. By seeing these kinds of commercials, won’t a petite or skinny man start to

believe that they are not strong or manly enough? Same goes for women. The fair &
lovely products from Hindustan Unilever was one of the most controversial. One of their

old commercials depicted a woman who first got rejected from her job interview because

she was dark skinned; Later, after she used the fair and lovely skin whitening cream, she

suddenly became beautiful which resulted in her becoming acknowledged and successful

in life. This stereotype of women where they have to be beautiful in order to survive is

being conveyed through this commercial. This commercial aired in India, a country

known for its beautiful, colored skin people. Won’t the women who all saw this

commercial start to feel insecure about their skin tone and try methods to whiten their skin

in order to be acknowledged by other people? Even children toy commercials are based on

gender. The Hot wheel cars commercials only contain boys while the Barbie doll

commercials only contain girls. Why can’t both genders be a part of both of these

commercials? It’s not like Barbies are only for girls and hot wheels are only for boys.

Also, the view of cowboys being tough and rough men in movies, which according to

Ehrlich is completely untrue and stereotypical, is also a great example of how media

promote and reinforce these gender roles and stereotypes.

Another way media reinforce these beliefs is by promoting products that have

targeted genders. Books and toys are a great example. Just like gender roles, the society

had already set some ideal genres of books and toys for each of the genders. Authors of

“Why Johnny can’t read,” Mark Bauerlein and Sandra Stansky made an analysis on the

literary preferences of boys and girls and this is what they came up with: Boys prefer

adventure tales, war, sports, and historical non-fiction genres while girls are into stories
about personal relationships and fantasy. I would have to strongly disagree with this.

There are boys who are into romance and fantasy stories and girls who are into adventure

tales. Because of immature stereotypes, boys who love romance novels are ashamed of

themselves, even though they did nothing wrong. Girls are forced to play with stuffed

animals and pink toys, eventhough she may have actually wanted to play with cars. In

“Putting down the gun,” Walker talked about how her son felt pressured by the society to

abandon his personal likes as they weren’t “manly” enough to others. Because he didn’t

play computer games like the other kids did, he had nothing to talk about with them and

was left alone.

Instead of forcing women to be the ones to cook, we should allow the one who

likes cooking to cook, who can either be a man or a woman. Instead of labelling books as

“targeted towards men,” or “targeted towards women,” whoever wants to read that book

should be able to pick up the book and read it openly. The stereotypical beliefs of

masculinity and femininity brought up by popular culture needs to come to an end. The

media reinforcing these beliefs, resulting in widening the gap between the roles and

preferences of men and women, needs to stop. Rather than allowing society to assign their

roles and likes and dislikes, men and women should be left to do what they desire without

feeling insecure. Just like Chimamanda had said, “What if the attitude was not ‘the boy

has to pay’ but rather ‘whoever has more should pay?’