Masculinity/Femininity

The ways that men and women are portrayed really affect our culture. I think that the United States is guilty of portraying masculinity and femininity in poor ways and because of this, our views of men and women as a culture are skewed. Men need to be independent, athletic, aggressive, unemotional, intellectual, etc. This is the portrait of a perfect male but on the other hand, very few men actually have these characteristics. Because of the way our culture views masculinity, if a man does not have these characteristics, they feel as if they are not masculine enough. When a man/boy is involved in things not portrayed as manly, for example dance, theater, etc, they feel as if they are not masculine enough. This is similar to the views of women being skewed. The main view of a woman is that a woman has to be beautiful. She needs to be thin, tall, and perfect. Because of the way the media portrays women, girls tend to put themselves in danger in order to look the way the models on t.v. do. Luckily, this image skew has been noticed and many companies and people are trying to eliminate the "perfect body image". For example, Dove is using "real women" in all of their adds to try to show the differences between what is real and what is fake. The idea of femininity is beginning to be stressed and helped while the idea of a "perfect man" is still there. It is good that things are being done to help the image of a woman but things need to be done to help the image of a man as well.