Male action heroes and masculinity in 1980s-1990s media

¶ … devoted to the way in which women are portrayed in the media with regard to her role in society and in human consciousness. Less such research has gone into the way in which the male is portrayed by the media. Increasingly however the effects of this portrayal has showed itself as manifest in society, and especially among the youth. Below are examples of the "man's man" as portrayed in film, television and advertisements, with a consideration of how they are portrayed and the reasons for this portrayal.

The Man's Man

Increasingly during the 1980's and 1990's, men have begun to be popularly betrayed as strong, muscular and fearless in the media. The trend is mostly ascribed to actors such as Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. The paradigm has escalated towards the end of the millennium, and now popular male role models are increasingly muscular, strong, silent and paradoxically also at times aggressive.

The "Marlboro Man" is an early example of the above trend. A man of few words, he preferred to speak through his actions. And the message was always that he was strong, healthy and well built. He worked best alone. The characters normally portrayed by Vin Diesel share many of the Marlboro Man's characteristics. He is a typical example of the "action hero" type of man - strong and rugged. The characters he portrays are men of few words, who prefer to demonstrate their ideals by means of action, like the Marlboro Man.

On television, The Rock dominates the wrestling scene. He tends to demonstrate through both word and deeds his strength and his wrestling skills. Regardless of this however he seldom shows any true emotion, always displaying aggression or egotism instead of admitting to any vulnerability - emotional or otherwise. While Diesel's characters are somewhat more in touch with their feelings, they tend to verbalize less than the wrestling heroes.

The Evolution of the Action Hero

During the 1960's and 1970's the male hero was portrayed as the hippie and the disco dancer. John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever and other films is an example of this. Once again relationships with women are rather objectified as the "hero" moves from one conquest to another. It is interesting that, during the 1980's, dancing heroes became muscular heroes opposing formidable foes. It is about during this time when action heroes such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone arrived on the scene. The 1980's rather exemplifies the epitome of the strong, silent, lone action hero. This was the time of the Marlboro Man (Rood).

With the arrival of the 1990's, a new paradigm began to evolve with the evolution of social consciousness. Women increasingly arrived on the movie scene as either the platonic partner or the equal opponent of the main character. Generally, society has entered a new millennium where all extremes exist. The Marlboro Man type has not expired. But there are more types of action heroes today than existed in the past. Vin Diesel for example increasingly portrays characters that are or eventually become more in touch with their feelings than was previously the case.

Physically little has changed beyond action hero type of men becoming ever more muscular in their portrayal in film (Rood). The question to be considered now is how this is affecting society in general, and indeed to what extent this portrayal has been influenced by social trends. It becomes a question of whether the chicken or the egg arrived on the scene first: do social trends inspire the media or vice versa? Is it fair to blame the media for things such as eating disorders and violence? Or is the media merely attempting to make sense of social paradigms?

Social Influences

If the history of film with its portrayal of the male action figure is considered, one might assume that the media is significantly influenced by social trends. And increase of violence in society spawns an increasingly violent type of action hero. Yet it might also be hypothesized that violence begets violence, and that it later becomes a cycle that is difficult to break: violence in society inspires violence in the media, which perpetuates the violence already existing in society.

The same is true of the depiction of females. While there is an increase in equal female counterparts in film and even occasionally in wrestling, the female equivalent of the Marlboro Man is hardly his equal. Indeed the female Dakota smoker depends on a taller, stronger male character to complete her sexy, trendy personality. The Marlboro Man on the other hand was known for his lone adventurous spirit (Ltc. Online).

The above is indicative of several diverse social trends prevalent in the new millennium. Women are as often as not respected for their accomplishments and abilities.

They are also however frequently vastly underestimated, or are taught by the media to underestimate themselves.

From whatever viewpoint one sees it, it is clear that society and the media influence each other in much the same way as the ancient Greek playwrights were inspired by their society and in turn influenced the world in which they lived through their art. The rugged, strong, silent man exemplified by the Marlboro Man then is as much a result of society as he is of the media. The two cannot be mutually exclusive and neither can exist without influence from the other. The media serves to explain, and in explaining to perpetuate social phenomena (Rood).

Media Influences

Studies have shown that, like female representations, male images in the media significantly influences the youth, whether for better or worse. Boys for example tend to change their eating and exercising habits in order to imitate the physique of men they see as attractive to the opposite sex (Rood). The concept of body image is obviously much influenced by the media.

This is not only true for teenagers, but also in general society. Young men opting for plastic surgery for example has dramatically increased over the last decade, and hair dye for men has also increased its sales. These vain trends are not only true of the United States, but also in other countries such as the UK. Increasingly men are becoming aware of their bodies and their looks; some are even buying skin care products as inspired by the media to remain young, strong and good-looking for as long as possible.

Problems that could arise from media pressures to look as much as possible like Vin Diesel or The Rock, include not only eating disorders in men, but also addiction to exercise and anabolic steroids (Rood). Exercise addiction is especially problematic with the youth. Exercise, while being a healthy element in the everyday routine, should not be habit forming. It is furthermore not healthy to be perpetually dissatisfied with one's body. The media tends to portray everything to the extreme, with little advice relating to how to moderate wants and desires to live and effective life, even if this life is not live looking like Vin Diesel or The Rock.

The rugged "man's man" portrayed in the media could serve a good, healthy purpose. But it is often the case that this does not occur. The reasons are that the pressure to look as good as an action hero in film has become all-important. Advances such as the Internet, slimming products and muscle building exercise apparatus has made it easy to become addicted to this paradigm.