Media and males
1Jul09

Its #ManWeek in Australia thanks to TripleJ and ReachOut and I was tagged by Gavin Heaton to write a post about my experiences. However being a fairly typical Aussie male who rarely shows emotion or talks about personal issues, I thought I’d deflect attention by writing about media and how males are represented.

Growing up in the 70′s and 80′s Australian males were presented a homogenised and stereotypical version of the Aussie male. TV characters were knock-about, stoic, courageous blokes. Our movie heroes were Crocodile Dundee, smart but naive, Mad Max, stoically seeking revenge, or the Bryan Brown-style blue collar mumbler.

Our sportsmen were of a similar ilk. Solid, hairy and dependable. Think Ray Price playing league, Dennis Lillee hurtling down the cricket pitch and Pat Cash on the tennis court. Tough, hard-working heroes.

This was the role model for guys growing up in Australia and what we were regularly exposed to in the media. Its a lot to live up to. And clearly for many Australian men, it was too much to live up to. Australia became a world leader in male suicide and depression.

These days, however, a fragmented and hungry media delves into every nook and cranny of modern life. Our role models and heroes lives are laid open for all to see. No news is off limits.

Now I must explain to my two young sons why Andrew Johns takes drugs, or what the hell his brother was up to in New Zealand. That’s not easy. I also have to explain why a guy called Bruno is mincing around with a new form of stereotyping. A leading TV character today is not the tough Aussie bloke, but a confused and creepy school teacher called Mr G.

The hope is that this warts and all exposure of the male species, while confronting and unavoidable, may lead to a generation of males more at ease with themselves. It hopefully leads to guys being able to open up about their problems and being able to reach out to someone. Hopefully it means that young men today will be less prone to succumbing to the pressures of living up to the simpler stereotypes of yesteryear.

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8 Responses to “Media and males”

I’m re-tagging you on your own blog to write about your own experiences – not about your experience of media… . I’d be doing Man Week a dis-favour if I didn’t call you on it :)

Comment by Mark Pollard on July 1st, 2009

Craig, nice post. Australia was a bit different from Ireland growing up, I imagine! It’s good to talk!

Comment by franksting on July 1st, 2009

Chicken.

Comment by Gavin Heaton on July 1st, 2009

@Mark & @Gavin

Oh, and i thought I was being clever in twisting the post to reflect what readers of this blog come here for. Unfortunately it’ll be #manweek 2010 by the time I can think of some soul-baring material…..and even then it’d probably be some lame account of a sporting loss that helped shape my view on life. :)

Seriously though, despite the media references, the above is an indirect account of the forces that men (myself included) are pressured to live up to…and I believe that does cause issues, in the same way that women feel pressured to live up to the perfect images media subject us all too.

And as a father I now must tread the path again, reassuring my sons that its ok to express themselves and their emotions rather than be the stoic Aussie Uber-Male.

Comment by Craig Wilson on July 1st, 2009

That’s nice, Craig.

Chicken

Comment by Mark Pollard on July 1st, 2009

Nice one Craig! The great Australian film “Wake in Fright” has been re-released on DVD, fittingly in time for manweek. Its a pretty devastating deconstruction of the Australian male circa 1971. If you’ve not seen it I highly recommend it

Comment by Oscar on July 2nd, 2009

Interesting. This morning I was sent an article on what is being called the Mancession. “Guys getting left behind”.

I wonder how that fits in with this topic, and if it is a phenomenon in Australia. Here’s a link to an article on it. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6445913.ece

Comment by Lindy Asimus on July 2nd, 2009

what a ridiculous post. the modern role model in the media is many times worse than the real man of yesteryear. the modern tv male is either a bumbling idiot or a pervert with no control over his desires. there are virutually no positive, admirable role models to look up to. and forget about men being positive leaders. even the new james bond needs a girl to help him do his work. i will take crodocile dundee any day.

Comment by abdullah on January 11th, 2012

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