Universidad de Puerto Rico

Recinto de Arecibo

Argumentative Essay

Andrés D. Pérez González

840-11-5984

December 6, 2011

Section: 3011-MAO

Media’s Manhood

When I, reading the novel “Soledad” by Angie Cruz, came upon the character “Manolo”

two questions immediately popped in my head; why men are so insensible? Why do they treat

women as objects? This took me several years back, when I was just a little boy and my dad used

to tell me: “Men don’t cry because crying is for girls, if you want to be a man, don’t cry”. Also

he used to say: “Never let women get on top of you” These and many other insensible beliefs,

my dad thought were necessary for gaining your manhood. My dad isn’t the only man that thinks

this, men all over live under these kinds of principles. But, from where they learn all of these

pathetic principles of manhood? Well, there’s only one responsible for it and its name is Media.

Through all of its ways, media has been showing and teaching a negative image of what it means

to be a man and how they should behave. Men must stop following Medias manhood because it

only brings man’s degeneration.

Media, through movies and television series has set a misrepresentation of manhood. In

movies we always see big, strong and handsome men that live for action, money and sex. They

show no sensibility and think with their guts. Perfect examples are the movies of „'Fast and

furious”. These are a series of action films that focuses on street racing and heists. The

protagonist interpreted by Vin Diesel is a strong, aggressive, handsome and ruthless man who

lives for breaking the rules. This only establishes a stereo type which men believe they need to

fulfill. Why? Well, because studies have proven that people learn and imitate frequently what

they see, especially aggressive behaviors. In an episode of the television series “The Sopranos”,

the gangster Tony Soprano killed one of his partners. To complicate the identification of the

victim’s body, Soprano and one of his henchmen quartered the body and got rid of the body

parts. Months later, two brothers in real life at Riverside, California, strangulated their mother

and then cut her head off. The police caught Victor Bautista, 20 years old, and Matthew Montejo

15 years old, who told them they got the idea from the episode of “The Sopranos”(Martelle,

Hanley & Yoshino,2003) A sad but truthful story that clearly shows that people imitate what

they see and in this case explains why men these days are so aggressive and adopt risky

behaviors.

Music is following the footsteps of movies promoting bad principles related to manhood.

It has created a whole taxonomy of man. People believe that depending the music you listen will

decide the type of man you are. I remember not long ago a couple of friends called me “pinky”

just because I liked the song “Arms” by Christina Perri. But it would have been a different story

if liked Rap. Why? Because only talks about man involve with money, drugs and sex. Today’s

men believe that these are the true qualities of manhood. In other word is like the national

anthem of man. The lyrics Rap distortion the way men see women. The songs tend to refer to

women as they were objects to satisfy mans pleasure. Music like this is the responsible of

making men think they are invulnerable, the supreme sex and beings that only live for sex. Those

who listen to rap tend to adopt risky behaviors such as drug use. A group of psychologists from

Berkeley, California, investigated more than a thousand American college students between 15

and 26 years of age. Students, who often listen to rap music, use more alcohol, more marijuana

and more party drugs such as XTC ( From article “Music, Substance Use, and Aggression”).

After movies and music have made men believe and live under twisted manhood

principles, commercial ads come into game. Many companies, to sell their products to male

customers, create unique ads that promise that their merchandise will be the method to help them

gain their manhood. Great examples are the commercials of the deodorant “Axe”, an allover body

spray that combines a supposedly seductive fragrance that will make any man who wares it a

female magnet. “Axe” knows that men believe that to reach manhood women are necessary

because media has taught them so. A great man always has women in their lives. As a result men

fall like idiots. One day my cousin, who is only seven years old, told his mom he wanted “Axe”

to have a lot of girlfriends. How terrible! At such a young age and he already believes “Axe‟s”

horrible lies of manhood. He believes men need to have a lot of women by their side. Believing

lies like these lead man to buy products like “Axe” and many other that only makes them waste

money, time and even worse their health.

Despite all of these negative forms of manhood given by Media some may argue that not

all are bad. Also that Media might, if used correctly, help improve man’s perception of what is

real manhood. However, the truth is that Media hasn’t done anything to change it. Even in

movies that apparently want to show a good image of manhood the men who appear in it have

good looking bodies or who don’t usually appear in comedy films what clearly states a

stereotype? Why? Is because, they only care about earning money and fame not man’s

wellbeing.

Manhood has a far deeper meaning. Being a man means assuming full responsibility for

your actions, to be able to treat others, especially women, with respect, use words instead of

violence to resolve conflict and most important be there selves. Sadly Media has made many

men act as mere animals, not thinking before acting, searching for women only for sex and

leading those to riskier and violent behaviors. If men really want to gain their manhood they

should ignore what Media has to say about it.