The ‘Macho-Man’ and his Representation in Media Texts

If we go by the ‘Performative Identities Theory’ of Judith Butler, gender is suppose to be performative, which in other words means that gender is defined by how a person behaves and not a mere biological grouping as in the case of ‘Sex’. The idea of masculinity and femininity is one of Cultural Conditioning and changes from time to time.

Traditionally, masculinity or maleness has been represented in the media as very manly characters without any feminine traits, especially in the Media Texts of the 1970’s and 1980’s. James Bond, Rambo as well as Arnold Schwarzenegger from the terminator series would be some examples that we could quote here.

The popular Super Mario video game which shows the character of ‘Mario’, as a male with certain acquired powers, has to rescue the princess from the monster dragon, portrays ‘Man’ as a protector, which might not be the case all the time. But then again this has been established as a stereotype for a very long time, even through our fairy tales where it is always the man who saves the ‘Damsel in Distress’.

Of late, at least in the Western Media, the trend is changing; the characters seem to be in touch with their feminine side along with the well-established idea of ‘the Man’.  The contemporary characters display emotions which is very much unlike the characters of the 70’s and 80’s.

 The best examples could be drawn from the Daily soaps like ‘How I met your Mother’ where you have the character of Barney Stinson played by Neil Patrick Harris, who although is a womanizer displays various sets of emotions starting from the all pumped up Darth Vader Barney to a Crying Break-up Barney. Along with him, there is also the character of Ted Mosby who has more feminine character as compared to masculine character that is if you talk about those established masculine and feminine traits. There are other numerous examples to support this like the character of Detective Nick Burkhardt in the TV Series ‘Grimm’. Although the character is a Police Detective, there is a lot of femininity associated, although traditionally such characters are known to be overtly male.

These characters are often referred to as metro-sexual, those who aren’t gay but are confused by the audience to be homosexuals.  

Now coming back to Indian media, the influence of the strong patriarchy definitely leaves its imprint on the media text. Indian Media texts have always portrayed men as overtly strong characters that do not inhibit any emotions and are overtly strong. The trend still continues with films like ‘Daabang’, among others portraying a super human male character that is capable of eliminating hordes of enemies and save the damsel in distress. Men are most often than not are portrayed as rugged, violent and active in action, among others.

The idea that ‘men do not cry’ is also widely promoted by the Indian as well as the western media. This is a problem specifically for sensitive individuals, especially in the adolescent stage because most often than not they tend to get branded which might lead to lot of psychological problems for these young adults, including low self esteem.  Media texts often have great power in defining the identity of an individual and hence pose a risk of defining ‘Men’ or ‘Women’ or ‘trans-genders’ in a specific way which may lead to a lot of confusion and subsequent ostracisation of individuals who do not ‘fit the bill’.

Given the fact that gender is most often than not, associated with biological grouping; the representation by the media becomes very important and in the case of men the stereotypical image of ‘The Macho Man’ is actually a created one and based on stereotypical literary text. It is the blatant image of what a man should be like and not what he actually is and such imagery should be discouraged. Like they say, “A library is a place where you can lose your innocence without losing your virginity.” ― Germaine Greer, Media texts are such where one is taught to stereotype and not explore.