In the same way that women have changed over time, men, too have changed. Their identities have evolved over time just as women’s’ have and their roles continue to be shaped by society as well.
John Beynon’s article in Critical Readings: Media and Gender discusses the various new masculinities that have developed over time. He shows the transition from the original industrial old man to the current new lad of today. Each one comes from the others with a particular change in relation to the world around them. He gives these archetypes so that we can understand the ways in which masculinity has been recreated as a result of feminism.
The old industrial man went to work for the family. He showed his physical strength and dominance by being the hardworking laborer and breadwinner. Like the mineworkers in this old movie about Pennsylvanian coal miners, the old industrial man worked hard and got dirty showing his physical strength and power over women.
As the feminism movement began to rise and factory jobs began to decrease, men had to find more dominance in the home and became known as, what Beynon calls, the ‘new-man-as-nurturer.’ He became the office worker who came home to his family where he was the man of the house. Like many of the characters in Mad Men, a television show about advertising executives in the 1960s, they worked hard in the office and came home to be the head of his household.
After this, factory jobs became the minority resulting in men having to find masculinity elsewhere. They began to show their masculinity in their dominance of what they could posses. They had style and could afford to buy it. This “‘playboy’ revelled in the acquisition of fancy clothes, fast cars, and beautiful women” (202). Consumerism became an activity a man could be apart of as well. Hugh Hefner practically put this type of masculinity on the map.
Stemming from that, yuppies began to emerge as men who could still maintain that consumerism but dominate in the workplace as well. With this new group, the old industrial man practically disappeared and if he still existed, it was not with nearly as much as pride as before. Currently, we are experiencing a new type of masculinity: the new lad. They are “able to behave badly and not worry about censure… building his life around drinking, football and sex” (210 – 211). These men, as seen here, are the quick-scheming, man’s men that exist today. Like many of the men in beer commercials during the Superbowl, they are interested in having a good time with the guys.
John Beynon’s article in Critical Readings: Media and Gender discusses the various new masculinities that have developed over time. He shows the transition from the original industrial old man to the current new lad of today. Each one comes from the others with a particular change in relation to the world around them. He gives these archetypes so that we can understand the ways in which masculinity has been recreated as a result of feminism.
The old industrial man went to work for the family. He showed his physical strength and dominance by being the hardworking laborer and breadwinner. Like the mineworkers in this old movie about Pennsylvanian coal miners, the old industrial man worked hard and got dirty showing his physical strength and power over women.
As the feminism movement began to rise and factory jobs began to decrease, men had to find more dominance in the home and became known as, what Beynon calls, the ‘new-man-as-nurturer.’ He became the office worker who came home to his family where he was the man of the house. Like many of the characters in Mad Men, a television show about advertising executives in the 1960s, they worked hard in the office and came home to be the head of his household.
After this, factory jobs became the minority resulting in men having to find masculinity elsewhere. They began to show their masculinity in their dominance of what they could posses. They had style and could afford to buy it. This “‘playboy’ revelled in the acquisition of fancy clothes, fast cars, and beautiful women” (202). Consumerism became an activity a man could be apart of as well. Hugh Hefner practically put this type of masculinity on the map.
Stemming from that, yuppies began to emerge as men who could still maintain that consumerism but dominate in the workplace as well. With this new group, the old industrial man practically disappeared and if he still existed, it was not with nearly as much as pride as before. Currently, we are experiencing a new type of masculinity: the new lad. They are “able to behave badly and not worry about censure… building his life around drinking, football and sex” (210 – 211). These men, as seen here, are the quick-scheming, man’s men that exist today. Like many of the men in beer commercials during the Superbowl, they are interested in having a good time with the guys.
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