Advertising assessment

David Gauntlett has argued against the idea that masculinity is 'in crisis’. To what extent do you believe masculinity is 'in crisis'?

In your response you should refer to your Advertising and Marketing Close Study Products: the Score hair cream advert (1967) and the Maybelline ‘That Boss Life’ YouTube advert (2017).

[20 marks]

I agree with this statement as Gauntlett argues that masculinity has changed over time to suit the ideas that are normalised in society today. However, we can see a clear difference in the representation of masculinity in the 1960s and 2010s with varying accepted and perhaps constructed representations pushing a particharcal or counter-patriarchal ideal. I feel that the view and meaning of masculinity has changed within the last 50 years. Due to the recent boom in sexual discovery, many have questioned if men and still 'manly' or if we are rewriting what the normalised and acceptable level of masculinity is present in today's society.

The Score Hair Cream advert was made in 1967 during the second wave of feminism where women fought for reproductive rights, abortion rights and equal pay - an issue that is still a pertinent argument today.  1967 was also a pivotal year as homosexuality was decriminalised, something which is very much integrated into the norms of our society today, the equal pay gap was about to be announced and females had more say in what they wanted but that still took time to take its full effect. 

Whereas the Maybelline Boss Life advert was made in 2017 and offers a rather different view of masculinity. In the last 10 years, gender fluidity has become a key social issue and is present in the Maybelline advert. We are met with Manny Mua who is openly gay and Shayla Mitchell, who also takes centre stage with Manny. This is a clear agreement with the statement that masculinity is not in crisis as we are now accepting other views on how masculinity can be perceived. And since Manny is a vlogger, the internet has most likely caused him to see accepting his gender identity is a good thing due to support from fans. 

I can deduce from the imagery of the Maybelline advert such as the idea of a magic wand and the golden box and even the fact that this is a make up advert, shows that the idea of masculinity is very different to that of the 1960s.

In the Score advert, we see that the actors are deliberately positioned like that - the women are below the man and suggesting that he is more valuable and that she should only serve to support him, not the other way round. We don't see any gender fluidity here as there is just a clear side of men and women.Whereas in the Maybelline advert, Manny and Mitchell are both taking the limelight and are in no way reinforcing dominant patriarchal ideologies. I would argue that this shows that masculinity is in crisis however as we can see, due to the rising female power, the man has a gun in his crotch area which could tell us he is overcompensating. This is a clear example of hypermasculinity where he is being overly strong and is using his weapons to make himself seem more assertive and powerful.

The anchorage in the Score advert also shows that this is emphasising that the product is for MEN made by MEN. And reinforces the view that the 1960s was a predominantly patriarchal era. The anchorage text reinforces that manly men made this and therefore are pushing a heteronormative agenda on its customers. This opposed the 1967 decriminalisation of homosexuality as this shows that heterosexuals are a dominant gender here. The brand’s personality and voice is all about masculine supremacy and self-belief which opposes the idea of becoming gender fluid, which is when your gender expression shifts between male and female. 

Also when Gauntlett wrote about the importance of role models in the media, it was in the 1990s. This was during the third-wave of feminism so the fourth wave might have made him realise that masculinity wasn't really much of a talking. Gauntlett disagrees with the fact that "Contemporary masculinity is often said to be 'in crisis" because in 2002 he said that many modern representations of masculinity require "men finding a place for themselves in the modern world". 

This is clear with Manny Mua as he has clearly found his place in the modern world and has embraced his sexuality to carry on with his passion, vlogging. He doesn't get judged for it like he would around the 1960s where homosexuals were seen as lesser men. Furthermore, the bell boy in the Maybelline advert can also be seen as on trend with current and modern gender politics because he represents someone from the outside (not a vlogger) but yet still maintains an interest in the product subverting typical male stereotypes.

However, one can make an oppositional reading or a critical interpretation that the macho-laden ideas presented in this image are damaging to male self-esteem and present women as passive and merely decorative. This links to the overcompensation I was talking about as I personally believe that the way the man in the Score advert is presented is that he is trying 'too hard' to assert his power over the women who are strategically below him.

We learned from Van Zoonen and Butler that gender is a social construct and is reinforced by societal beliefs and micro-rituals, such as putting make up on or dressing up a certain way. He suggests that masculinity is also a socially constructed performance and therefore only then influenced by your surroundings. In the 1960s, the internet didn't exist and they couldn't really have a lot of information on how masculinity is represented apart from the lifestyle magazines and adverts like the Score advert, which reinforce masculine images of being tough and strong and really manly. 

So my view is that in the last 30 years, the idea and meaning of masculinity has been rewritten so that any male can display their preferred idea of masculinity. Masculinity therefore is not in a crisis as we always see that, according to Gauntlett, identity is becoming more fluid, there are generational differences which reveal evolutions in the acceptance of masculinity and things, like the view of gender, change over time.

There is a denotation in the Score advert of a woman reaching for the man which could show how the product makes you desired by women and therefore makes you above women, also shown by the higher position he's in. The scantily dressed women in the ad show that men only 'really want' a sexualised image of a woman - reinforcing Mulvey's male gaze theory. Which is an example of how things change over time as some men might not want to have women all over them. 

Other campaigns like Boys will be boys from Gillette shows that toxic masculinity, otherwise completely normal in the 60s ,is an issue that needs to be resolved. This agrees with the Maybelline advert as this offers a view that opposes the 1960s cliche of a man needs to be strong and all-powerful to be successful. This stemmed as Gillette's slogan was 'the best a man can get' but with constantly changing views on gender identity, that could be seen as offensive to people who don't identify themselves as men. 

In summary, I strongly agree with Gauntlett's view that masculinity isn't in crisis as the society we live in is now normalised to multiple and various meanings and interpretations of masculinity and with the awareness of the increasing number of people who identify as gender fluid, Gauntlett suggests that the meaning of masculinity could change over time and gender will become even more fluid.