Hyper Masculinity

Hypermasculinity  =  is a psychological term for the exaggeration of male stereotypical behavior, such as an emphasis on physical strength, aggression, and sexuality.

Before our recent fragrance project, I had never been aware of the lack of diversity and amount of hyper masculinity seen in male advertising. I felt ignorant at first for not realising this, but I suppose I am not the target market, and am not exposed to as much of the same media as men.

Researching into girl power and female empowerment revealed that most brands are aware of the dangers of projecting unrealistic/unattainable body images on woman. There seemed to be no end to the number of body positive campaigns, ‘girl power’ heavy music influences and empowering and diverse campaigns.

This is all very important and positive, and although the issues have not disappeared completely, the promotion of these kind of campaigns is definitely a big success and moving in the right direction.

It was when we started to look and advertising within the (fragrance industry) that wasn’t directly targeted to us, that we began to realise the lack of diversity and unattainable body images used in male advertising. Hyper masculinity was still rife in this sector and unlike the positive changes we could see in female advertising, male advertising appeared to be majorly lagging.

              

This led me to think that perhaps in the fight for female empowerment, we had forgotten about the men.

I know that from the experiences of some of my friends and family, that these unattainable images can be just as damaging to men as they can woman.

Suicide is the biggest killer of men under 35

This shocking statistic got me thinking about the links to hyper masculinity in the media and the suicide rates. Although I don’t believe that this is directly related or always the cause of suicide and mental health problems there is no denying that it could be a contributing factor. Feeling inadequate and insecure/ not meeting the stereotypical macho male image advertised in the media, would contribute to poor mental health ad the overall suicide issue. Also one of the main stereotypes that I feel many of the advertisements imply in some way, is that men are strong and do not show weakness or emotion, something we know is causing such high suicide rates among men. Not talking about issues leads to lack of diagnosis and help for men.

I believe that one of the many ways that we as a society can begin to tackle this issue is by changing the way in which we advertise to men. We need to try and reduce the subliminal macho messages we send to boys and men through the media.

If more male advertising started to adopt the body positive and diverse attitude that we have started to see a lot more of in female advertising, then perhaps that would be a positive way to start.

A few brands such as American Egal have started to do this which Is great, we just need as much emphasis on the male advertising as female.