The victimization of men

[APeacefulWarrior]

What kind of man? Well, advertising will tell you over and over in all sorts of confusing ways. Certainly, you must be the kind of man who can afford to buy frivolous things to impress flighty females. She will only talk to you if you use this hygiene product. She will only want to date you if you have a fancy enough car. She will only want to have sex with you if you look like (insert hot a-list celebrity from your peer group). What products does HE buy??

Interestingly, Marshall McLuhan spotted this all the way back in the 1950s. One of his earliest books, "The Mechanical Bride," is basically a series of short essays analyzing\deconstructing elements of pop culture - particularly advertising - and the unhealthy gender roles and stereotypes they were creating. At the time, he was dismissed (or just ignored) because no one wanted to believe some adverts were causing societal-wide shifts, but in retrospect, the book is depressingly accurate in a lot of its observations. At one point he even directly says that he sees men in the future becoming "infantilized" and emotionally stunted due to superficial consumerism gone out of control.

Although at least in my own view, that didn't really happen until the 1970s-80s. Even through the 1960s, a "man's man" was one who still had a wide range of interests, appreciated the arts, could express his emotions, etc. But then by the mid-80s, suddenly a "real man" was basically a one-dimensional stereotype in the vein of He-Man or Rambo. Or that infamous book "Real Men Don't Each Quiche" which actually attempted to classify foods as being manly or not, and usually based on the most spurious of reasons. (Does it have French in the name? Then it's not manly.)

Either way, I feel like man-kind, so to speak, has really never recovered from that period. There are still millions out there who honestly think that a real man is basically just a lunkhead brute who's proud of his ignorance and reliance on violence.