Materials needed: An example from advertising (a print ad, a synopsis of a TV commercial, etc.) in which masculinity, or manhood, is referred to explicitly – whether used literally or ironically.
Discussion Questions:
Explain what you feel the people who made the ad are trying to do; specifically, how are the advertisers attempting to use masculinity, and gender, to sell their product?
What assumptions do the advertisers seem to be making about those who will be influenced by the ad?
Analyze masculinity in a TV or print ad, or other media image. Focus specifically on:
The way masculinity is portrayed, especially as related to the body.
What that portrayal signals about what kind of man is pictured.
What effect(s) this is designed to have on those looking at the image.
