Back to Home PageGrowing up Male
Looking back at my younger childhood days I have realized that through the media I have been exposed to a tremendous amount of violence. After you stopped watching shows like Barney all the shows that I was attracted to had something to do with violence. As I grew up I would watch shows such as Power Rangers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers and GI Joe. All these TV series show how males should grow up to be big and strong and need to stand up to people. Now there are movies like Rambo and the Terminator that show how real man should look like big, strong and able to use guns to fight people. So all through out a boy’s life he is watching films that show that boys need to be big and strong to become men.
When I was a young child I grew up playing with figures that portrayed heroes like Spiderman, Batman, or GI Joes. All these action figures would have big biceps, triceps, and a six pack of abs. This would always make me think that this is what a real man should look like. This is a hard thing to achieve to look like these action figures because most human beings aren’t able to achieve this form, making it hard on kids because they are unable to live up to their dreams.
In fact most of the action figures that kids look up to are impossible figures to achieve. If these figures muscular figures were scaled to real life, they would be very unhealthy. This image shows a batman action figure that is played with by most young boys, and compares the dimensions to a real life person. If the doll was a person it would be 70’’ tall. The average male this height would have an 11.8 in. bicep, 36 in. chest, and a 29.6 in. waist. The doll is no where near these measurements though because they wanted the action figure to be extra muscular. So the action figure was made with a 26.8 in. bicep, 57.2 in. chest, and a 30.3 in. waist. The only thing that is kept even close to the same is the waist, but the arms and chest are almost doubled, making this figure impossible to achieve.
Kids now are also growing up with even more violence then any other minor has grown up with. This new violence is coming from video games that have become very popular. Almost all young boys have some kind of video gaming system. This then leads then to playing games with violence in them. Most games these days have something to do with violence in them. Prime examples of these are Call of Duty and Battlefield. They show boys to grow up to use guns and that violence isn’t really a bad thing.
Young boys are forced to fit into these stereotypes too. This is because if boys seem to be weak or don’t act with masculinity they are made fun of. These boys are called things like pussies, wimps, babies and fagot. No young child ever wants to be called any of these things so they usually conform to whatever is the norm in the society, which is being a big man.
One incident that I was in were I was forced back into the male box was when I was a kid. I was playing with my cousins barbies when no one else was in the room. Then my cousins came in and made fun of me for playing with the barbies and they said that I was a girl. This was a major insult to me at the time because I didn’t want to be girly because I learned that I was a man and didn’t want to be called a girl. This instant forced me back into the box of wanting to be a big strong man.
Looking back at my younger childhood days I have realized that through the media I have been exposed to a tremendous amount of violence. After you stopped watching shows like Barney all the shows that I was attracted to had something to do with violence. As I grew up I would watch shows such as Power Rangers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers and GI Joe. All these TV series show how males should grow up to be big and strong and need to stand up to people. Now there are movies like Rambo and the Terminator that show how real man should look like big, strong and able to use guns to fight people. So all through out a boy’s life he is watching films that show that boys need to be big and strong to become men.
When I was a young child I grew up playing with figures that portrayed heroes like Spiderman, Batman, or GI Joes. All these
Kids now are also growing up with even more violence then any other minor has grown up with. This new violence is coming from video games that have become very popular. Almost all young boys have some kind of video gaming system. This then leads then to playing games with violence in them. Most games these days have something to do with violence in them. Prime examples of these are Call of Duty and Battlefield. They show boys to grow up to use guns and that violence isn’t really a bad thing.
Young boys are forced to fit into these stereotypes too. This is because if boys seem to be weak or don’t act with masculinity they are made fun of. These boys are called things like pussies, wimps, babies and fagot. No young child ever wants to be called any of these things so they usually conform to whatever is the norm in the society, which is being a big man.
One incident that I was in were I was forced back into the male box was when I was a kid. I was playing with my cousins barbies when no one else was in the room. Then my cousins came in and made fun of me for playing with the barbies and they said that I was a girl. This was a major insult to me at the time because I didn’t want to be girly because I learned that I was a man and didn’t want to be called a girl. This instant forced me back into the box of wanting to be a big strong man.
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