More on masculinity
“Anything but cute (Dodge),” “Restore your manhood (Hummer)” and “I am man, hear me roar (Burger King).” These are only three examples of the latest language used in advertising. Although marketers and advertisers have repeatedly raped and ultimately killed the metrosexual a good year ago, they still seem to be scared of its ghost. In a blatant attack on metrosexuality and feminism (the Burger King “manthem” is a parody on the 1970s feminist anthem “I am woman”), advertisers are mediating masculinity straight back to the 1950s.
The ĂĽbersexual is winning terrain; or is it called machosexual as I have heard on a Today Show news report? In reality, all this ĂĽber masculinity and machismo is simply more of the same: mediated masculinity, which is what Mark Simpson really meant with metrosexuality (see the essay).
I tend to think, maybe not rightly so, that metrosexuality was slightly based on equality in the sense that manhood moved toward womanhood, not vice versa (but didn’t womanhood move toward manhood during the height of feminism?). What is happening now is increasing the ever great divide between man and woman again. Maybe the move toward a more egalitarian relation between man and woman came too fast and the backlash is propelling this relation at least fifty years back.
These commercials focus on men caving in to lead what is regarded a more feminine lifestyle (manhood moving toward womanhood). But men are “way too hungry to settle for chick food,” according to the Burger King commercial. The competitive nature of masculine men stimulates the sense of losing power and losing their hold over women. But they are not the ones to adjust, the other side should adjust! Men are grabbing their power back. That’s how it’s been ever since the first people walked the earth, but that doesn’t mean it is right.
Have these marketers and advertisers ever considered the ethical dilemma in promoting such a divide and such an overly masculine man? Do we really want the relationship between man and woman to go backward?
Money and business are the driving factors, as they were with the metrosexual trend and there is nothing wrong with a bit of capitalism. But I’d like to see all this money and business take the moral high road and increase equality not division.
Dutch native Marc van Bree is a well-rounded marketing communications professional with more than 7 years of experience strategically communicating—on and offline—in a rapidly changing media environment. 
