Gender Representation Of Masculinity In 2012 Films

Masculinity plays a major role in movies. But what is Masculinity? Masculinity is having the qualities of traditionally associated with men. Some qualities are but aren’t limited, handsome, muscled, and driven. Without it the male characters would be completely useless and would have no power or control over the plot of the story. We see male dominance a lot times but we will focus mostly on the films of 2012. I agree with Jeff Smith’s statement in the article “Normalizing Male Dominance: Gender Representation in 2012 Films,” when he says that:

Looking at the 53 films (listed at the end) in the category of gender representation, we see that the majority of characters were male, and only 7 were female. This further proves that men still dominate the cinema and gender is continually misrepresented in cinema and in films. Men are seen as the protectors, the saviors, the breadwinners, and the know-alls. Women are constantly being misrepresented in these films, shown for purposes of objectification, support of the male characters, and mostly as love interests that drive the male
One of the lead male characters has a friend who is female. They flirt on and off before the party, but want to hook up at the party. Instead, the male character, played by Thomas Mann, ends up with another woman at one point. The girlfriend walks in on them, runs away, only to forgive him later and be by his side after the fallout from the party devastation.

After watching this movie, I couldn’t agree anymore with Smith and say that he has made an exceptional point. The male had power to do a lot of things that females wouldn’t agree with but they still would do it. They would be play the typical role of Masculinity as in being handsome, muscular or driven which would make him prime example of