In a symposium entitled Boyhood — Making and Resisting Masculinity, speakers made the argument that current superheroes are sarcastic and hyper-aggressive without extolling the virtues of doing good for humanity. Dr. Carol Lamb, PhD, said the comic book superheroes of yesteryear were those readers could admire, while the current crop is simply caustic. Her research lead her to conclude that the media and marketers have funneled boyhood into two categories: Player and Slacker.
Dr. Lamb and her colleagues determined that this narrow marketing model can actually damage adolescent boys by forcing their development into a bottleneck. She and her team believe young boys need to be taught to see through the hype at an earlier age, when they are less likely to internalize a masculine attitude. As boys grow older, they begin to distance themselves from their friends and support groups, and it is at this age that they begin to adopt more closed-off personalities and these hyper-aggressive role models seem to have more damaging an affect on their psyches.
The good thing is, these results appear to apply to boys of all racial makeup, indicating the problem is with the imagery and iconography, and not based on race. Socio-economic factors were not mentioned in the article.
© C Harris Lynn, 2010
A rambling melange of pop-culture.
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