How do men perceive women and women men? What advice is each sex receiving? I know that many women turn to magazines for their advice about men, and I would assume that many men do the same. Therefore, I will analyze the advice given in these magazines to see how the media portrays women to men and men to women.
In the page devoted to men’shealth.com, there was a poll that read, “What do you have cooking? Foods she likes to see in your fridge”. This implies that although men still cook for themselves, it is the woman in their life who will be in the kitchen and, therefore, judge their refrigerator contents. There’s also a section call, “Ask the girl next door”. Here, men can get advice from a woman who speaks for all women. It is assumed that because she says it, it must apply to every woman. One of the questions was, “I work 80 hours a week- how the heck can I meet women?” Her answer? “You’re gainfully employed. If you can carry on a conversation for five minutes, you’ll have your pick of ladies by the end of the night.” According to Carolyn Kylstra, the woman answering the questions, women need men to provide for them, so any man who has a good job will have no problem finding women who are interested in him. In fact, there will be so many women interested that he will have to choose. It is here that it becomes problematic for one woman to speak for all. While her answer may be true for some women, it is insulting and degrading to assume that all women will immediately fall for a man simply because he has a steady job.
However, men are not portrayed in a much better way in women’s magazines. Cosmopolitan had a feature article for “what he’s really doing at a bachelor’s party”. This article states that “the single guys are usually the instigators who convince their not-so-single buddies to ease up on their morals a little…or a lot”. Additionally, “men act stupidly when pressured by pals”. It seems that men are guaranteed to cheat unless women do something to prevent it. Men do not have strong enough morals to resist pressure from their friends. The article even goes so far as to assume that single men will automatically try and pressure their “taken” friends because, apparently, they do not have a woman to enforce their morals.
Another article centers on “four truths his eyes reveal”. The subheading reads, “They’re the most expressive part of a guy’s body, and if you learn these easy strategies for reading them right, they’ll tell you things he never will”. Firstly, this article assumes that “reading” guys is simple. It ignores the thousands of possible circumstances and the fact that each woman will be dealing with a different man from the next and assigns an easy way to know “hidden” things about a man. Secondly, it assumes that all men have things they don’t want to tell, things they want to keep as secrets. It is playing on the stereotype of women wanting to express their feelings through talking and men wanting to “suffer in silence”. A universal “truth” is applied to all men, and this article, like the one in Men’s Health featuring “the girl next door”, tells women that some things can be assumed for all men.
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