What do we learn about styles of contemporary masculinity from superhero movies?

Running Head: What do we learn about styles of contemporary masculinity from superhero movies?
What do we learn about styles of contemporary masculinity from superhero movies?
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What do we learn about styles of contemporary masculinity from superhero movies?
Masculinity refers to the set of qualities, attributes and roles attributed with the male gender, and the habits and personality traits considered desirable in men. Following in the footprints of feminist scholarship, during the last decade, there has been an increasing number of studies proposing and concluding that heterosexual masculinity associated with brawn and brute strength is a social construct in a similar way as femininity is associated with meek and fragile women. It is in the process of being critically analyzed and deconstructed from the natural gender identity it was considered previously, into a variety of levels of social and political affairs and media influence. It is no longer seen as a real and unified position, but like feminism, an idea put into the mass`s head leading them to believe that something socially constructed is the natural way of life.
Masculinity has been exploring its own duality in all domains of life, from psychology to TV Series, contemporary literary works or superhero movies. Often, men are presented with two extremes of manliness. They can be either the jerk, or the hero who saves the damsel in distress. He can be either the muscular hunk, or the socially awkward boy with skinny arms. At one extreme, he can be the hyper-masculine person oozing sex appeal, or the failure with glasses. It is the existence of each of them in opposition to one another, which allows them to exist side-by-side (Brown). Like all gender roles, this idea is socially constructed too. The idea of masculinity, which seduces the opposite gender, is greatly influenced by the social media, including and principally through the mainstream Hollywood movies and television series (Cohan, 1997).
Since the budding days of Hollywood, its productions have made great contributions towards how the society sees masculinity. It has shifted and morphed along with the depictions in the movies, with some claiming that it is the cause for the changing perceptions while others claiming it as an outcome. Even after the Production Code system, which had earlier strictly defined the rules for gender portrayals, was replaced by the MPAA ratings system, the notions about sex-specific roles took a while to change.
While the blockbusters of 70`s and 80`s show muscular men rescuing the ladies, in every genre including superhero movies, the recent movies of the 21st century see a movement away from this traditional idea. When the "Superhero cinema" was born a little over a decade ago, the superhero image was completely modified, when the modern day superhero idols would resemble Peter Parker more than John Rambo.
Within this division of social med...