THBT media representation of performative male competitions is an effective tool to tackle gender stereotypes of males

Motion: THBT media representation of performative male competitions is an effective tool to tackle gender stereotypes of males

Proposition:

• The primary objective of performative male competitions is to expose gender stereotypes in a satirical way. For example, contestants who decide to actively take part usually wear clothes or bring accessories with themselves that are simply absurd: drinking matcha tea despite its awful taste, reading multiple feminist novels upside down simultaneously (e.g., The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, or Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf), wearing soft-male clothing, listening to feminist music (e.g., The Fate of Ophelia by Taylor Swift, Manchild by Sabrina Carpenter).
• What these performative activities all share is that some males deliberately use them as a means to impress their environment (typically women), sometimes in a hypocritical way. Whereas, in reality, their actual belief systems might not reflect the idealised persona they want to show to other people. However, at these events, guys can poke fun at those males who actually do these things as a form of virtue signalling to realise masculinity.
• Admittedly, gender stereotypes are really hard to grasp, but following media coverage of these events, for example, on social media makes it a lot easier to understand them, even for those people who are less into gender studies. Gender studies is a fiendishly hard concept to understand from academic literature that is filled with dry technical terminology. Nonetheless, media coverage democratizes knowledge and makes it accessible to people in an entertaining, albeit constructive, way. Of course, opposition might argue that media coverage offers a superficial understanding of the subject, but they need to understand that this requires less cognitive effort than reading academic literature, which certainly appeals to a lot of people. Media posts like this could serve as a first step to engage with these topics, based on which they can optionally delve further into those subareas of the topic they are interested in. Therefore, this is only the first step towards breaking down gender stereotypes of males.
• Part of the problem stems from the fact that people generally consider gender a taboo, and therefore, they are less likely to talk openly about this in a constructive manner. That said, seeing that some people deliberately poke fun at themselves encourages media consumers to become more open to discussing prejudices relating to gender. This will likely reduce stigma, which is why people eschew these topics.
• Performative male competitions offer a platform for men to compete against each other and challenge the concept of what real masculinity really means in the 21^st century of globalization. These events, at their core, normalize that there is no single correct way to be masculine. For some males, for example, reading feminist literature (see ELTE Humanities) is part of their identity. On the other hand, some might feel more comfortable bringing vinyl of Harry Styles’ latest album. Seeing images of these fancy merches compels media users to reconceptualize masculinity.
• This also encourages people to critically engage with content like this on social media, compare contestants to each other, and pick the one they can identify with the most. This allows participants to expose themselves to various interpretations of masculinity, which fosters diversity. Certainly, we don’t ask people to become activists, but to accept that the concept of gender is important for those who support the cause of feminism and gender equality.
• Getting exposed to content like this on social media enables people to get out of echo chambers and challenge their previous views. In these echo chambers, they usually see that males are manipulative, performative and toxic, which further reinforces their views. However, for some people, social media posts about this initiative might serve as an eye-opener. As is often the case, people make judgments on males solely driven by emotions. Having said that, they might eventually realize that the overall message of the whole thing is not limited to one source, which encourages them to critically evaluate various sources and make more rational decisions about which media source they give credit to. This mindset is likely to debunk common stereotypes in the long run and challenge views associated with toxic masculinity.
• The event itself offers media consumers an opportunity to reflect on themselves and potentially realize that some of their behavior might be performative. The overall message of performative male competition as a social movement is in parallel with feminist values: social growth, education, dialogue, and social reform. Getting exposed to media content like this creates a platform for these guys and encourages them to develop compassion for their insecurities. Their toxic views are not permanent! Even though toxic masculinity promotes the narrative that vulnerability is not deemed as masculine, feminist values help guys work on themselves via social media. Their values, learnt through social conditioning, are not permanent and, in fact, they can unlearn harmful behavior.

Opposition:

• Even though the media portrayal of performative male competitions seeks to address the root cause of the problem, which are gender stereotypes of males, satire proves to be an ineffective means to tackle the issue. Many of the depictions on social media lampoon competitors taking part in these competitions, bringing feminist literature / music with themselves for comic effect. However, this might offer a superficial understanding of the issue. This doesn’t necessarily promote high-quality discourse between people.
• By and large, social media algorithms reward engaging content, which is why popular content can easily get caught up. As content creators seek to reach higher visibility online, therefore, they are very likely to make content that will engage more viewers, higher viewer retention, more reactions, etc. As a result of this, social media users can easily get caught in echo chambers online, only getting exposed to limited viewpoints on the issue. On top of this, content creators and media outlets are primarily driven by financial incentives, which encourages them to create emotionally intense, absurd, and sometimes even extremist content, as such content always garners massive media attention. This is no different with media outlets portraying these competitions as they commodify gender-related issues by prioritizing shock value over substance.
• Although proposition may say that through social media, a social movement can reach massive audiences within relatively short time, this comes with great responsibility. We need to realize that social media users cannot really engage with content effectively, as those taking part in these competitions are reduced to clicks and entertainment. Eventually, this might turn complex identities into pejorative labels: fake-feminists, performative boys lacking emotional maturity, etc. Evoking affective responses from viewers moves beyond rational evaluation. Because of this, most of them might only remember the stereotype more than the social critique. The portrayal of performative male competitions may eventually perpetuate the very stereotypes they aimed to address, and thus backfire. As many people don’t evaluate content critically, they come across it while they are scrolling: just finished an 8-hour-long shift at work and fatigued, they might prioritize other personal issues. Thus, some usually fail to appreciate the deeper message.
• We also need to realize that media consumers come in all shapes and sizes, and not everyone understands irony in the same way. Some viewers, for example, elderly people scrolling on Facebook, might deconstruct the overall message of media posts as if they satirized non-traditional masculinity, instead of criticizing toxic masculinity. As media outlets deliberately leave significant logical gaps in the portrayal of these events to trigger higher emotional responses, there is a great deal of ambiguity when readers decode content. This can strengthen prejudice instead of challenging it.
• As absurd media posts reach higher visibility, this normalizes that only exaggerated performances of masculinity get media attention. Media consumers might think that only being satirical and flamboyant counts as authentic expressions of masculinity. On the other hand, those men who actively choose to quietly express their own versatile masculine identities at home are ignored by the social movement. This actually fosters less diversity and doesn’t represent reserved, more traditional interpretations of non-toxic masculinity. Through selective framing and biased interviews, it might give an unrealistic image of masculinity, which is no better than toxic masculinity. In the long run, the portrayal of these competitions replaces a narrow stereotype (performative males) with another one, instead of removing it altogether.