Tough Guise—Exploring male identity

By Ralph Miranda
College of Education
Long Island University, C. W. Post
March, 2011

In Thursday’s class we watched the documentary Tough Guise. The narrator discussed how young adolescent males are easily influenced by images they see in the media (movies, famous sports figures, etc.), and was essentially blaming the media for poor behavior by males. I have several problems with this theory. First off, I will agree that young adolescents are influenced by their surrounding environment; there is no denying that. But what the narrator fails to realize is that adolescents don’t have the capacity to control or limit their environment, and that it is the parent or guardians responsibility to make sure that their son isn’t watching inappropriate programming. His argument that it’s the media’s fault for the violent tendencies of males, as far as I’m concerned, is completely invalid and he should consider the role of the parents in this epidemic.

I’m not denying that there are inappropriate shows on TV today, movies in the theaters, and violent sports programs. But there are clear disclaimers at the start of any TV show or sporting event, and movies have a strict rating system that tells the viewer exactly why that movie got an “R” rating. I agree with the narrator that if a 12 or 13 year old boy saw a violent R rated movie that he could very well be influenced by that movie. But what the narrator fails to discuss is how the 12 or 13 year old has no business seeing that movie. What he really needs to consider is the irresponsible parenting and to stop putting the blame on the movie makers.

Another issue the narrator brought up was how aggressive sports are influencing young males. He cited fighting in sports like hockey, football, and baseball and how they are setting a poor example for these boys. I can see his argument for hockey because there is a lot of fighting that goes on during a hockey game, but football and baseball? Football is a naturally aggressive sport, and in baseball there are roughly 300 games played every month and there are at most three “fights.” He also discussed how coaches are often times too rough/aggressive with their players. This man has clearly never played any competitive sports because had he known what it’s like to be in the heat of the moment he would realize that the coach is simply trying to motivate his players to push themselves harder so they can win.

Although I understand the point the narrator was trying to make, I can’t agree with him on the majority of the issues he brought up. I believe with proper parental control the media will not and cannot influence an adolescent to such a violent and destructive way of life.