Accidently a Villain
Abstract
I went into this research with one question
and ended up answering a few. Hyper-masculinity and gender-stereotypes are very
common in our world. Boys are only considered men if they follow a certain set
of rules. Superheroes, such has Captain America tend to display these
attributes with ease, and go above and beyond this call of manhood. The problem
is young boys have a hard time separating fiction and reality. The over-the-top
actions of a boy’s favorite superhero can be confused with the everyday actions
of an ordinary man. Captain America was purposely over masculine because he was
created to persuade the American people to join the Army, back during WWII when
people thought Hitler was going to take over the world. In 2011, when his film
was released Captain America was again used as a “Go Army” commercial while
American men and women were fighting in Iraq. Captain America also exposes the
pressure put on the male body. However, he does not try to change the mindset
of his peers, instead he conforms to societies expectations.
Advice
1.Do not panic! This paper is not as hard as it sounds. Once you choose a topic that you like the research will be interesting rather than stressful. Start early and find a source or two a day, and before you know it the research portion is done and you have way more than 5 to 6 sources for your paper.
2. You will have the option to work with a partner, only do this if you are absolutely positive and can really cut time out of your schedule to work together. I was originally working with a partner, and before we finalized topics in class I decided I wanted to do the paper alone. In class you are supposed to "marry" the topic and it was really awkward because I wanted to break up with my partner. Eventually our research paper looked like two papers jammed together and we broke the group up and turned in separate papers. However, this could have all been avoided if I really sat and thought about whether or not I really wanted to work with a partner.
Works Cited
Baker, Kaysee, and Arthur A. Raney. “Equally Super?:
Gender-Role Stereotyping of Superheroes in Children’s Animated Programs. “Mass Communication and Society, 10.0 (2007):
25-41
Berger, Maurice, Wallis, Brian, and Watson, Simon.
Constructing Masculinity. New York: Routledge, 1995. Print.
Captain America: The First Avenger. Dir. Joe
Johnston. Perf. Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell. Paramount Pictures, 2011. DVD.
Colombo, Gary, Cullen, Robert, and Lisle, Bonnie.
Rereading America: Cultural Contexts for Critical Thinking and Writing. Boston:
Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2010. Print
Johnson, Gary V. Man
Up: Perspectives of Male Masculinity Through Superhero Identification. n.p.:
ProQuest, UMI Dissertations Publishing, 2013.
Stabile, Carol. “Sweetheart, This Ain’t Gender
Studies”: Sexism and Superheroes.” Communication
and Critical/Cultural Studies, 6.1 (2009): 86-92
ThinkProgess.org. Center for American Progress Action
Fund. 17 March 2006. Web. 28 May 2015.
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