Young boys might be getting more from the latest Spiderman movie than a Halloween costume and a penchant for climbing all over the furniture.
Today’s superhero image may foster aggressive and emotionally detached behavior in boys aged 8 to 18, according to a study presented at the Convention of the American Psychological Association. Where older comic book characters often highlighted the values and vulnerabilities of superheroes (both in and out of their spandex), modern Hollywood-crafted characters spend less time brooding and more time shooting.
“Today’s superhero is too much like an action hero who participates in non-stop violence; he’s aggressive, sarcastic and rarely speaks to the virtue of doing good for humanity,” said psychologist Sharon Lamb. “When not in superhero costume, these men, like Iron Man, exploit women, flaunt bling, and convey their manhood with high-powered guns.”
In a further study of how marketers package masculinity, Lamb found that superhero culture tends to tout two identities: “the player” and “the slacker.” The first is the classic over-testosteroned macho man (eg. Batman, Iron Man). The second is the funny, underachieving sidekick.
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So, boys—particularly boys going through puberty—are nudged down either the path of the stoic aggressor, potentially making them emotionally unavailable later in life, or the path of the class clown who’s expected not to achieve much: a hefty blow to any boy’s academic ambitions.
However, researchers went on to say that teaching boys to distance themselves from these stereotypical images early on could help.
In a study of middle school boys, psychologist Carlos Santos found that while boys are more likely to act tough and detached from their friends as they got older, boys who remained close to their mothers, siblings and peers have a tendency to remain emotionally available to their friends. (The study also showed that boys who have a close relationship with their father tend to act a lot like the boys affected by superhero marketing…does that mean all dads are superheroes?)
That said, today’s supermen do pay tribute to their righteous roots, as well as their ass-kicking roots. Who can forget Tobey Maguire’s (Spidey’s) fateful last moment with his dying uncle—the whispered words, “with great power comes great responsibility.” And then there’s Batman’s exit speech in Batman Begins, shortly before jumping off a roof: “its not who I am underneath…but what I do that defines me.”
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Ultimately, superhero movies shouldn’t be considered the bane of young boys’ mental well-being, and they should be taken with a grain of salt—or two (and accompanied with real-life examples of healthy relationships).
As Santos puts it, “if the goal is to encourage boys to experience healthy family relationships as well as healthy friendships… families may benefit from having fathers share with their sons the importance of experiencing multiple and fulfilling relationships in their lives.”
Maybe that’s something worth projecting over Gotham City.
—Lu Fong
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