In the past years the media has evolved and set standards for most of America's norms and values. The media has become somewhat of a "dictator" in that it controls American society's perceptions of life. It has created illusions of goals that are rather unrealistic and unobtainable to most, but despite this, many still strive to achieve it. .
Images of men and masculinity have changed dramatically over the past 50 years, particularly in terms of the size of men's bodies ("Tough Guise"). The ideal has always been a fantasy, but now the fantasy is bigger. This can be seen in movies, television, and even children's toys. An awesome example of this can be seen in the size of guns in movies. Gun imagery has changed over the last 50 years; from Humphrey Bogart and Sean Connery, to Clint Eastwood, Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. The guns, along with the masculine codes they represent, have become overwhelmingly imposing, violent and menacing ("Tough Guise"). Another example of this can be seen in professional wrestling; if you look at wrestlers from thirty years ago they didn't have perfect bodies and it was acceptable to see them this way. By looking at the WWE (World Wrestling Entrainment) today one can easily see the difference; all of the wrestlers look perfectly chiseled and well defined, and much more threatening. One of the more important examples are children's action figures. Action figures such as G.I. Joe have become absurdly un- proportionate in terms of the size of their muscles. What does this tell our children? There is nothing natural about these images. They"re made, and how they"re made says something about those who produce them and those who consume them ("Tough Guise"). .
It is no mystery that advertisements play a major role in influencing anything that is remotely gender construction. It has become almost sub-conscious to us; we hardly even consider the media to be sexist or derogatory.