Gina Mancuso Ms.B
English 101
Oct. 1, 2010
The Bad Boy/Rocker
The media today portrays men as masculine the leader and strong. They feed off the
insecurity's of men just like they do with women, magazines in general. A Armani Exchange
advertisement is an example of the media playing on men's insecurity . Everything in that ad screams "I'm Masculine, You wanna be just like me!". Why wouldn't you when the male in the picture is accompanied by a hot female, and you look the way he does. He's got that bad boy rocker look, what about that type of look makes him look so masculine to the world of men. Is it his body features, the way he carries himself is it the way the advertisement uses the colors in the ad, or that hes riding a motorcycle and has a women on his back.
In the advertisement the male model looks strong, his body is built and toned, his shirt
has been ripped open so you see his bare chest. Showing off his strength basically you have him
riding the motorcycle and having a women holding on to him so tightly that she ripped his open.
The model is on the motorcycle with out a helmet, symbolizing that he's invincible that he can be that
dare devil and do all these dangerous things in life and still look as good as he does.
The one thing that always makes the bad boy is the fact that they always have that loner
attitude, the models position on the bike is leaned away from the women as if he doesn't care that
shes there. That its just part of his confidence, because hes a true womanizer at heart. His face is also
turned away from you, hes looks down as if he was caught in a moment. Which goes with what "Bordo"
says in her chapter of "Beauty (re)discovers that male body", That "women just appear in ads and men
act." In this case is true as well but then again not fully, you have the male model yes caught in a moment his not looking at the camera but he is exposing his body which is something women do in advertisements. So right there you have an rebellious moment hes doing the masculine thing but hes also saying look at me, my body is here for you to see.
Even the colors in the advertisement scream bad boy and masculine there's no bright colors
or frilly little flowers. All the colors are dark and alluring, from the clothes both models are wearing
to the colors surrounding them. They both have the dark clothes, the grey concrete walls surrounding them the new black bike they're sitting on. There's no happy colors which goes along with the whole bad
boy thing, there's all that mystery that comes with him, that he has his secrets.
Another thing to focus on in the ad is that the women is basically just an object there
she's there to make him look good, basically be "socially decorative"which is how most men see
women, like "Paul Theroux" writes about in "The Male Myth." Her whole exposure is her jacket is slightly falling and her facial expression is a pout which most female models use in photo shoots,
as a sexual seduction because what man wouldn't want a women ripping their shirt off and have that
" I want you" look in her eyes. Shes just another shiny thing that comes with if you buy this outfit you'll
be me type of thing.
All these features make him a bad boy which in reality makes him masculine because all
these features, everyman wants to have. They preyed on what the men fear most, that every guy
needs to be strong and ripped and they need a women on there side to make them look manly.
That they basically need to buy these clothes try to act like me in this photo and you'll be considered
the manly bad boy rocker.
