The Action Hero:

Thor

Chris Hemsworth, the actor of Thor. Is presented as a strong, attractive character. Thor has forever been the favourite son, as Loki wasn’t Odin’s real son. Thor is a powerful, arrogant god, which then gets cast out of Asgard. Thor is the god of thunder which connotes anger and fury, it also connotes power. In the film Thor, he gets put into the hospital as he is seen crashing down from the sky. When he wakes up he is angered by where he is. He then runs around the streets until some scientists find him. Even when he smashes his coffee cup on the floor and demands another it shows how violent he is. In the Avengers film Thor starts to fight Loki after all he did to him and then started a fight with Iron Man which then Captain America then got involved. Throughout both movies Thor is forever portrayed fighting and passing violent comments.

This shows the male audience that a real man must be strong and furious and if nothing meets his requirement he must fight for it in a violent matter.

Robert Downey Jr. plays Tony Stark who is an extremely successful entrepreneur who owns Stark Industries. He is well known by his professional status of being the owner of Stark Industries and he is the image of success as his industry is placed in the centre of the city and is largely labelled, almost to boast about his success. He is very confident, clever and outgoing and society desire to be this man, he has many contacts and friends, several expensive cars that he can replace if one breaks. His industry sells worldwide and is very economically powerful. At the end of Iron Man he gets told to read of the cards and say he was in an accident and don’t answer any questions about Iron Man yet in the end he stand up and declares ‘I am Iron man’ which provokes a huge reaction from the press. By tony stating he is Iron man and disobeying the orders he was told shows he is stubborn and in power and wants to show off his success of actually being a super hero.

Tony Stark’s character suggests that to be a real man you must show your successes and boast about how successful in life you're doing. A real man is economically and socially powerful.

The Big Shot:

Iron Man

Bruce Wayne/Batman, played by Christian Bale, controls Gotham City by day as an entrepreneurial business man and by night as a masked vigilante. As Bruce Wayne he plays a confident, outgoing, self-confident person and doesn’t show anything is wrong within his life. He focuses on being in charge by paying for anything that doesn’t suit his requirements, owning Wayne Enterprise also reflects him being in charge and fighting crimes at night also puts him in charge. Bruce Wayne is primarily shown with women around and is portrayed as a millionaire playboy. In his younger years he trained in combat, which his master then told him to hurt a fellow companion which he refuses to do, this shows he is in power and will not have people, no matter how high their authority is, tell him what to do. He never shows emotion, even to his butler, Alfred, even though Alfred has been in the family for years, he does not show anyone his weaknesses.

Bruce Wayne's character shows boys and men that you should always be in charge of your own actions and be in control of who you are. He also shows that emotion is a sign of weakness and should not be projected towards others.

The Strong silent type:

Batman Begins

Chandler Bing performed by Mathew Perry in the TV show Friends is a prime example of the Joker as he is never serious and has difficulty with his attachment and commitment to women. When another character asks ‘have you called her yet?’ his reply is ‘Let her know I like her? What are you, insane? It's the next day! How needy do I want to seem? ‘ this shows his reluctance to be emotional. In the beginning he is afraid to have commitment with women and therefore is weak towards women and always runs back to the same women (Janice). Chandler is very popular with the male audience.

Chandlers character shows boys and men that’s its okay to be serious sometimes but its better to live life to the full and enjoy it and not have emotional commitments with women to early in life.

The Joker:

Friends

The character of Jim Kirk in Star Trek, played by Chris Pine is portrayed as the Jock from the very beginning of the film as he is an arrogant, rebellious and egotistic. He was quite willing to take medication to cause unknown false symptoms in order to achieve access upon the Enterprise, he was willing to do anything to board the ship. In the scene at the bar Jim is ‘chatting up’ a female character and a group of male colleagues confront him suggesting ‘it wouldn’t be a fair fight as there are four of us’ which Jim replies ‘go and get some more men then it’ll be a fair fight’ which shows his arrogant personality.

Jim Kirks character shows the male audience that being arrogant and stubborn is the right thing to do, but you may be asking for trouble. Yet he shows that being violent is what you must be to win the admiration of women and even men. To show you are the dominant male, you are the leader.

The Jock:

Star Trek

Daniel Craig plays the character James Bond who is portrayed very well groomed with expensive attire, for an MI5 agent wears unsuitable clothing for the actions he takes. he is greatly sexualised as he gets with at least 2 women within each film and throughout the film women swoon over him and are immediately attracted to him. In every James Bond film women are always hanging by his side desperate to win his admiration. On the other hand, always one is only trying to find out useful information from Bond, yet it is always published in a sexual attraction towards him.

The metrosexual character tells men that you are a sexual object towards women and that you must look ‘perfect’ then women will be automatically attracted to you.

The Metrosexual:

James Bond