zuckerberg and masculinity


Commentary:

I got the idea for this project after watching this 60 Minutes interview that you may remember from our assignment on Connections. After forcing Zuckerberg to endure one of the most painful tasks known to our generation—helping an older person use the computer, in this case to set up her Facebook profile—Stahl goes on to refer to Zuckerberg as a geeky guy and describes him as awkward. I’m sure everyone in this class can think of an example where Zuckerberg is criticized for being too nerdy.

 

Admittedly, Zuckerberg isn't a suave guy, but his goal is to build his website, not be a tv personality, so why all the media criticism?

 

I did a little digging, and I have come to believe that this criticism has more to do with the fact that for media outlets like 60 Minutes that cater to an older audience, Zuckerberg and nerd business leaders like him (Gates, Jobs, Page Brin and Schmidt of Google), are difficult to accept because they don’t fulfill a traditional role in masculinity.

 

Read through the links I placed below and answer the question.

 

Media:

Wikipedia entry on traditional masculinity:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masculinity

 

A piece on nerdyness and masculinity from Dr. Ron Eglash of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute: (focus on the section “The Nerd in Historical Perspective”)

http://www.rpi.edu/~eglash/eglash.dir/ethnic.dir/nerds.dir/nerd.htm

 

CNN article on generational differences in views on Zuckerberg:

http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/10/05/zuckerberg-a-hero-or-a-villain-depends-how-old-you-are/

 

Daily Mail article on changes in masculinity that have taken place since the 1970s:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1315061/The-Seventies-The-decade-men-stopped-men.html

 

A review of The Social Network for those of you who didn’t see it:

http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff/2010/revenge-of-the-nerd

 

Question:

Do you agree that changing roles of masculinity have influenced the way people like Zuckerberg are portrayed in the media? How do you see the emerging role of the internet in our lives influencing societal views like this one on masculinity?