Spike TV: "Get More Action"

Spike TV, formerly TNN, is a television channel that is specifically catered toward men. The channel focuses on hyper-masculinity through its focus on "violence, toughness, aggression, and dangerous behavior.” They specialize in shows like Tattoo Nightmares and Deadliest Warrior. They also have professional wrestling and MMA fighting. It presents masculinity an ideal purely focused on violence. Even the show about auctions is named Auction Hunters. Spike TV is a medium through which old-fashioned masculinity reaches men who long for the “good ol’ days” of a homogenous masculine power.

One of their more popular shows is MANswers. The show is about answering a series of “manly” questions like “How can you spot an undercover cop?” and “What smell turns women on the most?”  The show places all men into a frame where all they seem to care about is how to get away with drinking all the time and how to get with women. The actresses that are part of the answer recreations are all beautiful, have large breasts, and almost never wear anything more than a bikini. For MANswers, women are still just objects of lust and being sober is the last thing a man wants to be.

Spike TV is just a channel that has found its niche, but that does not change the fact that it is a misguided niche. It perpetuates men as nothing but lusting, violent brutes who care only about their own satisfaction. Hopefully, male viewers watch the programming through more of a comedic spectrum rather than as manual for how to look at women and themselves.