* A REAL competitor is a company that manufacturers pharmaceutical grade bioidential hormones. Not a company that sells you herbs, spices and/or vitamins and call it a 'hormone supplement' that won't help you very much at all.
Apparently not. It seems that Hollywood moguls believe American men are lacking the testosterone and masculinity to play superheroes on the big screen. Playing tough, heroic characters was once the sole preserve of American actors. Who could forget Christopher Reeve striding onscreen as Superman. Moviegoers marveled at the enormous Reeves who looked every bit the superhero. No one could ever accuse him of lacking testosterone while Robert Downey Jr. was a more than acceptable Iron Man.
Yet movie studios seem reluctant to cast American actors into the plethora of superhero movie roles available as the whole genre is going through something of a golden age. It seems that every single week there is a new superhero movie released with non-American actors hogging the title role. Christian Bale from Wales nabbed the role of Batman, British Henry Cavill has been given the traditionally American role of Superman with Ryan Reynolds of Canada playing the Green Lantern, an Aussie playing Wolverine who has everything anyone would ever want in a Super Hero including all the testosterone any fantasizing female would ever want and the list goes on.
Proponents of American masculinity do not believe that lack of testosterone is the issue. Instead, they claim that there are numerous actors who are manly enough for these roles. The trouble is, superhero movies do not tend to perform well at the box office barring a few monster hits like Spiderman. Those who defend American actors state that men such as Johnny Depp, George Clooney and Brad Pitt are unwilling to risk their lofty reputations on such a movie.
The truth is that the new era of American male actors simply do not have the same level of testosterone oozing through them as men from the previous generation. There seems to be a lack of masculinity with the brooding presence of Clint Eastwood, Chuck Norris, Mickey Rourke, Samuel L. Jackson and Steve McQueen a distant memory. No one can imagine actors like Shia LaBeouf or Emile Hersh playing a masculine superhero.
Matters are not helped when suitably masculine actors like Jon Hamm of Mad Men are taken off the market due to contractual obligations. When an actor becomes a superhero, he is becoming part of a brand. Studios are unlikely to want to associate Hamm with a clean living superhero when half of the United States associate him with his hard-drinking, chain smoking, morally bankrupt alter-ego Don Draper.
Another issue could be the way American kids are being raised. Most parents are overprotective and don't allow their boys to get involved in contact sports such as football. Acting is still considered to be an effeminate profession so any teenage boys who display talent are automatically labeled and have to suffer the slings and arrows of playground taunts. This is in contrast to the UK and Australia which both have a healthy theatrical tradition and young boys are encouraged to go on stage and show their ability. This cultural difference automatically gives males from outside America a distinct advantage as they benefit from years of uninterrupted training. Once an American male decides to act, he is too far behind his British or Australian counterpart to catch up.
There is another issue at hand which is seldom talked about but could provide a reason why American men seem less masculine than older generations. Scientific studies have shown that American men have considerably less testosterone than men of a similar age 20 years ago. A study was performed on Massachusetts men and showed that modern day men have 17% less testosterone than men of the same age in the mid 1980s. It has also been found that men's sperm quality has also decreased in that time. It would appear that unhealthier lifestyles and stress are two of main the causes.
Perhaps this could explain why American men seem less masculine these days. After all, testosterone is known as a symbol of virility, strength, good health and manliness. It would appear that it is not just American actors that are unable to fulfill the role of Superman in the modern era.
Is it possible you could be one of the wimps that the Movie Moguls and medical research have highlighted?
