“Are we not real men”
The episode of The IT Crowd shows that the two main characters
are not the socially accepted masculine men. They both try to act in a certain
way to act like “proper men”. Moss thinks that engaging in conversation with
the postman about football related things makes him masculine, this is a pre
conceived idea that football is a male sport and therefore will make him look
manly and as if he knows what he is talking about. Then Moss and Roy refer to
themselves as "not proper men" because they don't have any women with
them whilst sitting in the pub. Roy tries to imitate a man at the pub who is
watching football and doing hand gestures towards the TV clearly interested in
what he is watching. Moss and Roy aren't really into football and become
awkward when they meet new friends and they're all taking about football. They
even go to a football match to attempt to be “proper men”. Both characters are
post masculine men because they don’t carry many manly traits and are scared of
the “proper men”. When he goes to meet the proper men they're in a workshop,
not an office, this could be because they do manual labour, which is another
masculine trait. The two characters work behind a desk at an office so this is
another way that they are portrayed as post masculine men. The “proper men” also have guns, another
very masculine object, that Roy is scared of. Roy starts to cry when they rob a
shop, which is a very feminine trait. The “proper men” swear a lot and have an
argument another manly thing to do, being aggressive, both Roy and Moss are
very innocent and not very confrontational. Moss and Roy kiss to get out of
being caught by the police this could be another reason they don't consider
themselves to be " proper men". Roy also goes to see how his female
co-worker is, this is another very feminine trait, being caring.
