We open to a website, that reflects the media’s expectations of male success. When you join, you must select your gender on an outdated gender selection. Once “Male” is chosen, a warning pops up, asking if you meet the requirements for men. We get pop-ups, with shallow and inappropriate questions on things that are widely considered to be “male stereotypes”.

These pop-ups jump up quickly and there’s no end to them.

Finally, a pop-up “Stereotype blocker” comes up, informing you that it has detected harmful stereotypes. As the toggle is switched to “unstereotype” all the stereotypical pop-ups disappear and we’re taken to a new website. Here there are no requirements and no gender selections. We end with a payoff to take action to dismantle stereotypes. Lastly, we have the Unstereotype Alliance logo with the copy “Let’s rewrite how men are seen in the media.”

The situation is that men are facing unrealistic and harmful stereotypes in their everyday lives, in media, in digital spaces, and in real life. The brief was to counter harmful influences and challenge masculine depictions. We wanted to showcase that these stereotypes aren’t what men need to strive towards to be happy and successful. We wanted to create a relatable film, not only to Gen-Z men, but anyone who’s been subjected to stereotypes and who don't fit into these frames of stereotypical success. Our approach was to make it eye-catching, creative, and simple, utilizing a relatable digital platform.

Our film is targeted at anyone who feels they have been a victim of the media’s stereotypical depictions. We wanted to showcase how unrealistic and overwhelming the “requirements” might feel.

The website in the film acts as an expression of the media’s, the dating world’s, and society's idea of what a successful man should be and do.

Our film challenges these ideas, by comparing the stereotypes with malware. It’s something that is destroying your computer like the stereotypes destroying your mental health.

We revert to a more positive outlook and emphasize that there’s no one way to success. You can be anything you want. It won’t be as easy as clicking on a “stereotype blocker”, but we need to work on dismantling these harmful stereotypes ourselves. Everything starts with awareness of the issue, and our strategy was to make a film that’s engaging, fresh and presents a less talked about subject in a relatable way.