How do
male-targeted magazines GQ and MensHealth represent males in order to attract
audience?
The representation of men changes drastically depending on its intended audience and their designed gratifications. Through selling different aspirations, both magazines aim to make the male more attractive to women. I will prove this by analysing MensHealth and British GQ magazine articles and adverts. In addition I will investigate what type of representation of masculinity the magazines are promoting, whether that be sex, particular models of behaviour or aspirations. I will apply various theories to support my theory during the investigation, these being; uses of gratifications, the mirror stage, how this makes men aspirer to be like the men they see in advertisements such as the ones in GQ and MensHealth. Also, I will apply the cultivation theory.
I will be analysing the October
2013 issue of GQ, which is the 'Men of the year 2013' special, featuring a
very iconic middle-aged man, Tom Ford. The magazine cover usually features
idolised men aged around 25 and onwards the majority of the time, by doing this
it will give the male audience a mirror effect, creating an aspiration for
them. GQ is published in 18 other countries as well as the UK, averagely
circulating around 950,000 magazines within 6 months (1), British GQ had a
circulation of 117,778 from January to July 2013 (2). The American-started
magazine, launched in 1931 started of as a mens fashion magazine for the
clothing trade, aimed primarily at wholesale buyers and retail sellers.
Initially it had a very limited print run and was aimed solely at industry
insiders to enable them to give advice to their customers. The popularity of
the magazine amongst retail customers, who often took the magazine from the
retailers, spurred the creation of Esquire magazine in 1933.
MensHealth is an American
magazine with 40 editions in 47 countries, launched in 1987. It is also the
“best-selling mens magazine on U.S. newsstands” (3). Although originally
started as a men's health magazine, it currently covers various men's lifestyle
topics such as fitness, nutrition, sexuality and even fashion. The magazine's
website, MensHealth.com, averages 38 million page views a month (4). Its
current and former editors are all males, which explains the 'high-standard'
images of men, trying to suggest it will teach men how to attract glamorous
women. Most magazine covers of this magazine include a smiling man, usually
with their top off flaunting a certain part of his highly defined body, mostly
all, with a clean-shaved body, usually wearing jeans or joggers sometimes
interacting with a good-looking woman. By wearing rugged jeans, yet having a
clean-shaved body, it mixes the metrosexuality and masculinity of the males.
One example of this method is the March 2009 magazine cover, this features a
man wearing rugged jeans, topless broadcasting his well-looked after body,
standing next to a naked woman, leaning up against the dominant male, he also
has his arm around her breasts, showing his dominance in the gender roles by
covering up “what is his”, almost creating a hyper-reality(5).
The
representation of the ‘ideal’ male has drastically adapted to the changing
society over the past 30/40 years. “A different effort to transform
masculinities has started among civil groups that have a goal that maybe even
more ambitious than physically transforming gender.”(6). In the 1980’s the
perfect man would be the rough and tough Robert Downey Jr. Their hair was long,
their shirts were creased and their stubble was showing. In the 80’s, there was
not the same huge care about what they looked like, men didn’t use moisturisers
or tweezers. But now, there has risen a new wave of men, who take care of
themselves and worry a lot about how they look. One could argue that the males
have taken on more stereotypical feminine qualities. These are known as
metrosexuals, “heterosexual urban men who enjoy
shopping, fashion, and similar interests traditionally associated with women or
homosexual men.”(7). Within my first text, GQ it both subverts and conforms the
metrosexuality coventions. In the advert for Justcavali aftershave, it goes
against metrosexuality and includes a strongly heterosexual male, with messy
hair, a beard, with a tattoo and a woman lustering over him, and then in the
FARAH Vintage advert it includes 3 males, all with no beard, short,
looked-after hair, skinny jeans and formal jumpers and shirts. This advert is
completely opposite to the Justcavali aftershave, this shows that the GQ
magazine subvert and conform metrosexual conventions. Within the second text,
MensHealth
[But despite all this, “men still hold old-school
beliefs”(8). Ignore this]
If the magazine can give you desires and the advertisements offer the
solution it is thought of as a successful financial model. MensHealth gains
revenue in 2 main ways, them being, advertisements and sales. If it weren’t for
adverts there’d be no sales, and if it weren’t for the sales there be no money
to pay for adverts. A lot of the adverts in MenHealth are based on sex, one
example of these are the Durex adverts. This attracts the male audience due to
the other adverts and hyper-realities given off, giving them self-confidence
and belief in attracting women. MensHealth target audience is middle-aged men,
around 40-55 attempting to get fit, they’re at the point where they are
beginning gain mass amounts of wrinkles, and lose self-confidence. This is where
the MensHealth magazine will come in and boost the self-esteem of the men, by
advertising “How to date a supermodel” and “Get anyone you want” articles. And
usually these articles contain an image of a 40 year old man with a young,
attractive woman all over him. By doing this it shows that reading and using
the tips in this article this will happen to them.
The
common representation of males in GQ is that they are successful, alpha males.
This creates an aspiration for male viewers, giving them an effect of jealousy
which then leads to desire and consumption. One example of this in the magazine
can be the Giorgio Armani ‘ARMANI code’ aftershave advert on page 129. This
shows a well looked after male dressed in a suit with a female dressed in a
black cocktail dress with her face pressed up to the side of his face and her
arms around him. This shows male empowerment and says to the audience if you
wear this aftershave you will be like this. The connotations of this advert
show wealth and power, the woman is leaning over him making it look as if she
couldn’t stand if he wasn’t there. This magazine will give desires and the
advertisements inside offer solutions, which makes it a successful financial
model. The more advertisements and desires, the more revenue for GQ. GQ will
include various powerful men on each cover of their magazines, including 50
Cent, Muhammad Ali and Christian Bale(9). Using characters like these will
attract different audiences with opposite views. In the Christian Bale
interview it included a picture of him screaming at the camera showing off his
traditional male stereotypes, with an unbuttoned polo and messy beard(10),
whereas in the Muhammad Ali interview it included a picture of him wearing a
slick black and white suit, with a clean shaved face wearing black sunglasses.
Both of these inserts include completely opposite photos of two aggressive,
‘menly’ men. At a first glance at GQ a first skim would create an opinion that
believed it was a highly metrosexual magazine only including metrosexual men,
but the Muhammad and Christian articles show that it isn’t.
The whole point of magazines are to create a profitable organization,
this is done by selling aspirations and solutions to relevant problems. In
both, GQ and MensHealth this is done, but in slightly different ways. I believe
that both magazines aim to represents males in an attractive way, but not too
perfect where it becomes unrealistic, and customers cannot relate to it. This
is where the advertisements come in. Inside MensHealth it typically shows
topless men, with a perfect body, usually with a woman bearing over them,
attracted and relying on the man. Inside GQ it sells aspirations to MensHealth,
this is all about looking the best, whereas GQ will focus on the perfect shave,
fashion or gadgets, some might say a “more modern view”(11). But still, GQ use
men in every almost advertisement, always a good-looking model,
well-dressed/undressed. GQ represent men in a slightly metrosexual way, using
models that are wearing skinny jeans, with well-hair. This will attract a
slightly niche audience as it won’t receive attention off the masculine,
manly-men. There is an increase in the metrosexual group this decade(12), and
magazines such as GQ will attempt to attract this audience by including metrosexual
men, and metrosexual products such as shavers, aftershave and hair gel.
MensHealth magazine sells various aspirations to men, it will use ripped men,
always empowering a woman, if they are in the advertisement with them. By using
these type of men, it will attract a mainstream audience, near enough all men
will at one point in their life be self-conscious of their appearance,
therefore magazines such as MensHealth will clinch these men by using ‘the
perfect male’ in their magazines and tell the man that he can be like that.
Overall, I believe that both magazines use the men in the magazines to sell
aspirations, but use the men in oppositional ways. Despite the differences,
both magazines sell to very similar types of people, both GQ and MensHealth
will target customers that are either self conscious about themselves, or
looking to improve their looks and appearances, and overall improve themselves overall.
GQ and MensHealth will use different types of men, clothes and accessories to
increase the magazine sales. I believe that GQ represents men more modernly,
and ‘up to date’. More and more men are becoming metrosexual as time goes on,
and GQ’s sales will only increase at a very high rate.
Word Count – 1712.
(1)“eCirc
for Consumer Magazines”. Alliance for Audited Media.
(2)“Mag
ABC’s: full circulation round-up for the first half of 2013. Press Gazette
(3)Kinetz,
Erika. “Who’s the Man? Dave.”. The New York Times.
(4)“Men’s
Health”. Rodale inc
(5)http://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/feb/12/magazine-abcs-mens-health-maxim#zoomed-picture
(6)http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/26/world/asia/changing-the-notion-of-masculinity.html?_r=0
(7)http://www.thefreedictionary.com/metrosexual
(12) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2328953/Rise-metrosexual-leads-increase-high-maintenance-men.html
