Magazines: Men's Health - Language & Representation

Men's Health offers a compelling representation of modern masculinity that will allow us to apply a range of media theories.

However, it is also important that you are able to make specific reference to aspects of the CSP edition of Men's Health when applying these ideas and theories. Normally, we would give you a colour copy of the CSP pages to annotate in class but we will need to do this electronically due to the lockdown: 

Fortunately, you can currently read the whole of Men's Health Jan/Feb 2017 (the CSP issue) on this website. The pages we need are: front cover, contents page (p17) and the True Grit Marathon Man feature (p101). It's definitely worth also reading more of the CSP issue to get a feel for the Men's Health audience, brand and representations contained within it.


Men's Health: close-textual analysis

If you missed the lesson, here's a mini-lesson video from lockdown analysing the Men's Health CSP for language and representation.


Representation: notes

Applying media theories: Gauntlett, van Zoonen and bell hooks

Gauntlett: “Views of gender and sexuality, masculinity and femininity, identity and selfhood, are all in slow but steady processes of change and transformation.”

Raewyn Connell: hegemonic masculinity

Hegemonic masculinity is a concept of proposed practices that promote the dominant social position of men, and the subordinate social position of women. According to Connell, hegemonic masculinity is:

“The configuration of gender practice which embodies the currently accepted answer to the problem of the legitimacy of patriarchy, which guarantees (or is taken to guarantee) the dominant position of men and the subordination of women.”

Question to consider: Does Men’s Health magazine contribute to maintaining the dominant position of men in society?

bell hooks: “normalised traumatisation”

Feminist writer bell hooks has highlighted the corrosive, damaging effect of toxic masculinity on both men and women.

She builds on Judith Butler’s work, agreeing that gender roles are constructed, not ‘natural’. In fact, she suggests that patriarchy (a male dominated society) indoctrinates people from an early age so “gender becomes a set of connotations that have become naturalised”.

This then results in “normalised traumatisation” – meaning the damage caused by these representations is simply accepted as part of society.


Van Zoonen: “sex role stereotypes”

Liesbet van Zoonen suggests that the media reinforces sex role stereotypes, helping to construct gender roles. She gives examples of reinforcing sex-appropriate behaviours and the use of airbrushing to change appearances.

She accepts that the media sexualises both men’s and women’s bodies but highlights key differences. The representation of women’s sexuality is generally submissive and disempowering. In contrast, representations of male sexuality are based on strength and power. This is particularly evident in Men’s Health magazine.

Representation in Men's Health: an academic analysis

‘The Representations Of Men Depicted In Men’s Health Magazine’ is an academic journal article by María del Mar Rubio-Hernández of the University of Sevilla. 

It focuses on the American edition of the magazine but its findings also apply to the UK and other international editions. 

Rubio-Hernández makes several key points in her analysis:

• Advertising and consumerism is critical to masculine identity. The products advertised in Men’s Health say a huge amount about the representation of men – “men as consumers”.
• Masculinity is not fixed or natural but socially constructed and “subject to constant change”. It discusses the idea of the “metrosexual” male comfortable with grooming products, fashion and appearance.
• The magazine focuses on the male body and suggests it is one of the few aspects of masculinity still under men’s control. However, it does say that the representation of the male bodies featured in the magazine is largely fixed: “…young, muscular, healthy, sporty, successful, virile…”

Men's Health Language & Representation: blog tasks

Create a blogpost called 'Men's Health: Language and Representation' and complete the following tasks:

Language

1) Write an analysis of the media language choices on the cover of Men's Health - e.g. colour scheme, typography, language, photographic codes etc.

2) Identify three specific aspects/conventions/important points (e.g. cover lines, colour scheme, use of text, image etc.) from each page of the CSP that you could refer to in a future exam. Explain why that particular aspect of the CSP is important - think about connotations, representations, audience pleasures, reception theory etc.

Front cover: 

Editor's Letter and contents page:

Feature - True Grit - 'The Marathon Man': 

3) Apply narrative theories to Men's Health - Todorov's equilibrium, Propp's character types, Barthes' action or enigma codes, Levi-Strauss's binary opposition.

4) Read the cover lines and the Editor's Letter. Does Men's Health offer a cure for male insecurities or does it create male insecurity?

5) How does the 'Marathon Man' feature page offer an example of Steve Neale's genre theory concerning 'repetition and difference'?


Representations

We have already covered many relevant theories in our work on Advertising and Marketing (for example, David Gauntlett's writing on Media, Gender and Identity). We now need to apply these theories and ideas to Men's Health and specifically the three pages from the Jan/Feb 2017 issue identified as our Close-Study Product.

Representations: applying theory

1) How can Gauntlett's ideas on masculinity, gender and identity be applied to the Men's Health CSP we have analysed?

2) How could van Zoonen's work on feminist and gender theory be applied to Men's Health?

3) How could bell hooks's work on 'corrosive masculinity' apply to Men's Health?


Representations: academic analysis

Read these extracts from the journal article exploring the representation of masculinity in Men's Health magazine and answer the following questions:

1) Why is Men's Health defined as a 'lifestyle magazine'?

2) Why is advertising significant in helping to shape masculine identity?

3) The article suggests that the representation of masculinity in Men's Health is not fixed or natural and is subject to constant change. What media theorists that we have studied previously can be linked to these ideas?

4) What does the article suggest Men's Health encourages its readers to be? What examples and statistics are provided to develop the idea of men as consumers?

5) What representations of the male body can be found in Men's Health?

6) What does the article suggest regarding the objectification of men?

7) What is 'metrosexuality' and how can it be applied to Men's Health?

8) What representation of men in Men's Health is discussed in the section 'Homogenous bodies'?

9) What are the conclusions drawn by the article with regards to the representation of masculinity in Men's Health?

10) What is your own view of the representation of masculinity in Men's Health? Is it a positive representation that encourages men to the best they can be or is it a hypermasculine, consumer-driven representation designed to undermine men's confidence and objectify their bodies?


Due date on Google Classroom