Marketing masculinity: gender identity and popular magazines

Marketing Masculinity: Gender Identity and Popular Magazines

Vigorito, Anthony J. & Timothy J. Curry." (Jul 1998). "Marketing masculinity: gender identity and popular magazines."

Sex Roles: A Journal of Research. Retrieved 10 Dec 2007 at http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2294/is_n1-2_v39/ai

The purpose of the article "Marketing masculinity: gender identity and popular magazines" by Anthony J. Vigorito, http://findarticles.com/p/search?tb=art&qt=%22Timothy+J.+Curry%22" Timothy J. Curry from the peer-reviewed journal

Sex Roles: A Journal of Research is to quantify the extent to which hegemonic representations of masculinity are encapsulated in popular magazines directed at a particular readership. The authors deem the subject of their study pertinent because of the profound influence media representations have in identity definition, particularly for young people. To better understand the influence of the media on gender role stereotyping and identity creation, and to address the lack of attention paid in previous research to representations of masculinity, the authors created a study examining representations of male class, age, sex, and marital status in popular magazines and how these variables were related to the target gender readership of those magazines.

The authors used two dependent variables. The first dependent variable was the percentage of men depicted in occupational roles as indicators of hegemonic masculinity while the second was the percentage of men depicted in parental or spouse/partner roles, that is, non-hegemonic form of masculinity. They hypothesized that magazines targeting male readers, particularly unmarried male readers would be more apt to display hegemonic male images, while the reverse would be true with magazines targeted at women or not targeted at a specifically male readership. Magazines with a target readership of a higher socioeconomic status would be even more apt to show males in hegemonic, occupational roles, as this would be status-confirming.