Men’s Health
Context/Facts
Features:
Context:
| Context | Link |
| Owned by Hearst communications Inc. a multinational mass media and business conglomerate | |
| Hearst owns 50% of A&E networks cable network group. |
There are features of men from many different ages, such as page 101 showing an older man living a healthy active lifestyle, breaking down the stereotype of age limiting your active possibilities
On Page 25 there is a step by step instruction for a work out, implanting a specific image into teenage boys or adults about the ideal beauty standard for men, continuously reinforcing the stereotype that men are strong and must maintain a buff physique to meet the standard set by media.
Strategical posing and editing with the inclusion of mild voyeurism can link to what Laura Mulvey describes as “The male gaze”, where the men are objectified but to cater to homosexual readers.
Language
Semiotics:
For example, Vin Diesel is the dominant signifier and is photographed flexing his physique and staring directly into the camera in serious tone, the photo has been edited with an increase of contrast and shine to create definition and further attention to his muscles- the connotation of this sign is exaggerated with the anchorage of the magazine “Men’s health”, which suggests the standard of men’s health is to be powerful and fierce. Repeated exposure of this myth creates an unrealistic standard of which men should aspire to meet.
The front cover contains a paradigm of signs that work together to convey a reactionary representation of men that has been rooted in society throughout the repeated use of codes and conventions in mass media.
Narratology:
Genre:
We can apply Neale’s theoretical framework surrounding genre to the magazine as Men’s health magazine contains a structured semantic field of fitness and weight conveyed throughout the entire magazine, this something we would expect to see throughout a fitness magazine, however using exaggerated statements to shock the reader such as “Double your metabolism” creates the urge to read the product. Furthermore using these shocking statements encourages audiences to read on- especially to the target audience who are young-middle aged men who are living an active lifestyle
Structuralism:
Postmodernism:
In terms of postmodernism, Baudrillard describes that the media favors the generation of copied products over the creation of new products, and that through repeated copying simulacra are formed. Simulacra are described to have either replaced the original meaning or represent something that no longer has an original meaning. We can argue that Vin Diesel is a simulacra of strength, as the repeated conventions of men’s strength in media products have stripped the idea of strength from it’s actual meaning, where it doesn’t mean emotionally or spiritually stable but instead means maintaining the ideal body. In addition the title “health” strips the health of men from it’s actual meaning, where being healthy is not about eating healthy or taking time for yourself but instead is ensuring you are working out and eating as much protein as possible so that you can one day conform to the set beauty standard- when in reality body builders have the same statistically supported chance of having myocardial infarction as someone with obesity or anorexia.
Representation
Identity:
Feminist critical thinking:
Strategical posing and editing with the inclusion of mild voyeurism can link to what Laura Mulvey describes as “The male gaze”, where the men are objectified but to cater to homosexual readers.
Gender:
Ethnicity:
Industries
Cultural Industries:
Regulation:
Audiences
Media uses:
we can apply Katz’s theory on uses and gratification where the audience continues reading to become educated on how to meet the expectation that is set through magazines like men’s health.