Mad Men

Target Audience:

30+ mainly males

Ideologies:

Wealth, status, power and trophy women

In the TV show ‘Mad Men’ there is different representations of gender, the main masculinity is the macho/hegemonic type where the men are obsessed with money, power, sex and having women as objects, however under the obvious macho masculinity there is evidence that there is a masculinity crisis, where these men feel as though their power has been taken away [Marginalized] or they actually do have respect for having a family [new man/ complicated]. A good example of this is where Don is explaining to his fellow workers about a new pitch for a item given to them to advertise, he shows pictures of his family and you can just see from his facial expressions that he does have love and respect for his family, thus making him release his feelings and getting emotional, this goes against the macho/hegemonic type of masculinity where showing feelings is basically a capital ‘NO’.

The below clip shows where Don shows a different side of his masculinity:

Not only Don shows evidence of masculinity crisis, Duck, another character in ‘Mad Men’ , shows a more marginalized masculinity as he is seen drinking by himself and not talking about his feelings, he becomes detached from the world and his work friend, and even kicks his dog out of the building to be by himself, you find out that Duck is going through a divorce and might be losing his children , so this shows why he is acting like this; his power has been removed and the woman ( his wife ) is the one with the real power now.

Men's Health [Editorial & Advertising]

 Men’s health

In ‘men’s health’ 4 main pointers are continuously created throughout each issue, these represent a new masculinity that can be identified with males in today’s society:

-          Quick fix problem solving

This makes the male feel in control of their status and image, as the magazine makes problems sound easy to get rid of and solve. An example of this is, ‘burning fat’, the magazine always points out easy and quick ways to burn calories and keep fit. Making men want to lose weight more as it sounds achievable. 

-          Male narcissism

This promotes self-worthy images of a male and the ideal body to have. Males will want to attract woman [ sex object / trophy ] , and be in power of other males and by doing this, having the perfect figure will achieve this; as it makes other males strive to be like this certain character/male.  Male narcissism will try to get males to love themselves more and to be proud of their life.

-          New male sensitivity

‘Men’s health’ encourages males to take on a ‘new male’ role, being concerned about your style and health whilst still up keeping a macho/ hegemonic status. ‘Men’s health’ tries to instil metrosexual values in today’s males in society; they do this by using famous males as the cover model, as males may look up to these famous characters and so will buy the magazine to see what their idols say and do to get a toned up body and figure.

-          Male superiority/manipulation

‘Men’s health’ expresses the fact that males are the superiority sex/gender as woman are portrayed  trophy’s and sex symbols as they are hardly dressed and are smitten all over the male character.  The magazine uses ‘buffed’ up males as the cover model  to interest other males to maybe feel a bit jealous of the model’s body, and so these males will buy the magazine to get the perfect body to show off to their males colleagues and other female friends; this to an extent shows male superiority and manipulation.  

Representations

‘Men’s health’ represents two masculinities; they aim to attract the hegemonic and the new male type . The hegemonic male will want to read ‘men’s health’ as it features articles like, sex, ‘fat burning’ and violence, it links into the macho and violent stereotype of the hegemonic male, however they also try to attract the ‘new male’ masculinity as it features articles on , style keeping yourself healthy and beauty schemes, and like the hegemonic factors, these link into the ‘new male’ masculinity of having a feminine  yet macho side.

Target audience

Men’s health instils a more hegemonic type of man hood where a man focuses on their appearance and style; this is shown through the muscular man on the cover of the magazine, it expresses to ‘Men’s health’ readers that this is the perfect male body what everyman should have, influencing their target audience to go and become like this masculinity. On the other hand ‘Men’s health’ also creates the idea of  the ‘new man’ as inside the magazine it has articles on the more feminine subjects like aftershave and clothing; however this can come under the topic of style or appearance and again link back into the macho type masculinity.

Adverts

In ‘Men’s Health’ they use different stars and celebrities to attract their readers, as having these role models will make the magazine look more professional and worth the reader’s money. If a celebrity advertises something in ‘Men’s Health’ the audience will want to buy whatever they are advertising, to be like that role model/celebrity; thus this will increase profits for that company who has advertised. Another thing is, if stars/celebrities advertise something it can try to persuade strongly viewed macho men, that it is ok to buy for your appearance and style because these famous people do; thus changing men into the more hegemonic/new male masculinity.