Tim O’Connor responds to Amanda Hess’ assertion that today’s men’s magazines sell the image of men as unstable, emotionally-stunted, and sex crazed.
In the first half of its life, Playboy served up an illusion of the ideal man who was—arguably—a decent and refined chap who would at least take a woman out to dinner a few times before trying to get in her…err…kitchen.
Today’s version of the magazine portrays a version of the ideal guy as an aggressive, tough son of a bitch who dominates women and bends them to his will. This guy scares the crap out of me.
Worse, I don’t think that young and low income men being targeted by advertisers in Playboy and other men’s publications targeting this demographic are as able to discern this fantasy as we were, and our culture is less able to help them figure it out.
This came to mind after I read a strong piece by Amanda Hess in Slate that explores the findings of an analysis of advertising in American men’s magazines by three psychologists at the University of Manitoba in the journal Sex Roles. Hess summarizes the advertisers’ typical depiction of the ideal man this way:
“He is a stomping, yelling, shooting, drinking, fucking, tough guy. He has big muscles and a limited emotional range—stoic, angry, horny. He exists in dark alleyways, war zones, and fast cars.”
Hess reports that the researchers have identified this version of men as “hyper-masculine,” and that advertisers are targeting adolescents and low-income men who have little “political power or social respect” who respond to messages depicting strength, aggression and an insatiable libido.
As a 55-year-old male, this sure ain’t the fantasy served up to me as teenager and young adult. Playboy, and Esquire for that matter, portrayed the man who had it all in house ads titled “What Kind of Man Reads Playboy”. They depicted the perfect gent as single, slim, suave, always in stylish clothes, a John Updike or Philip Roth novel on the go, listening to be-bop jazz, balancing a martini glass while charming some beautiful woman. Most of the other ads in Playboy seemed tasteful and elegant.
For a young man trying to figure out the minefield of sexuality and mores, this guy looked pretty damn cool to me, somebody to aspire to. (Hey, I was a kid!)
Years later, it finally dawned on me that Playboy was selling an illusion—that the Playboy lifestyle was male nirvana. It took maturity, having a stable relationship and some years under my belt to figure this out that life full of compromise and responsibility—even for wealthy guys. And that life is hard.
I have not seen a print copy of Playboy for at least 15 or 20 years, but the advertising waved in front of impressionable teens and low income men today is portraying an illusion that seems much more primitive, and it’s rather sad. This is an immature conception of masculinity—a dangerous fantasy.
What concerns me is that a large percentage of boys and young men today appear desensitized and less discerning, and that they have less older men in their lives to help them sort their way through this stuff.
Thus, they remain immature in many ways–including how they view women.
The man depicted in my old Playboys was no saint, but the ideal dude in today’s ads makes me worried for both the boys and the girls of my sons’ generation.
I’ve been following the comments to this post with interest. A range of perspectives have been expressed, many divergent. Carla, your comments spoke clearly to the essence of the matter, as I understand it. Porn sells an illusion, but young boys and girls won’t realize this unless they’re informed of this fact. So while I think it’s smart parenting to do our best to keep kids and adolescents away from porn for as long as possible, I think it’s also essential to inform them about the illusion that it’s selling. I think that porn has become far too pervasive and… Read more »
To be fair, I just checked out the ads in the January 2012 issue of Playboy (pdf version as opposed to print). I found 7 ads that could be construed as hyper masculine, but it’s not that cut and dry. Guess has a really buff male model in an open shirt. Spartacus has a picture of shirtless Spartacus with sword Justified has a picture of the sheriff with drawn gun Ink Master has a picture of tattooed guys 3 Ads featured conventionally attractive women rather than men 7 Crown Curve Black Label IMO sex sells so the last three ads… Read more »
If I have sons I would do my best to keep them away from these magazines and specifically pornography. Porn is selling the fantasy of easy female sexual availability to young boys which can cause frustration and disappointment when they grow up. It is selling the idea that women are as horny and up for free no strings sex, as themselves. Boys grow up with the expectation of no strings attached sex with a variety of women. This is obviously impossible. Promiscuity and sexual variety is only for attractive privileged people. Its not supposed to be for everyone. Our culture,… Read more »
Carla: I believe that you have succinctly elaborated on another facet of the illusion that Playboy and their ilk offer–the fantasy of no strings attached sex, even in hook-up culture or so-called friends with benefits. Re keeping sons away from porn. I think that ship has sailed. Any kid with a smart phone and wifi can access porn. I think best we can do is to keep talking to them about sex and porn, and model mature and respectful attitudes.
I see a lot of people talking about porn selling the illusions of sex, etc. Education of course solely being needed so are parents prepared to talk to their children IN DETAIL of the kind of sex they have? The ways a child will learn any form of healthy sex would be to be educated on existing healthy relationships by parents, loved ones, friends, family. The other would be to direct them to loving examples of porn whilst educating them that some porn is fake, other porn is realistic but porn itself doesn’t show the time it takes to find… Read more »
@ Carla I’ve tried to respond to this post twice and each time closed the browser. I’ve never considered that porn sells the idea of easy sex before and that’s given me something to think about. I agree with the other posters who’ve said that you won’t be able to shield your son from porn. It’s important to keep an open line of communication and from the standpoint of someone who was a boy and has a mother, a boy values his relationship with his mom. If you tell him pornography is wrong, he won’t confide in you because he… Read more »
Ugh geez feminized men who complain too much acting like a man is bad for society. In the writers time Playboy was seen as filth as was the whole sexual revolution. Playboy and all these magazine are outlets and its that simple. Men’s urges and biological impulses are natural. “Today’s version of the magazine portrays a version of the ideal guy as an aggressive, tough son of a bitch who dominates women and bends them to his will. This guy scares the crap out of me” what real man defends this guys comments? What women defends that kind of man???
David:
Thanks for your comment. I don’t think that a ‘real man’ dominates women and bends them to his will, if I’m reading you right. I think a mature man has relationships with women that are based on mutual and consensual agreement. If the things that they both want, or will to happen, come to pass, then it would appear to be a relationship in which each person freely gives of themselves.
People still read/look at playboy?!
I haven’t read an article in ages. Sometimes I’ll read the jokes. I’ll usually check out the issues where there is someone I’m curious about the last time was Lindsay Lohan. Otherwise the compendiums like 50 most beautiful women are nice to check out.
I don’t read those mags, I look online for porn. Magazines I read are basically Fix stuff, make stuff, fly/drive stuff, buy and/or dream about stuff!
To the first two comments: the study was based on more than just one Playboy and one Maxim, but rather many as a whole. I’ve seen what these authors are talking about quite a few times in these respective magazines, although not in each issue. Thanks.
Well said, Tim. I couldn’t agree more. I’m also concerned about the programming that men young and old are receiving through magazines that target the male libido. And Playboy just scratches the surface. What about the programming of modern porn, which makes today’s raunchier Playboy look like almost wholesome? And since the barriers that prevented kids from viewing porn have been eliminated by the internet, it’s become omnipresent… so much so that it’s become a mainstream advertising trend. Witness companies like American Apparel and photographers like Terry Richardson. What to do? That’s the question. Of course, I don’t have the… Read more »
I haven’t seen a print copy of Playboy in years either, but I just checked out a pdf of the December 2011 issue to check the ads. I found two that I would classify as hyper masculine for Jean Paul Gaultier and storemags.com. I found two I suspect they might classify as hyper masculine for McGraw Silver and Andrew Christian. The McGraw Silver one because he’s wearing a cowboy hat, has a couple buttons of his shirt unbuttoned and has a big belt buckle. The Andrew Christian guy is posing in this underwear, but I was more buff at 18… Read more »
I just looked through a copy of Maxim and really couldn’t find anything described in this article. It looks to me like the woe-be-to-men gender studies crowd is at it again…
The cars, tech, and naked girls are commonly featured are pretty much in line with that. Even the author of this article says that the sophisitcation of men’s mags has basically gone downhill. I don’t think it’s man-hating to say. I keep seeing comments like this here and there on this blog. Knocking down straw feminists. I didn’t have the impression that this was an anti-feminist blog.
“I didn’t have the impression that this was an anti-feminist blog.” It’s not an anti-feminist site. It’s more pro-male especially in the comments and a lot more moderate than most feminist or MRA sites. It’s sad that when people criticize feminism, some feminists choose to label it as anti-feminist rather than examine the criticisms to determine if they have validity, but it’s probably just human nature. I’ve seen it in the MRM too. I get a lot more slack on this site than on many feminist blogs and maybe I should because this is a men’s site and it wouldn’t… Read more »
Was he referring to all feminists or just those in gender studies? I read it as a dig against academic feminists if anything, but then does feminism own gender studies? Could it not also be a dig at MRA’s too?