GQ

• Masculinity tends to be heterosexual with emphasis on being toned and muscular. Problem solvers and go getters, risk takers who accept challenge and are full of self confidence
• well groomed and fashionably dressed men without being ‘foppish’ or tying to hard
• masculinity- lots of primary colours used with emphasis on black, grey, blue, dark brown
• masculinity isn't fixed nor natural, but rather socially constructed, multiple and consequently different depending on culture, time and place
• masculinity is a multi form, mobile and historically variable construction
• the masculine norms within which we live today are closely related to those that emerged in relation to the rise of consumer culture
• men were given a new role of consumer, which was a previously female dominated sphere
• men began to be represented from a new perspective, seen in men’s health where male models are depicted while consuming a product/ service or enjoying it
• GQ: “i have seen the future of masculinity and it was moisturised“- mark Simpson 1994

  its become more acceptable for men to care about the way they look, fashion and skincare
• spornosexual: term combining the words “sport“, “porn” and “metrosexual“. this was also created by mark simpson to explain the changes he has seen in the way men behave
• British GQ sells itself as “the greatest magazine around. the men’s magazine with an IQ. whether it’s fashion, sport, health, humour, politics or music, GQ covers it all with intelligence and imagination”
• GQ is aimed at: ABC1 men, aged between 20 and 44, has 212,000 monthly print readership, online boasting over 2 million monthly unique users, more than 2 million social media followers
• GQ front page- Robert Pattinson: masthead is behind celebrity. “GQ“ sounds very corporate and sophisticated which sets up to its target audience. Broken nose. Romanticising traits often criticised in other ethnicities. Direct address, bruised eyes. Tattoo- prison, bravery. Halls representation theory. Stereotype- treat, aggression, strong, un defeatable, bloody nose- fights, leaving victorious- power divides. Direct eye contact- challenging. Metal capped teeth. Aggressive facial expression. Metal- paradigms of teeth and chain create a syntagm of violence.
• GQ front page- Robert Pattinson: blue gradient encodes transformation. price suggests that the audience is more affluent than on average- middle class above. Butlers gender performativity theory- masculated, exaggerated- familiar image, repeated. “Holy Grails”- for USA, British magazine has Johnathan Bailey- altered cover lines. Chain- trapped like a dog? gauntlets identity theory- constructed identity via codes. Enigma code asks audience to re evaluate their understanding of Robert Pattinson. Main image as his face will attract more readers to GQ- appeal to existing audience.
• GQ front page- Robert Pattinson: van zoonen- combative nature of men- combat, ruthlessness, gaze- determined, aggressive. Aggressive version of masculinity. White masculinity- power. Virgil Abloh cultural figure. Holy Grail; the most sacred thing. Francis Ford Coppola; film director ”Godfather“- traditional toxic masculinity. “art and fashion“ has the same font as “who is Robert Pattinson?”- unusual, horror film. ‘Gentlemen’s quarterly‘- implies certain class, controversial title. “GQ” is white- mature colour for a mature audience
• GQ page 2- Jonathan Bailey interview: in the picture of Jonathan Bailey in the top right corner he has smouldering eyes, his gaze is indirect, the location connotes quite luxury and the camera has a shallow focus. “Modern, slicked-back hair“. “Tumbling like a stray astronaut into space, crashing into a new planet“- literacy figurative: modern man. He also used to be in theatre which was directed by a woman. “Gender-swapped reimagining“. “Bridgeton landed like a confetti bomb posted though his front door”. “Black Gore-Tex jacket and green Corduroy trousers”.
• GQ page 2- Jonathan Bailey interview: they also have gossip type information in brackets: “(tabloids suggest she also dated Pete Davidson last year, shortly before his headline stirring relationship with Kim Kardashian)”. they also have a list of the clothes he is wearing in the photo which suggest ABC1 audience, succeeders, consumerism and materialistic.
• GQ page 3- Johnathan Bailey: on this page there is a picture of him spanning the whole page. he has an intense gaze. in the top right corner there is a symbol- GQ is trendy, global. the picture also connotes urban nature as he is by a brick wall covered in plants. it’s almost like hes lurking. he has casual body language, informal, slouching, centrally framed, mid shot. theres also another list of the clothes hes wearing which suggest an AB audience, fashion. however these clothes are more affordable and hes wearing lesser known designers.
• GQ page 4- Jonathan Bailey: it’s another photo that spans the whole page. hes standing on a wall and leaning on a tree. He has casual body language. Low angle of the camera suggest dominance and power. His facial expression connotes that he is miserable, it’s intense as he's looking right at us. Quirky masculinity, traditional signifiers of power. Costume is still a suit, patriarchal power. Van zoonen- ruthless, individual. His pose seems quite unnatural.
• GQ page 5- Johnathan Bailey interview: “rarely occupied the main spotlight“- perhaps because not traditional masculine. “as many queer people do growing up in big cities“. “one of the few gay British actors working onscreen whose roles don’t seen defined wholly by their sexuality“. “Many men and women“- celebrating identity. “His career decisions and his sexuality have stood in direct opposition to each other; if he ever felt the need to suppress that side of himself to get ahead“- judgmental, anti gay, offensive, ignorant.
• GQ page 5- Jonathan Bailey interview: “Of course i thought that in order to be happy i needed to be straight“- hegemonic ideology. “avoidant and toxic“- stereotypical masculinity, negative. “a man grieving the loss of his father….patriarchal position“- the idea that men shouldn’t express emotions.
• homogenous body:

  • dominant depictions of maleness in physical terms, linked to power, strength and youth
  • “men concerned are always young, usually white, particularly muscular, critically strong jawed, clean shaven (often all over), healthy, sporty, successful, virile and ultimately sexy”- Edward’s
  • hegemonic images that are repeatedly represented while others are subordinated (older, ethnic minorities, physical disabilities)
• homogenous body:

  • notion of masculinity focused on anatomy, stressing male physical features, as to ensure the heterosexuality of readers, who, at the same time, are ironically provided with suggestive images of men
• Joseph Gelfer:

  • ”previously, masculinity was mostly presented in one of two ways; either a glamorous James Bond Style masculinity that attracted ‘the ladies‘, or a buffoon style masculinity that was firmly under the wifely thumb“
• 1. “unconscious masculinity“- traditional view of men
  2. “conscious masculinity“- as above but deliberate
  3. “critical masculinities“- feminist; socially constructed
  4. “multiple masculinities“- anyone can be anything
  5. “beyond masculinities“- it doesn’t exist
• hyper masculinity: a psychological term for the exaggeration of male stereotypical behaviour, e.g. physical strength, aggression and sexuality
• GQ represents a notable social and cultural shift in expectations of contemporary masculinity
• GQ can be linked to social and cultural contexts through reference to fashion, consumerism, body image and changes in what society deems acceptable and unacceptable representations of masculinity
• GQ- gender, sexuality, race and class
• GQ- emphasis on male beauty and grooming challenges
• GQ- queer masculinity
• Diegesis

  • may concern elements, such as characters, events and things within the main or primary narrative
  • however, the author may include elements that aren’t intended for the primary narrative, such as stories within stories
  • characters and events may be referred to elsewhere or in historical contexts and are therefore outside the main story; thus, they are presented in an extradiegetic situation
  • even in a spatially and temporally continuous scene (mimicking the theatrical situation, as it were), the camera chooses for us where to look and where not to look
• Diegesis

  • editing causes us to jump from one place (and/or time) to another, whether it be elsewhere in the room or across town
  • this jump is a form of narration; its as if a narrator whispers to us “meanwhile, on the other side of the forest“
• mytheme

  • units of narrative features we can use to compare different myths from around the world
  • concept was devised in 1950s by Claude Levi-Strauss who wanted a more scientific approach to analysing tribal stories and folklore
  • by breaking down myths into their characters, actions and themes, Strauss hoped he could qualify culturally important meanings and celebrate our rich diversity of thinking
  • a mytheme consists of the narrative feature and what is signifies
  • he identified character, action and theme to be their smallest elements d
• the meditated audience

  • the mass audience: highly mediated, spatially dispersed, often in private (newspaper readership, tv audience)
  • one of the first audience effects of the evolution of cinema, radio and television in the period 1915-1940 was the creation of what was dubbed by 1940s communication research the mass audience
  • this audience was very different from the simple audience
  • mass audience experienced this new media of film, radio and tv as a highly mediated product
• the mediated audience

  • in a theatrical or concert hall performance the audience is directly involved and can make choices for themsleves- where we look on the stage, what elements we focus on
  • in radio, film and tv these decisions are made for us by the cameraman, the editor and the director
  • our interpretation of what we are viewing is now based on the viewpoint and intentions of someone else- the experince has been mediated
• The mediated audience

  • even our idea of what someone looks like is mediated, we can begin to consider how much more mediated and disassociated from reality are the way the media represents peoples ideas and actions
  • Where we move towards knowledge and understanding of simulacra
  • linked this to Barthes notions of myth-making in society- that we as the audience accept these highly mediated images and ideas and then repeat/circulate them ourselves
• the mediated audience

  • study of audience now about not just how this happens, but increasingly we need to move to the advanced media concepts of why this happens and the implications of this
  • readers, viewers and audiences are part of this process of mediation because they continue the work of the media in the ways they respond to extend and further communicate what they see and hear
  • the media loops this back to us because we clearly must- by our patterns of consumption in buying these products- approve of what they are telling/selling us
• mediated representations go round again, reinforcing and sustaining itself in an endless loop
• consumer culture

  • rising affluence- argued that the inhabitants of western societies now have more money to spend on consumer goods, holidays and leisure
  • decreasing work hours- leaves move time for leisure/lifestyle pursuits
  • identity- people now taking more of their identity from what they consume and their activities as consumers. previously, people work was a much greater marker of identity. old forms of identity, such as class, work and location are rapidly breaking down because of increased globalisation