Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio University, August, 2003. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 61-65)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2008. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on July 27, 2009) Includes bibliographical references.

Men’s magazines is a form of media that has been present and popular among men for decades and even centuries. In the beginning of 1990 the popularity for men’s magazines boosted as the new ideal man was presented. The new lad represented a new masculinity that was more honest about its ideals and point of views. Media is being consumed in order to find an identity of self and be able to partake in a group culture. The purpose of this study is to analyze the content of men’s magazines and put that in relation to the male consumer’s homosocial quest for male identity and fellowship. The study analyzes American Playboy magazines of three decades being 1990s, 2000 and 2010. The method of the study is discourse theory and semiotic theory. Discourses describe how people discuss and comprehend their surrounding world through cultures within social group formations. The semiotic theory refers to the study of the meaning that is being created by people in different contexts. The theory being used in the analysis of the content in Playboy is the homosocial theory. Homosocial theory is based on the notion that men have a need of identification and to be a part of a group consisting of other men in a joint male culture. Through the analysis of the content of Playboy the study has come to the conclusion that there is a common pattern in Playboy that presents a homosocial male culture. By consuming the magazine, the man partakes in the male fantasy world that is presented in Playboy. The study also showa that Playboy preserves an ideal man that is a sophisticated gentleman. This culture has flourished over 60 years and shows no signs of dying off.

Thesis (M.S.)--Ohio University, August, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis applies the radical feminist perspective set out by MacKinnon (1993) and Dworkin (1995), to analyze the construction of female sexuality within popular Canadian men’s pornographic magazines and non-pornographic magazines. A mixed methods approach was used to analyze the images and text within the feature articles of the selected magazines. Results revealed that women continue to be constructed as sexual objects within both categories of magazines, but the earlier link identified by MacKinnon and Dworkin between violence and sexuality was on longer apparent. Instead, women were a sexual puzzle that the magazines attempted to unpack. Rather than a strict dichotomy between pornographic and non-pornographic magazines, a continuum of grey emerged whereby the level of explicitness between the two magazines increased as the continuum progressed from left to right, thereby demonstrating the pornographication of mainstream media, as per McNair (2002).

This thesis applies the radical feminist perspective set out by MacKinnon (1993) and Dworkin (1995), to analyze the construction of female sexuality within popular Canadian men’s pornographic magazines and non-pornographic magazines. A mixed methods approach was used to analyze the images and text within the feature articles of the selected magazines. Results revealed that women continue to be constructed as sexual objects within both categories of magazines, but the earlier link identified by MacKinnon and Dworkin between violence and sexuality was on longer apparent. Instead, women were a sexual puzzle that the magazines attempted to unpack. Rather than a strict dichotomy between pornographic and non-pornographic magazines, a continuum of grey emerged whereby the level of explicitness between the two magazines increased as the continuum progressed from left to right, thereby demonstrating the pornographication of mainstream media, as per McNair (2002).

This study measures the attitudes men and women form toward women from a sample of feature articles and interviews in four men's lifestyle magazines (Maxim, Stuff Esquire and GQ) from the years 2002-2004. Attitudes were measured with a 15-item semantic differential analysis. Across all four magazines, attitudes toward the women were positive, active, and impotent. A MANCOVA tested the hypotheses that attitudes would vary by magazine title, gender, and sexism scores as measured by the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI). Magazine title was the only significant main effect, showing that women featured in Stuff magazine received the most negative ratings on all three semantic differential scales. Gender and ASI score did not significantly affect individual attitudes. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

This thesis applies the radical feminist perspective set out by MacKinnon (1993) and Dworkin (1995), to analyze the construction of female sexuality within popular Canadian men’s pornographic magazines and non-pornographic magazines. A mixed methods approach was used to analyze the images and text within the feature articles of the selected magazines. Results revealed that women continue to be constructed as sexual objects within both categories of magazines, but the earlier link identified by MacKinnon and Dworkin between violence and sexuality was on longer apparent. Instead, women were a sexual puzzle that the magazines attempted to unpack. Rather than a strict dichotomy between pornographic and non-pornographic magazines, a continuum of grey emerged whereby the level of explicitness between the two magazines increased as the continuum progressed from left to right, thereby demonstrating the pornographication of mainstream media, as per McNair (2002).

This thesis applies the radical feminist perspective set out by MacKinnon (1993) and Dworkin (1995), to analyze the construction of female sexuality within popular Canadian men’s pornographic magazines and non-pornographic magazines. A mixed methods approach was used to analyze the images and text within the feature articles of the selected magazines. Results revealed that women continue to be constructed as sexual objects within both categories of magazines, but the earlier link identified by MacKinnon and Dworkin between violence and sexuality was on longer apparent. Instead, women were a sexual puzzle that the magazines attempted to unpack. Rather than a strict dichotomy between pornographic and non-pornographic magazines, a continuum of grey emerged whereby the level of explicitness between the two magazines increased as the continuum progressed from left to right, thereby demonstrating the pornographication of mainstream media, as per McNair (2002).

This study examines the story that Maxim tells about masculinity, with particular focus on the type of humor in the magazine and its function; the way the magazine echoes embodied male-male social interaction, particularly “male-bonding”; and how the magazine pits “real” women against the Maxim fantasy women.