This project explores the representational strategies used to depict a gay male/straight female dyad across a variety of popular media. The study problematizes and critically evaluates how the narrativization of the dyad both challenges and reinforces stereotypes of gay men and at the same time circulates a troubling image of femininity in the figure of the straight woman. This line of argument is extended to the context of "Lifestyle Television" to demonstrate how the dyad implicitly structures two particular programs. It is suggested that the prevalence of the dyad is in part indicative of an assimilation of a particular gay identity into mainstream culture. The ideological implications of the dyad are discussed throughout this thesis.

For many gay men performing a gay-centric identity can be challenging. By adopting a set of expected behaviors known as the gay cultural script, many of these men are potentially met with discrimination from both heterosexual and homosexual communities. The gay cultural script is readily available as it is found within the gay ghettos and through various representations of gay men in the media. This research question examines how the gay cultural script when found within the gay ghetto and through the media's representation of gay men provides a lens to which the performance of a gay-centric identity may be communicated and shared. The focus of this research is separated into three interconnected areas: (1) exploration of gay-cultural script, (2) location to which the gay cultural script operates and, (3) analysis of the relationship between the gay cultural script and gay-centric identity performance. / by Robert D. Beebe, III. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2008. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, FL : 2008 Mode of access: World Wide Web.

This study investigates the popular pleasures produced by readers of men's magazines, focusing primarily on the publication, Men's Health, which represents a new type of magazine catering for men. Using qualitative research methods such as textual analysis and reception analysis, the study explores the pleasures produced by both men and women from the consumption of such texts. The theoretical perspective of cultural studies informs this project, an approach that focuses on the generation and circulation of meanings in society. Focusing on the notion of the active audience and Hall's encoding/decoding model, this study examines readers' interpretations of the Men's Health text, focusing on the moment of consumption in the circuit of culture. Reception theory proposes the existence of "clustered readings" produced by interpretive communities that are socially rather than individually constructed. As a critical ethnography, the study interrogates these meanings with particular reference to questions of gender relations and power in society. Access to different discourses is structured by the social position of readers within relations of power and this study takes gender as a structuring principle. Therefore, this study also explores the particular discursive practices through which masculine and feminine imagery is produced by the Men's Health text and by its readers. The research findings support the more limited notion of the active audience espoused by theorists such as Hall (1980) offering further evidence to suggest that readers produce readings other than those preferred by the text and that therein lies the pleasure of the text for male and female readers. The research concludes that the popularity of Men's Health derives from the capacity of its readers to make multiple meanings of the text.

The end of apartheid in South Africa in 1994 brought with it the task of redressing past discriminatory practices. The Employment Equity Act (No. 55 Of 1998) passed in 1998 stipulated that designated employers implement affirmative action in order to provide equal employment opportunities to all including the previously disadvantaged or designated groups who are primarily blacks, the disabled and women (Charlton and Niekerk, 1994:. xxii). Affirmative action is not something to be done for political expediency and fear of legislation alone. Shifting markets and consumer needs require demographic representation at all levels in the organization. Addressing the incredible shortage of available skills, compounded by the tendency not to grant equal employment to designated groups who already have skills, suggests the need for demographic considerations in terms of long-term employment needs. Bringing human resources up to world-class standards will mean addressing the deficiencies that have emanated from the apartheid system. This study focuses on the relationship between gender, equality and the concept of affirmative action. The purpose of this study is to investigate the perceptions of South African male broadcasters towards affirmative action especially where the policy is targeted towards women. Male broadcasters at SABC KwaZulu-Natal are used as case studies. South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) not only embraces affirmative action but also reports on it. Previous studies on affirmative action in media institutions tend to focus on women and thus this study uses men as case studies to make this area of research more complete. South African men are not a homogenous category. There are class, racial, religious, language, urban/rural, cultural and age lines of division among them (Nzimande and Sikhosana, 1996: 82). This being the case, the study investigates the different perceptions held by South African male broadcasters of different races concerning gender-based affirmative action. Issues discussed in this study include: • Understanding of the concept affirmative action • Need for the implementation of affirmative action • Perceptions ofmen towards work Men and power in organizations • Perceptions towards management • Perceptions towards female broadcasters • Perceived factors that hinder women from upward mobility • Possibilities for informal discrimination Studies on affirmative action have more frequently than not been examined in the context of feminist theories, for example, Susan Manhando's study (1994), 'Towards affirmative action: Issues of race, gender and equality at the SABC: Case studies of Natal women broadcasters' and Farhana Goga's (2000) 'Towards affirmative action issues of race and gender in media organizations: A study on South African media organizations,' to cite but two examples. This study moves beyond this rubric to include both patriarchy and masculinity theories as part of the theoretical framework upon which data analysis is interpreted and discussed. I see the findings of this research as the basis for further investigation into perceptions of South Africans from different races towards affirmative action policy. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2002.

This study examines the production of masculinity in the advertisements of South Africa’s two most popular men’s lifestyle magazines, FHM and Men’s Health. I specifically focus on advertisements, as I argue that they play a crucial role in the re‐production of prominent discursive formations. Informed by a poststructuralist framework this study adopts Foucault’s notions of discourse, power and the constitution of the subject. Gender is conceived of within power relations, with a hierarchical relationship between masculinities and femininities. The gendered subject is also viewed as being constantly in process and being constructed performatively through material forms of practice. Focusing on group representations to establish gender hierarchies, I argue that these representations of people are performative acts, hailing the subjects who view them and producing reality through discourse. Hegemonic masculinity, which is argued to be prominent in advertising, is located at the highest point in the gender hierarchy. However, there is not one universal hegemonic masculinity, for it can vary across three discrete political contexts: the local, which is constructed in the immediate face‐to‐face interactions of families, organisations and social structures; the regional, which is constructed at the level of culture or the nation state; and the global, which is constructed in supra‐national locations. In the advertisements of FHM and Men’s Health there is interplay between the latter two as global and regional brands both advertise in these magazines. To investigate the portrayal of masculinities in these publications, this study first undertakes a content analysis to survey the “general landscape” of representation in the advertisements and then performs a critical discourse analysis to uncover “thick description” of the production of masculinity. The content analysis, finds that the advertisements in the sample validate both white and heterosexual forms of masculinity. The sample is comprised mostly of white males, white females and black males, generally proposing forms of hegemonic masculinity, emphasised femininity and complicit masculinity respectively. The representation of white males and black males is different both in terms of the frequency of representations and in the types of representations. I argued that a certain tension inhabits the resulting representations, which try to be inclusive of a multi‐racial South Africa, yet do so within a clearly hierarchical structure. An in‐depth analysis of eight texts, informed by Fairclough’s model of critical discourse analysis and Kress & van Leeuwen’s framework for visual analysis, finds similar results to the content analysis while providing insight into how various discourses produced the representations, particularly within non‐narrative advertisements.