M.A. (Communication & Media Studies) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Gender has been identified as a key element of human identity. Feminism has focussed particular attention on gender issues over the past five decades. Gender discourse has been dominated by discussion of women and women’s issues - “feminists have somehow set the agenda for men’s studies” as well as women studies. Mass media have been identified as key sites of discourse in feminist studies. Numerous studies have examined representations of women in mass media and argued that these have significant effects on women, on men, and on societies. A number of researchers have found that the treatment of men in mass media is not unproblematic and say that that feminist-led discourses have presented pictures of men as rapists, batterers, pornographers, child abusers, militarists, exploiters, and images of women as targets and victims. But studies of representations of men have been far fewer than those focussing on women. Furthermore, some media content analyses have been limited or unreliable because of small samples or lack of methodological rigor / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This study is a content analysis of female-oriented magazines aimed at three different age groups: women, teen, and preteen. Magazine content from Girls’ Life, J-14, Seventeen, Cosmo Girl!, Cosmopolitan, and Glamour was examined for themes of sexuality, romance, and the opposite sex. The evidence suggests that topics are presented to women in a progressive manner in which preteen girls are first learning about the opposite sex, teens are learning how to behave in order to attract the opposite sex, and women are being told how to please the opposite sex erotically. While the idea is never overtly stated, it appears that women are still sexual objects for men’s pleasuring. However, they are also in charge of “taming” the man and making him knowledgeable on topics of sexuality and romance. / Department of Sociology

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Thesis (M.A.)--Northern Kentucky University, 2009. / Made available through ProQuest. Publication number: AAT 1462521. ProQuest document ID: 16938888251. Includes bibliographical references (p. 73-83)

Thesis (M.A.)--Georgia State University, 2008. / Title from file title page. Jennifer Patico, committee chair; Emanuela Guano, Megan Sinnott, committee members. Description based on contents viewed Sept. 10, 2009. Includes bibliographical references (p. 141-147).

Thesis (M.A.)--Ball State University, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on June 07, 2010). "July 2003." Includes bibliographical references (p. 37-39).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2004. / Supervisor: Eric Stice. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

This study investigates the impact of sociocultural mediators in relation to eating disorders among male undergraduates. Literature on eating disorders has demonstrated that a thin body shape ideal depicted in the media directly contributes to eating pathology among females, but little research has investigated the direct effects of ideal body shape images among men. The focus of the present investigation was to assess the direct effects of exposure to the ideal male body shape on men’s affect, self esteem, body satisfaction, and endorsement of U. S. societal ideals of attractiveness. In addition, the relation of these variables to bulimic symptomatology was examined. Modeling a study conducted on women (Stice & Shaw, 1994), male undergraduates between the ages of 18 to 25 participated in premeasure (N = 169) and post measure (N = 95) conditions. Participants in the post measure were randomly exposed to pictures from magazines containing either male models depicting the ideal body shape, an average body or pictures of clothing without models. Results from repeated mulitvariate analysis indicated that exposure to the ideal body shape condition did not demonstrate significant negative changes in men’s affect, self esteem, body satisfaction or endorsement of U. S. societal ideals of attractiveness. Indirect support for the sociocultural theory of eating disorders was provided by multiple regression analyses which demonstrated that increased body mass, self esteem, stress and anxiety predicted bulimic symptomatology in men. Future research should direct itself toward investigating possible sociocultural influences of eating disorders on certain male subenvironments, such as athletes or homosexual males that place a greater emphasis on maintaining lower body mass and an ideal body shape.

Thesis (DTh) -- Stellenbosch University, 2007. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study is an endeavour on the cutting edge of the field of practical theology. It engages in a pastoral assessment of contemporary men and masculinities in their manifold representations and embodiments. An in-depth assessment of current schemata of interpretation (on the issue of masculinity), is done within different cultural contexts, aiming to hermeneutically put this into dialogue with a pastoral-anthropological view on masculinity. This dialogue is initiated in order to gain deeper insight into diverse masculinities and the challenges they face in their search for meaning, intimacy and vitality. The point of the dialogue here is rather to describe than to prescribe. The dissertation analyses ‘masculinities as experienced and enacted’ in life and ‘masculinities as represented’ in the mass media as well as in other forms of pop culture, through a multidisciplinary perspective. It is further aimed at the contextual, theological deconstruction of these cultural representations and the establishment and furthering of meaningful connections between male identity, human dignity and Christian spirituality. The focus in contemporary (sociological and psychological) research on masculinity is on enactment of masculinities or ‘doing’ masculinities rather than ‘being’ masculine. The dominant cultural images of masculinity within a globalising life-order suggest and promote materialistic values such as efficiency, performance, mechanisation and functionality. These images are assessed and the interplay between it (the cultural images) and conceptualisations of God (God-images) are explored. This study asserts that men’s identity, self-understanding and spirituality is shaped in many ways by these images, but that the image of the crucified and risen Christ can indeed serve as a meaningful and normative-critical counter-image to the macho-images portrayed by most postmodern masculinities (which many men presently experience as confusing). This counter-image of Christ can transcend the abuse of power, the focus on performance and the commodification of male embodiment, in men’s lives, as they engage in a spirituality of vulnerable courage. A pastoral-anthropological perspective is employed in order to shift the emphasis on male identity in terms of gender and sexuality, towards a spiritual understanding of male identity in terms of human dignity and human destiny (i.e. the quest for meaning). The important question of the relationship between power, masculinity and male embodiment is addressed. Essentialist ideas about masculinity are deconstructed, and a re-interpretation thereof is introduced within a view of reality that affirms and embraces an earth-centred and embodied spirituality. Masculinity and male identity is in that sense “saved” from a commercial reduction by means of an eschatological and pneumatological perspective. This theological re-interpretation of masculinity presents a critical factor on the cultural notion that manhood is something that must be validated by means of performance (especially on the terrain of sexuality). Masculinity, viewed from an eschatological perspective, is thus more than virility that has to be manifested by doing functions. The culturally-determined understanding of masculinity - in terms of brutal power and control – is in this sense ‘emasculated’ in this study. In the light of Christ’s resurrection, there is new hope for the re-interpretation of masculinity. The postmodern man’s resurrection is therefore not guaranteed by the “Viagra-magic blue pill”, but in actual fact by the resurrection of Christ who daily unleashes and affirms new meaningful dimensions of hope in the globalised life-matrix. The power of masculinity thus lies in embodying vulnerability and mutual relationality, contesting unilateral and hierarchical relations. Within this context manhood is not equal to the size of achievement or success, nor performances or powerful penetration, but it rather denotes the capacity for lovingly hospitable relationships and the measure of the soul’s depth of character, i.e. its capacity to embody and affirm the courage to be. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie is ‘n navorsingsreis op die snykant van die veld van praktiese teologie. Dit neem deel aan ’n pastorale ondersoek van hedendaagse mans en manlikhede in die verskeie opsigte waarop hul verteenwoordig en beliggaam word. ’n In-diepte assessering van huidige interpretasie-skemas - oor die onderwerp van manlikheid - word gedoen binne verskillende kulturele kontekste, met die doel om dit hermeneuties in dialoog te bring met ’n pastoraal-antropologiese perspektief op manlikheid. Hierdie dialoog word geïnisieër ten einde dieper insig te verkry in diverse manlikhede en die uitdagings wat hulle die hoof moet bied in hul soeke na sin, intimiteit en vitaliteit. Die punt van hierdie dialoog is eerder om te beskryf as om voor te skryf. Die dissertasie analiseer – deur ’n multi-dissiplinêre invalshoek - ‘manlikhede soos dit ervaar en uitgeleef word’ in die lewe asook ‘manlikhede soos dit verteenwoordig word’ in die massa media sowel as in ander vorme van populêre kultuur. Dit is verder gemik op die kontekstuele, teologiese dekonstruksie van hierdie kulturele verteenwoordigings, asook die tot stand bring en bevordering van betekenisvolle verbande tussen manlike identiteit, menswaardigheid en Christelike spiritualiteit. Die fokus in hedendaagse (sosiologiese en sielkundige) navorsing oor manlikheid val op die uitleef van manlikhede oftewel die ‘doen’ van manlikhede, eerder as om manlik te ‘wees’. Die dominante kulturele beelde van manlikheid binne ’n geglobaliseerde lewensbestel suggereer en bevorder materialistiese waardes soos effektiwiteit, prestasie, meganisasie en funksionaliteit. Hierdie beelde word ge-evalueer en die interaksie tussen dit (die kulturele beelde) en moontlike konseptualiserings van God (Godsbeelde) word verken. Hierdie studie voer aan dat mans se identiteit, selfverstaan en spiritualiteit op velerlei maniere gevorm word deur hierdie beelde, maar dat die beeld van die gekruisigde en opgestane Christus inderdaad kan dien as ’n betekenisvolle en normatief-kritiese kontra-beeld tot die “macho”-beelde wat deur meeste postmoderne manlikhede versinnebeeld word (maar wat baie mans huidiglik as verwarrend ervaar). Hierdie kontra-beeld van Christus kan die misbruik van mag, asook die fokus op prestasie en die kommodifisering van manlike beliggaming oorstyg in mans se lewens – deurdat hulle deelneem aan ’n spiritualiteit van weerlose moed. ‘n Pastoraal-antropologiese perspektief word dus hier benut ten einde die klem op manlike identiteit in terme van gender en seksualiteit te verskuif, in die rigting van ‘n spirituele verstaan van manlike identiteit in terme van menswaardigheid en menslike bestemming (d.i. die soeke na sin). Die belangrike vraagstuk van die verhouding tussen mag, manlikheid en manlike beliggaming word aangeraak. Essentialistiese idees oor manlikheid word gedekonstrueer, en ’n herinterpretasie daarvan word voorgestel binne ’n werklikheidsverstaan wat ’n aards-gesentreerde en beliggaamde spiritualiteit bevestig en waardeer. Manlikheid en manlike identiteit word in hierdie opsig “gered” van ’n kommersiële verskraling deur middel van ’n eskatologiese en pneumatologiese perspektief. Hierdie teologiese herinterpretasie van manlikheid bied ’n kritiese faktor op die kulturele opvatting dat manwees iets is wat gevalideer moet word deur middel van prestasie (veral op die gebied van seksualiteit). Manwees, gesien vanuit ‘n eskatologiese perspektief, is dus meer as viriliteit wat gemanifesteer moet word deur doen-funksies. Die kultureel-bepaalde verstaan van manlikheid – in terme van brutale mag en beheer - word in hierdie opsig ‘ontman’ binne hierdie navorsingstuk. In die lig van Christus se opstanding is daar nuwe hoop vir die herinterpretasie van manlikheid. Die postmoderne man se opstanding word daarom nie gewaarborg deur die “Viagra tower blou pil” nie, maar eintlik deur die opstanding van Christus, wat daagliks nuwe sinvolle dimensies van hoop in die geglobaliseerde lewensmatriks vrystel en bevestig. Die krag van manlikheid lê dus in die beliggaming van weerloosheid en wederkerige relasionaliteit, tesame met die weerstand bied teen unilaterale en hiërargiese verhoudings. Binne hierdie konteks is manwees nie gelyk aan die grootte van doelwitte wat bereik is of sukses, prestasie of kragtige penetrasie nie. Nee, manwees omvat eerder die kapasiteit vir liefdevolle, gasvrye verhoudings asook die afmeting van die siel se diepte van karakter, d.i. die kapasiteit daarvan om die ‘moed om te wees’ te beliggaam.