Diploma thesis "TV Lifestyle Magazines : Phenomenon of Masculinity, Makeover and Success" mostly deals with the concepts of life-style, taste, makeover a masculinity and their factual manifestation in particular television shows. In its theoretical part the thesis defines fundamental themes and concepts based on literature, especially according to Pierre Bourdieu, Dick Hebdige and Michel Foucault. The concept of life-style has gained much importance in contemporary society, because it's actually the style of life which has become the most important principle of social clustering. One of the first sociologists to reflect on the concept of life-style was Pierre Bourdieu. His conception of life-style is based on stratification and social inequalities. These inequalities are - according to Bourdieu - the product of deep structural inequalities underlying the society as a whole. The thesis also concerns with style as intentional communication, hegemony and resistence as perceived by Dick Hebdige. The body and the process of moulding it into the shape of disciplined bodies is the subject of another part of the thesis. Further on the thesis deals with the problem of body and masculinity, and above all with the process of building its image in the media. Two types of masculinity are defined; first hegemonic...

Focusing on girls who compete in downhill longboarding, this thesis examines how women are pushed to display typically "male" characteristics in order to succeed. With contemporary western society viewing attributes such as speed, being competitive, overcoming fear and coping with pain as typically masculine traits, the main research goal of this inquiry is to find out how female riders cope with maintaining their femininity in the masculinized world of downhill longboarding. The main focus is on observing how female riders cope with being a good rider and being feminine at the same time, primarily through the way this double-faced pressure is projected in the bodies of female downhill longboarders.The theoretical part of this thesis is mainly focused on a sport as a gendered/masculinized field and the ideal form of the body constructed by the sociocultural pressure and instructions which are associated with it. The analytical part of this thesis is focused on the experiences of Czech female downhillers and the way in which they negotiate their femininity/masculinity, perceived or otherwise, and how the gender order is projected onto their bodies. This thesis aims to reveal the ambivalences caused by the pressure to women to maintain the hegemonic femininity and be masculinized competitive sport...

This diploma thesis examines current phenomenon of pole dance/sport. This activity which was originally performed in strip clubs was relatively recently redefined as a fitness activity offered at pole dancing studios initially for women, but now also for men. Despite the efforts to redefined pole dance as a fitness activity in the eyes of the public pole dance is still associated with its erotic roots and (therefore) with women. According to previous research pole dance is seen as a feminine and feminized activity. Men's participation in these activities is, according to studies, associated with the belief that those men are effeminate or homosexual and therefore construct their gender identity in ways which are inconsistent with the social ideas of masculinity. In this thesis I explore the ways in which male pole dancers construct their masculinity within this unique environment. I also explore what participation in the world of pole dance mean to men who take pole dancing classes and/or who teach them as well as the stereotypes placed upon men to act in a certain way to be considered masculine. In this research I also discuss the role of the body on construction of masculinity. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews with six Czech male pole dancers over the age of 18 and examined...

This thesis is concerned with expressions of toxic masculinity in television acting, illustrated on the case study of the television show The Big Bang Theory. This work sets the term toxic masculinity in the context of masculinity studies and draws on the theory of hegemonic masculinity formulated by the Australian sociologist Raewyn Connell. Her theory assumes the existence of multiple, hierarchically ordered masculinities, with hegemonic masculinity - considered by some authors tobe synonymous with toxic masculinity - on top. This work also surveys the history of the representation of the male hero from the early days of American cinema up to the present, as the empirical section deals primarily with an American television show. Special emphasis is put on the "nerd" character, who represents non- hegemonic masculinity and thus does not tend to be associated with expressions of toxic masculinity, although he is also guilty of this behavior. The aim of this thesis was to use qualitative content analysis to identify manifestations of toxic masculine behavior by the nerd characters of the popular sitcom The Big Bang Theory and to determine how this behavior differs from that of the "jock" character, an embodiment of hegemonic masculinity. This research reached the conclusion that each of these two...

My thesis is focused on construction of gender roles in Czech TV shows of the year 2012. First part of the thesis consists of theoretical background, where the principle of feminine and masculine roles, which are constructed by media too, is presented. The thematic foreign and domestic studies, which are introduced there, show how the experts look at this issue. Other chapters are formed by this view and present the most frequented image of women and men on TV or the media principles. Last sections of the theoretical frame are about consumers' everyday habits of watching TV and about impact, which this programmes could have. Second part of this thesis has metodological character. The objective to decode which gender roles are formed by selected programmes Sama doma, Top Star Magazín, menZONE or Těžká dřina and which signs participate on this constructions are described in this part. The research method is semiotic analysis with description of the narrative, thanks to which the hidden myth is revealed more precisely. The quantitative content analysis is also used in analytic part, however, only in a prototypical form. This probe refers to the other possibilities of further extensions of this thesis. All the results demonstrate that the programmes of current domestic production construct women and...

The thesis analyzes the instruments of gender stereotypes reproduction and gender identity construction in Czech TV series Dokonalý svět. Is the media content gendered? With which instruments of gender stereotypes reproduction and gender identity construction is TV viewer confronted and on which levels? I use the theory of social construction of reality, the theory of the lenses of gender or the characters and narrative structure of the TV series (soup opera) to come to a conclusion. The thesis focuses on the fact that Dokonalý svět does not only reflect the stereotypes on the other hand. It confronts the standard gender orders by the comic character. The comedy character ridicules some gender stereotypes and shakes their social status.

The thesis "The role of men in current romantic relationships" is dedicated to the concept of manhood with an emphasis on romantic relationships and focuses specifically on an identity development and its male specifics, masculinity and various developmental paths leading to an achievement of manhood. It also describes the basic characteristics of romantic relationships and specifies the role of men in them. The empirical study is based on a qualitative methodology and maps male perspective of romantic relationships. Further focus is on how men perceive the romantic relationship and their role in it. Fifty men involved in a romantic relationship participated in this study. Participants filled in projective questionnaires, namely Incomplete sentences and Life at romantic relationship and its parts. The research results refer the cathegories of romantic relationship including its detailed descriptions from the perspective of participants and also offer an overview of activities done by men within the partnership with no claim for any generalization. Keywords Male, identity, gender identity, masculinity, partner, romantic relationships

Our concern in this work was a shared field of study between gender and sexuality in the search of underlying variables of sexual behavior. Basically our scope was to gather data to empirically support one of the theoretical approaches of sex differences in sexual behavior - essentialism, explaining behavior on the basis of biological sex or evolution; or social constructionism applying variables like gender or masculinity and feminity. For this purpose, 602 participants (166 men, 436 women), aged 18-45 yr., filled out the Bem Sex Role Inventory, and the Inventory of Sexual Behavior. Results in general support the social constructionism approaches, as in the most types of sexual behavior we found differences between gender groups, but not between the sexes. However, explanations provided by theories of essentialism should not be discarded, as there were also differences between sexes in few specific areas of human sexuality, namely masturbation, and overall sexual activity. Key words: gender, sexuality, masculinity, feminity, sexual behavior, sex differences

The aim of this thesis is to analyze and interpret the hypermasculine elements of African American performance in rap music. It shall examine the ways in which the performance works as well as its possible influence on the public; therefore, it shall also react to the widespread criticism of the genre. In order to understand the complexity of the issue, it sketches the history of African American men struggling to attain their manhood and it points out the damage done to African American masculinity during the era of slavery and the following period of Reconstruction. Moreover, it is necessary to trace back the inspiration that helped to constitute the hypermasculine images. To do that, we shall look into the folkloric tradition of figures such as the "bad nigger" and "badman" or "bad nigga;" and we shall see how these personas transformed into the modern figures of "gangstas," pimps and hip hop revolutionaries. In the next two chapters, the thesis discusses the relation of rap music authenticity and the performativity of gender, which is based on Judith Butler's gender theory as described in her book Gender Trouble. Regarding authenticity, we shall dissect the term itself and its potential meaning for a work of art. In the last few chapters, the thesis attempts to categorize hip hop masculinity...

This thesis critically analyzes some measures of masculinity and femininity. Special attention is paid primarily to a BSRI (Bem Sex-Role Inventory), which is the most widespread but completely invalid instrument for measuring gender identity. At the same time, there is presented an alternative approach to the topic of gender identity based on an application of statistical discriminant analysis technique to generally shared stereotypical evaluations of typical men and women. In empirical part, proposed approach is successfully tested in practice by creating an index of masculinity / femininity. Results of analyzes of relations between the determined gender identity and various other components of gender belief system (cognitive gender schematization, an explicit M / F and gender attitudes) suggest the validity of this approach. Between feminity (regardless of sex) and a measure of traditional gender attitudes has been found small but significant negative correlation (rs = -0.3). Keywords: masculinity, feminity, discriminant analysis, critique of BSRI