Friday, October 29, 2010
Formal Outline: Research Paper 1
Preliminary Thesis: Metrosexuality has been the driving force behind GQ magazine since its creation and has thus remained the same in 2009, evidence of this can not only be found in the 2009 issues but also in an article by Mark Simpson called “Here Come The Mirror Men” and a book written by David Coad called The Metrosexual: Gender, Sexuality and Sport.
I.
1st Supporting Point: GQ and other magazines like it are usually faced with negativity by societies where metrosexuality is not so accepted because of the magazines ability to blur the lines of what’s feminine and masculine
Further Detail: An article written by Chandler Burr called “Cologne.(men’s fragrance usage)” talks about the term “cologne” and its relevance to American society trying to say its ok with doing metrosexual behavior without having to claim it likes metrosexuality.
Further Detail: Another interesting article that applied to the same concept was “That’s What I Was Gonna Wear!” written by Katherine Wheelock. In her article Wheelock discussed how over a period of time men and women who are dating tend to dress the same, so much that if they went in each other’s closets they could find something they have worn.
II.
2nd Supporting Point: GQ also showcased to its readers during that year that men are taking more interest in learning about how to better there appearance and are even writing into the magazine asking questions.
Further Detail: In GQ magazine during 2009 readers of the magazine wrote in questions to the magazine to be answered in an article called “Glenn O’ Brien Solves Your Sartorial Conundrums”. The bases of this article were answers from the GQ “styleguy” who took time to answer a few questions from the men about a variety of things concerning fashion and appearance.
Further Detail: Since all men can’t be brave, GQ is willing to assist those to shy to ask with articles like "Trimming, Tweezing, And (Sometimes) Waxing" by Jason Chen. Chen is telling men that they should groom, how to groom, and that it is not as complicated as they may think it is. It gives detailed instructions on how to do a variety of hair trimming and the different tools required.
III.
3rd Supporting Point: Based upon articles from the magazine and information from the article by Simpson and book by Coad, GQ could be described as the world’s handbook for metrosexuality.
Further Detail: GQ magazine is without a doubt the handbook for metrosexuality above all other men’s magazine because the term itself metrosexuality created by Mark Simpson was used to describe his opinion of a style exhibition created by GQ in London called “It’s A Man’s World” back in 1994.
Further Detail: From The Metrosexual: Gender, Sexuality and Sport written by Coad we see the work that went into making GQ the metrosexual handbook it is in 2009.
Analysis:
GQ magazine is without a doubt the handbook for metrosexuality above all other men’s magazine because the term itself metrosexuality created by Mark Simpson was used to describe his opinion of a style exhibition created by GQ in London called “It’s A Man’s World” back in 1994. Simpson wrote an article called “Here Come The Mirror Men” which connects the concept that GQ is a metrosexual designed and themed magazine from then and continuing through 2009, and that the 4 articles I mention coincide with GQ and the article written by Simpson. Simpson discusses what he sees at the exhibition and the variety of grooming products and fashions found at the exhibit that are for men, going back to all the articles describing men’s interest and concern for the use of these different things. Simpson goes on to say “Metrosexual man wears Davidoff ‘Cool Water’ aftershave (the one with the naked bodybuilder on the beach), Paul Smith jackets (Ryan Giggs wears them), corduroy shirts (Elvis wore them), chinos (Steve McQueen wore them), motorcycle boots (Marlon Brando wore them), Calvin Klein underwear (Marky Mark wears nothing else)” which refers back to the article by Wheelock were celebrities are also mentioned partaking in actions described as metrosexual to let straight men know that even your iconic straight celebrities are in on it to. If the creator of the word “metrosexual” and GQ magazines articles have so much in common it cant be denied that GQ has been and is the handbook for metrosexuality for the world.
Analysis:
From The Metrosexual: Gender, Sexuality and Sport written by Coad we see the work that went into making GQ the metrosexual handbook it is in 2009. When Art Cooper took over editorship of GQ he wanted to revamp the magazine and pull it away from its gay appearance. So the genius idea of tying the worlds best sportsmen as models for ad came to light and thus pulling the men’s style magazine into a more heterosexual light creating a balance that could be described as metrosexual. Male athletes are considered to posses a “ hypermasculinity” as described by Coad so to display there interest in fashion and have them model clothe and appear in GQ once again as described in the articles by Wheelock and Burr gave men the ok to dive into men’s style and lean and become interested. Thus creating a reason for GQ to have articles like the “Glenn O’ Brien Solves Your Sartorial Conundrums” and "Trimming, Tweezing, And (Sometimes) Waxing" because some men now felt ok and need assistance in learning and pulling off metrosexuality. GQ has pioneered its way through the years to 2009, from its connection with the creator of metrosexuality, its innovations as a magazine to help ok metrosexuality and its continued success as a men’s magazine has earn the recognition to be called the metrosexual handbook. There are no men’s magazines that have the type of credentials GQ has when it comes to metrosexuality.
Secondary Source #1: Here come the mirror men
Here come the mirror menBy Mark Simpson
Apparently the first appearance of the word ‘metrosexual’ in print’. Originally appeared inUK
‘IT’S BEEN KEPT underground for too long,’ observes one sharply dressed ‘metrosexual’ in his early twenties. He has a perfect complexion and precisely gelled hair, and is inspecting a display of costly aftershaves. ‘This exhibition shows that male vanity’s finally coming out of the closet.’
And it’s busy filling the new-found space in there with expensive clothes and accessories. ‘It’s a Man’s World –Britain ’s first style exhibition for men’, organised by GQ magazine in London
With pavilions representing top men’s fashion designers such as Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren and Giorgio Armani and all the latest ‘grooming’ products, It’s a Man’s World is, as Peter Stuart, GQ publisher, describes it, ‘a terrific shopping experience.’
Metrosexual man, the single young man with a high disposable income, living or working in the city (because that’s where all the best shops are), is perhaps the most promising consumer market of the decade. In the Eighties he was only to be found inside fashion magazines such as GQ, in television advertisements forLevis
Metrosexual man wears Davidoff ‘Cool Water’ aftershave (the one with the naked bodybuilder on the beach), Paul Smith jackets (Ryan Giggs wears them), corduroy shirts (Elvis wore them), chinos (Steve McQueen wore them), motorcycle boots (Marlon Brando wore them), Calvin Klein underwear (Marky Mark wears nothing else). Metrosexual man is a commodity fetishist: a collector of fantasies about the male sold to him by advertising.
Even the title of the exhibition reveals how much times have changed. Not so long ago the expression conveyed the idea that the world belonged to that half which shaved. Nowadays it seems to mean that you have to have the right après-rasage face cream.
On one of the stands at It’s a Mans World men lie supine while attractive women in white coats rub luxurious moisturisers into their faces; cameras display the beauty treatment in close-up on banks of screens. Behold the metrosexual pampered by women, technology and capitalism; behold the metrosexual as star.
‘It feels nice. Basically you get a free facial out of it,’ says James, a nineteen-year-old in natty jeans and an Italian designer shirt, face aglow. ‘This stuff is a bit out of my price range, I’m a student,’ he confesses. ‘But if I had the money I might well buy the stuff.’
Is all this attention to appearance a good thing? ‘Yes,’ says another young man, casually-but-carefully dressed in Caterpillar boots, pristine Levi’s, T-shirt, sweatshirt and bomber jacket. ‘If women take so much trouble over their appearance it’s only fair that men should take a bit more themselves. My girlfriend would certainly agree!’
But is it really about fairness? Or about what you see when you look in the mirror? ‘I suppose it’s mostly the way you feel,’ he admits.
A twenty-one-year-old stock manager in Gap agrees. ‘Men are just as vain as women and it’s a good thing that we’re able to show it these days.’
One of the major interests behind metrosexual pride, as the impressive list of sponsors of this event (Dunhill to Porsche, Timberland to Simpson’s of Piccadilly) shows, is big business. Metrosexuals are the creation of capitalism’s voracious appetite for new markets.
Traditionally heterosexual men were the world’s worst consumers. All they bought was beer, fags and the occasional Durex, the Wife or ‘Mum’ bought everything else. In a consumerist world, heterosexual men had no future. So they were replaced by the metrosexual.
The promotion of metrosexuality was left to the men’s style press, magazines such as The Face, GQ, Esquire, Arena and FHM, the new media which took off in the Eighties and is still growing (GQ gains 10,000 new readers every month). They filled their magazines with images of narcissistic young men sporting fashionable clothes and accessories. And they persuaded other young men to study them with a mixture of envy and desire.
Some people said unkind things. American GQ, for exampled, was popularly dubbed ‘Gay Quarterly’. Little wonder that all these magazines – with the possible exception of The Face – address their readership as if none of them was homosexual or even bisexual. Little wonder that It’s a Man’s World organiser Peter Stuart found it necessary to tell me that ‘all the men will bring their girlfriends.’
The ‘heterosexual’ address of these magazines is a convention. There to reassure the readership and their advertisers that their ‘unmanly’ passions are in fact manly. Nevertheless, the metrosexual man contradicts the basic premise of traditional heterosexuality – that only women are looked at and only men do the looking. Metrosexual man might prefer women, he might prefer men, but when all’s said and done nothing comes between him and his reflection.
Metrosexuality was of course, test-marketed on gay men – with enormous success. It’s a Man’s World is billed as the first men’s style exhibition – but the Gay Lifestyles Exhibition, which features fashion shows and a whole range of ‘mens products’, is already in its third year. It was in the style-obsessed Eighties that the ‘gay lifestyle’ – the single man living in the metropolis and taking himself as his own love-object – became an aspiration for non-homosexuals.
Perhaps this is why Attitude, a style magazine launched earlier this year felt able to break with convention and address itself openly to gay men and ‘strays’ (gay acting straight men).
The New Lad bible ‘Loaded’, for all its features on sport, babes and sport, is (closeted) metrosexual. Just as its anti-style is a style (last month it carried a supplement for ‘no nonsense’ clothes, such as jeans and boots), it’s heterosexuality is so self-conscious, so studied, that it’s actually rather camp. New Lads, for all their burping blokeishness, are just as much in love with their own image as any metrosexual, they just haven’t come to terms yet.
Nor is metrosexuality a vice restricted to the poncey Southern middle-classes. Working class boys are, if anything, even more susceptible to it. For example,Newcastle men between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five, apparently spend more money per head on clothes than any other men in Europe . If you live with your mother, as do many working class boys until they marry, and, crucially, you have a job – your disposable income and your metrosexual tendencies are likely to be high.
And metrosexuals have an amazing sense of solidarity. Back at It’s a Man’s World, Steve and Paul, two fashionably dressed men-about-London in their late twenties, admit to spending ‘a substantial amount’ of their income on male cosmetics and clothes, and think that the exhibition is ‘great’. But they’re worried they might be letting the side down.
Says Steve: ‘It’s a shame you picked us to talk to because we’re gay and people might think that a show like this is just for gays and wouldn’t come. The thing is, straight men are just beginning to discover the joys of shopping and we wouldn’t want to scare them off.’
Copyright Mark Simpson 2006
(Originally appeared in the Independent, 15 November 1994)
Other Simpson articles on his 'bastard child' the metrosexual
Apparently the first appearance of the word ‘metrosexual’ in print’. Originally appeared in
‘IT’S BEEN KEPT underground for too long,’ observes one sharply dressed ‘metrosexual’ in his early twenties. He has a perfect complexion and precisely gelled hair, and is inspecting a display of costly aftershaves. ‘This exhibition shows that male vanity’s finally coming out of the closet.’
And it’s busy filling the new-found space in there with expensive clothes and accessories. ‘It’s a Man’s World –
With pavilions representing top men’s fashion designers such as Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren and Giorgio Armani and all the latest ‘grooming’ products, It’s a Man’s World is, as Peter Stuart, GQ publisher, describes it, ‘a terrific shopping experience.’
Metrosexual man, the single young man with a high disposable income, living or working in the city (because that’s where all the best shops are), is perhaps the most promising consumer market of the decade. In the Eighties he was only to be found inside fashion magazines such as GQ, in television advertisements for
Metrosexual man wears Davidoff ‘Cool Water’ aftershave (the one with the naked bodybuilder on the beach), Paul Smith jackets (Ryan Giggs wears them), corduroy shirts (Elvis wore them), chinos (Steve McQueen wore them), motorcycle boots (Marlon Brando wore them), Calvin Klein underwear (Marky Mark wears nothing else). Metrosexual man is a commodity fetishist: a collector of fantasies about the male sold to him by advertising.
Even the title of the exhibition reveals how much times have changed. Not so long ago the expression conveyed the idea that the world belonged to that half which shaved. Nowadays it seems to mean that you have to have the right après-rasage face cream.
On one of the stands at It’s a Mans World men lie supine while attractive women in white coats rub luxurious moisturisers into their faces; cameras display the beauty treatment in close-up on banks of screens. Behold the metrosexual pampered by women, technology and capitalism; behold the metrosexual as star.
‘It feels nice. Basically you get a free facial out of it,’ says James, a nineteen-year-old in natty jeans and an Italian designer shirt, face aglow. ‘This stuff is a bit out of my price range, I’m a student,’ he confesses. ‘But if I had the money I might well buy the stuff.’
Is all this attention to appearance a good thing? ‘Yes,’ says another young man, casually-but-carefully dressed in Caterpillar boots, pristine Levi’s, T-shirt, sweatshirt and bomber jacket. ‘If women take so much trouble over their appearance it’s only fair that men should take a bit more themselves. My girlfriend would certainly agree!’
But is it really about fairness? Or about what you see when you look in the mirror? ‘I suppose it’s mostly the way you feel,’ he admits.
A twenty-one-year-old stock manager in Gap agrees. ‘Men are just as vain as women and it’s a good thing that we’re able to show it these days.’
One of the major interests behind metrosexual pride, as the impressive list of sponsors of this event (Dunhill to Porsche, Timberland to Simpson’s of Piccadilly) shows, is big business. Metrosexuals are the creation of capitalism’s voracious appetite for new markets.
Traditionally heterosexual men were the world’s worst consumers. All they bought was beer, fags and the occasional Durex, the Wife or ‘Mum’ bought everything else. In a consumerist world, heterosexual men had no future. So they were replaced by the metrosexual.
The promotion of metrosexuality was left to the men’s style press, magazines such as The Face, GQ, Esquire, Arena and FHM, the new media which took off in the Eighties and is still growing (GQ gains 10,000 new readers every month). They filled their magazines with images of narcissistic young men sporting fashionable clothes and accessories. And they persuaded other young men to study them with a mixture of envy and desire.
Some people said unkind things. American GQ, for exampled, was popularly dubbed ‘Gay Quarterly’. Little wonder that all these magazines – with the possible exception of The Face – address their readership as if none of them was homosexual or even bisexual. Little wonder that It’s a Man’s World organiser Peter Stuart found it necessary to tell me that ‘all the men will bring their girlfriends.’
The ‘heterosexual’ address of these magazines is a convention. There to reassure the readership and their advertisers that their ‘unmanly’ passions are in fact manly. Nevertheless, the metrosexual man contradicts the basic premise of traditional heterosexuality – that only women are looked at and only men do the looking. Metrosexual man might prefer women, he might prefer men, but when all’s said and done nothing comes between him and his reflection.
Metrosexuality was of course, test-marketed on gay men – with enormous success. It’s a Man’s World is billed as the first men’s style exhibition – but the Gay Lifestyles Exhibition, which features fashion shows and a whole range of ‘mens products’, is already in its third year. It was in the style-obsessed Eighties that the ‘gay lifestyle’ – the single man living in the metropolis and taking himself as his own love-object – became an aspiration for non-homosexuals.
Perhaps this is why Attitude, a style magazine launched earlier this year felt able to break with convention and address itself openly to gay men and ‘strays’ (gay acting straight men).
The New Lad bible ‘Loaded’, for all its features on sport, babes and sport, is (closeted) metrosexual. Just as its anti-style is a style (last month it carried a supplement for ‘no nonsense’ clothes, such as jeans and boots), it’s heterosexuality is so self-conscious, so studied, that it’s actually rather camp. New Lads, for all their burping blokeishness, are just as much in love with their own image as any metrosexual, they just haven’t come to terms yet.
Nor is metrosexuality a vice restricted to the poncey Southern middle-classes. Working class boys are, if anything, even more susceptible to it. For example,
And metrosexuals have an amazing sense of solidarity. Back at It’s a Man’s World, Steve and Paul, two fashionably dressed men-about-London in their late twenties, admit to spending ‘a substantial amount’ of their income on male cosmetics and clothes, and think that the exhibition is ‘great’. But they’re worried they might be letting the side down.
Says Steve: ‘It’s a shame you picked us to talk to because we’re gay and people might think that a show like this is just for gays and wouldn’t come. The thing is, straight men are just beginning to discover the joys of shopping and we wouldn’t want to scare them off.’
Copyright Mark Simpson 2006
(Originally appeared in the Independent, 15 November 1994)
Other Simpson articles on his 'bastard child' the metrosexual
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Father of the term "Metrosexual": Mark Simpson
Url for this brief article below:
http://www.scienceofthetime.com/scienceofthetime/members/mark_simpson/11/
Friday, October 22, 2010
Venn Diagram - Works Cited Page
Venn Diagram - Works Cited Page
Reading #1:
Author: Paul Theroux
Title: The Male Myth
Reading#2:
Author:Manning Marable
Title: The Black Male
Similarities:
Marable, Manning “The Black Male: Searching beyond Stereotypes” Men’s Lives 5th edition. Eds. Michael S. Kimmel and Michael S.Messner. New York: Allyn and Bacon, 2001. 17-23. Print.
Theroux, Paul “The Male Myth.” Across Cultures: A Reader For Writers. 7th ed. Eds. Sheena Gillespie and Robert Becker. New york: Pearson and Long Man, 2008. 101-104. Print.
Reading #1:
Author: Paul Theroux
Title: The Male Myth
Reading#2:
Author:Manning Marable
Title: The Black Male
Similarities:
- Similar negative sterotypes are used to describe each race.
- The seperation of men and women to create a specific mental outcome.
- Womens ability to sense inadequacy in men.
- Not acceptable to be highly concerned with obtaning knowledge or take an interest in writing.
- Black woman and white woman share a dismissive attitude toward black men.
- Systematic effort to shape the mental characteristics of a men.
- Physicality being a mens best attribute.
- Traditionally their version of masculinity by society and family.
- Seperated from women to strengthen masculinity.
- Not feeling like a masculine male for liking things described as feminine.
- Complained of being seen as not masculine for taking an interest in writing.
- Being positioned in society as being above women.
- Abuse amongst each other to reinforce masculinity.
- Systematiicly forced into a specific version of masculinity created by white men.
- Seperated from women and family to weaken masculinity and family bonds.
- Not feeling like a masculine male because you were not allowed to do anything that supported those concepts.
- Having masculinity physically destroyed for taking an interest in writing.
- being regarded as less capable than black women to support family and maintain survival.
- Abuse amongst eachother for survival or financial gain.
Marable, Manning “The Black Male: Searching beyond Stereotypes” Men’s Lives 5th edition. Eds. Michael S. Kimmel and Michael S.Messner. New York: Allyn and Bacon, 2001. 17-23. Print.
Theroux, Paul “The Male Myth.” Across Cultures: A Reader For Writers. 7th ed. Eds. Sheena Gillespie and Robert Becker. New york: Pearson and Long Man, 2008. 101-104. Print.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Awesome Quote from Paul Theroux
"Everything in sterotyped manliness goes against the life of the mind."(103)- Theroux
Theroux, Paul. "The Male Myth" Across Cultures
New York: Sheena Gillespie, Robert Becker, 2008.101-105. Print.
Theroux, Paul. "The Male Myth" Across Cultures
New York: Sheena Gillespie, Robert Becker, 2008.101-105. Print.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Annotated Bibliography
Annotated Bibliography
Preliminary Thesis:
I will be looking at articles from the 12 issues of GQ from 2009 to prove that throughout the year 2009 GQ magazine was promoting metrosexuality to its readers. GQ over the course of years has been described as one of the leading men’s metrosexuality advertising magazines due to its style guides, articles, and advertisements.
Source1:
Burr, Chandler. "Cologne.(men's fragrance usage)" GQ 79.3 (Mar 2009): 102. Print.
This article is about how American men are programmed to buy into the hype of the term cologne. In European countries men are not bothered by these silly terminologies because perfume is a French world for fragrance; a unisex term for it with no separation from male or female, it also not a problem for gay men either. Cologne is a word describing a very specific kind of perfume, but has been used by marketing companies to give men in America the psychological permission to wear perfume. The article also gives directions on what colognes to buy and how to wear them.
This article is very relevant to the subject of my research paper. The article is discussing the use of fragrances by men, which is normally considered a feminine activity. The article goes into more detail about how this is more a problem for American men because gay men and European men have no problem with using fragrances and don’t need them to be classified as cologne. This all relates back to the concept of metrosexuality being promoted by GQ through this article which discusses the unisex uses of fragrance by men blurring the lines separating the sexes.
The article about cologne talks about gay and European men who are the frontier for metrosexuality. It points how they are embracing the concept of being metrosexual by using fragrances and by not needing it to be classified by sex-based terminologies. It explains how the need for the cologne is just for American men because American society in essence is still coming to terms with metrosexuality. The article also points out for readers of this magazine that all the high-end fragrances that you are persuaded to buy by the magazine usually only come in unisex form. So American men will either have to fall behind or catch themselves reaching for the same bottle as their girlfriend.
Source 2:
Chen, Jason. "Trimming, Tweezing, And (Sometimes) Waxing." GQ 79.10 (Oct 2009): p84. Print.
This article is telling men that they should groom, how to groom, and that it is not as complicated as they may think it is. It gives detailed instructions on how to do a variety of hair trimming and the different tools required.
This article relates to my article because it emphasis the importance GQ magazine is promoting of men and trimming. Worrying about ones facial appearance is a characteristic more so associated with women and not men. Thus going back to the concept that GQ is promoting metrosexuality in 2009.
The blending of men’s activities with those normally associated with women is a key representation of metrosexuality. An article discussing the different ways for men to trim up their facial hair and the tools they would need to be is not something that would follow traditional manly behavior. I’ve never known any man to carry a air of tweezers or waxing cream in there personal belongs. Yet metrosexuality brings a new level of concern for a men’s appearance.
Source 3:
Wheelock, Katherine. "That's What I Was Gonna Wear!" GQ 79.4 (April 2009): p54. Print.
This article is about how over a period of time when men and women start dating they tend to dress the same to the point where they can go in each others closet and find something they have worn. This is a trend that is growing amongst celebrity couples and eventually to most couples walking down the street.
This article is relevant to my topic because it shows how GQ magazine is showing the crossing of male and female taste in fashion. Men and women dressing alike while still in heterosexual relationships shows the blurring of female fashion into the men’s fashion choices and vice versa. Sporting the v-neck or cargo pants as your spouse or girlfriend is very much evidence of metrosexuality.
This article is great and my favorite part would be “Instead, you'll just notice one day that your jeans are a little girlie or that you can't tell whose striped V-neck is whose.” Thus taking a serious dive into the realization that yea, once you and your girl start dressing alike and you cant tell whose clothing is whose you have definitely crossed over that line into the realm of metrosexuality. GQ is quietly dishing out more and more different articles persuading guys to the metrosexual lifestyle without ever having to sue the term. This is even goes to show again that in America we need a sort of mental permission to partake in metrosexuality because its still something being approved by society which, is why it mention top celebrities already partaking in this trend, justifying to men that hey if Tom and Katie are doing it, it must be ok.
Source 4:
"Glenn O'Brien Solves Your Sartorial Conundrums." GQ 79.3 (March 2009): p117. Print.
This article features questions that were emailed to the GQ styleguy and the responses he gave back. Men directly send the style guy a question certain fashion dos or don’ts and get advice concerning the subject. Some questions relate to if something is wearable for he office or if I can actually pull of this hat.
This article is relevant because it’s showing wear some men heads are at and their concerns for fashion and how they look. Trying to gain confidence in going for something edgy or trying to find out where to buy the trendiest clothing.
The article in its essence is going into the topic of how metrosexuality is growing and being put out there by GQ magazine. Men’s curiosity in what they wearing and how they appear is growing. They are looking for advice from a style expert from one of the worlds leading metrosexuality promoting men’s magazines. Friday, October 8, 2010
Final Draft: Paper 1 - After In Class Review
Jason Croft
Professor Magdalena Bogacka
English 101.0800
October 8, 2010
Male modeling as pointed out in a reading by Susan Bordo, has developed into something new and slightly feminine making people wonder has femininity some how snuck its way into the representation of men in advertisement and thus into men themselves. Giorgio Armani's new Aqua Di Gio fragrance advertisement brings new light to the growing topic of whether or not there is now more than one acceptable form of masculinity in our society today by bringing to life the term metro-sexuality for the representation of their new fragrance. The model in the ad brings to question different labels from a reading by Susan Bordo that implies that advertisers use different types of looks to portray different kinds of masculinity that are normally used separately. The ad is double-sided showing where the advertiser is using multiple strategies in order to reach the viewer and draw them in with not only a visual stimulus of the model but other images as well. The product being advertised also raises many questions about whether men and women have become more similar over time through the use of similar products and their advertisements like the Acqua Di Gioia female fragrance that acts as a counterpart to the Aqua Di Gio male fragrance. Regardless of all the different points that can be thought of it all goes back to the model in the ad, cause obviously he is the individual your meant to put a great deal of your attention on.
The model in the Giorgio Armani fragrance ad doesn’t fit one of the normal labels given to models depending on their pose and representation of masculinity. In my opinion the model fits all three in essence creating the metro-sexual masculinity for the representation of the new fragrance. Bordo in a chapter called “beauty (re)discovers the male body” discusses the advertising world as it pertains to men modeling and the labels “I am a rock”, “the lean” and “face-off” (186). The photo is black and white giving the model this stone-like demeanor which helps to fit the “I am a rock” label which goes back to traditional views on masculinity even though the models entire body is not in view, he is still able to appear strong and masculine. The model then also exudes some feminine characteristics that are labeled in the modeling world as “the lean”. He is leaning on one arm as he pushes his hair back, his face isn’t rugged but clean-shaven and smooth, and he appears to recognize that he is being admired and is embracing it. Then finally the model’s facial expressions falls under the label “face-off” by providing this primal intensity through his eyes that opens up a type of stare down between him and the viewer that he does not intend to lose. By combining the three portrayals into one model I think Armani has created the metro-sexuality that is based off traditional views but allows men the freedom to safely partake in some feminine characteristics, successfully creating a type of masculinity the Aqua Di Gio fragrance can be based off. Armani was also clever by making there ad double-sided so if the model didn’t pull you in maybe the second page alone, or the combination of the two would get you.
The Aqua Di Gio fragrance ad featured is double-sided; one page featuring a black and white photo of a model, the other showing the roaring rushing waves of the ocean. In my opinion because the ad is double-sided Armani wanted you to question your opinion of masculinity through subliminal messaging with the picture of the ocean. For one we know water to be deceptive, with the ability to reshape itself and reflect things. Maybe Armani was hinting on how metro-sexuality is men taking on characteristics of women by reflecting some of the characteristics seen in women back at them. Another aspect to think of is that water is forever changing going from calm to a roaring destructive force. Armani could have been saying that the stone like image of the model is life-less until he puts on the fragrance, which provides him the life-like energy and power of the ocean. In essence Armani has also given visual on the nature of the product being sold, from a distance you cant smell a man you can just see him like how the model depicts, but once you come close enough his aroma fills your nose and in some ways that man has now sprung to life capturing you with his physical attributes and scent together. This all goes back to the type of metro-sexuality Armani is trying to reinforce; the traditional everyday cool and collected young man, whose masculinity is made roaring and refreshing through the use of a fragrance that incorporates feminine and masculine characteristics. All this talk of fragrance and masculinity is confusing when fragrances are something to describe as feminine in nature and purpose, but Armani has created a fragrance ad for Acqua Di Gioia which is for woman that is surprisingly similar to the Aqua Di Gio fragrance ad for men.
The Aqua Di Gio fragrance ad also has a female counterpart that is not in the GQ magazine because it’s a men’s magazine but both ads are advertised on the Giorgio Armani Website. They both sell a fragrance and it is expected for them to be entirely different but they do share similarities supporting the concept that Armani has indeed brought metro-sexuality to life because, it can even be found similar to feminine ads in certain aspects. In Bordo’s reading she discusses that men’s advertisements both sell similar products but men’s ads are made up in a way to recreate feminine characteristics in a masculine way. Each advertisements focuses on the model’s face and their facial expression but their facial expressions are different, hers inviting and alluring, his strong and slightly intimidating. The ocean is calm, there is floral scenery, and coloration throughout the female ad while, the male ad has the roaring ocean wave, coloration only regarding the ocean, and no floral scenery. Overall the ads share the same basic structure making them very similar, but only having small differences to allow the recognition of masculinity or femininity by the viewer. Even though today men and women are now using similar products which in itself crosses new boundaries for masculinity and supports metro-sexuality the ad shows an even bigger picture, that maybe men and women have grown to become more similar then we realize.
The Giorgio Armani ad has help in discovering that men’s modeling has opened our eyes to see that masculinity has a new form; metro-sexuality, allowing men to adopt some habits and characteristics that traditionally were appointed to women. The creation of metro-sexuality found in the Giorgio Armani ad gives evidence that indeed there are new forms of masculinity that are now acceptable in society and can be used to advertise something like a fragrance. The model was “I am a rock”, “the leaner”, and “face-off” all labels to describe different types of representation of men in modeling, but put into one model to create a form of masculinity for Aqua Di Gio. The dual visual effect of the photo of the model and the photo of the ocean created visual effects to make you think even deeper about the ad and metro-sexuality by looking at the photos together or separately. The comparison and contrast of the Aqua Di Gio ad versus the Acqua Di Gioia ad provided evidence of similar foundations for male and female modeling, with only little difference to make sure the two were still recognizable as masculine and feminine. Men have over time picked up some habits and characteristics that traditional were seen as feminine and brands like Giorgio Armani are using it to represent products and exude metro-sexuality to the world, and it looks as if men are willing to spray it on and step out into the world masculine whether you can recognize it or not.
Works Cited
Bordo, Susan “beauty (re)discovers the male body” The Male Body: A New Look At Men
In Public And In Private. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1999. 168-225. Print
Giorgio Armani. Advertisment. GQ. October 2010. N.P. Print
Final Draft : Paper #1
Jason Croft
Professor Magdalena Bogacka
English 101.0800
October 8, 2010
Male modeling as pointed out in a reading by Susan Bordo has developed into something new and slightly feminine making people wonder has femininity some how snuck its way into the representation of men in advertisement and thus into men themselves. Giorgio Armani's new Aqua Di Gio fragrance advertisement brings new light to the growing topic of whether or not there is now more than one acceptable form of masculinity in our society today by bringing to life the term metro-sexuality for the representation of their new fragrance. The model in the ad brings to question different labels from a reading by Susan Bordo that implies that advertisers use different types of looks to portray different kinds of masculinity that are normally used separately. The ad is double-sided showing where the advertiser is using multiple strategies in order to reach the viewer and draw them in with not only a visual stimulus of the model but other images as well. The product being advertised also raises many questions about whether men and women have become more similar over time through the use of similar products and their advertisements like the Acqua Di Gioia female fragrance that acts as a counterpart to the Aqua Di Gio male fragrance. Regardless of all the different points that can be thought of it all goes back to the model in the ad, cause obviously he is the individual your meant to put a great deal of your attention on.
The model in the Giorgio Armani fragrance ad doesn’t fit one of the normal labels given to model’s depending on their pose and representation of masculinity. In my opinion the model fits all three in essence creating the metro-sexual masculinity for the representation of the new fragrance. Bordo in a chapter called “beauty (re)discovers the male body” discusses the advertising world as it pertains to men modeling and the labels “I am a rock”, “the lean” and “face-off” (186). The photo is black and white giving the model this stone-like demeanor which helps to fit the “I am a rock” label which goes back to traditional views on masculinity even though the models entire body is not in view, he is still able to appear strong and masculine. The model then also exudes some feminine characteristics that are labeled in the modeling world as “the lean”. He is leaning on one arm as he pushes his hair back, his face isn’t rugged but clean-shaven and smooth, and he appears to recognize that he is being admired and is embracing it. Then finally the model facial expressions falls under the label “face-off” by providing this primal intensity through his eyes that opens up a type of stare down between him and the viewer that he does not intend to lose. By combining the three portrayals into one model I think Armani has created the metro-sexuality that is based off traditional views but allows men the freedom to safely partake in some feminine characteristics, successfully creating a type of masculinity the Aqua Di Gio fragrance can be based off. Armani was also clever by making there ad double-sided so if the model didn’t pull you in maybe the second page alone, or the combination of the two would get you.
The Aqua Di Gio fragrance ad featured is double-sided; one page featuring a black and white photo of a model, the other showing the roaring rushing waves of the ocean. In my opinion because the ad is double-sided Armani wanted you to question your opinion of masculinity through subliminal messaging with the picture of the ocean. For one we know water to be deceptive, with the ability to reshape itself and reflect things. Maybe Armani was hinting on how metro-sexuality is men taking on characteristics of women by reflecting some of the characteristics seen in them back at them. Another aspect to think of is that water is forever changing going from calm to a roaring destructive force. Armani could have been saying that the stone like image of the model is life-less until he puts on the fragrance, which provides him the life-like energy and power of the ocean. In essence Armani has also given visual on the nature of the product being sold, from a distance you cant smell a man you can just see him like how the model depicts, but once you come close enough his aroma fills your nose and in some ways that man has now sprung to life capturing you with his physical attributes and scent together. This all goes back to the type of metro-sexual masculinity Armani is trying to reinforce; the traditional everyday cool and collected young man, whose masculinity is made roaring and refreshing through the use of a fragrance that incorporates feminine and masculine characteristics. All this talk of fragrance and masculinity is confusing when fragrances are something to describe as feminine in nature and purpose, but Armani has created a fragrance ad for Acqua Di Gioia which is for woman that is surprisingly similar to the Aqua Di Gio fragrance ad for men.
The Aqua Di Gio fragrance ad also has a female counterpart that is not in the GQ magazine because it’s a men’s magazine but both ads are advertised on the Giorgio Armani Website. They both sell a fragrance and its expected for them to be entirely different but they do share similarities supporting the concept that Armani has indeed brought metro-sexuality to life because, it can even be found similar to feminine ads in certain aspects. In Bordo’s reading she discusses that men’s advertisements both sell similar products but men’s ads are made up in a way to recreate feminine characteristics in a masculine way. Each advertisements focuses on the model’s face and their facial expression but their facial expressions are different, hers inviting and alluring, his strong and slightly intimidating. The ocean is calm, there is floral scenery, and coloration throughout the female ad while, the male ad has the roaring ocean wave, coloration only regarding the ocean, and no floral scenery. Overall the ads share the same basic structure making them very similar, but only having small differences to allow the recognition of masculinity or femininity by the viewer. Even though today men and women are now using similar products which in itself crosses new boundaries for masculinity and supports metro-sexuality the ad shows an even bigger picture, that maybe men and women have grown to become more similar then we think.
The Giorgio Armani ad has help in discovering that men’s modeling has opened our eyes to see that masculinity has a new form; metro-sexuality, allowing men to adopt some habits and characteristics that traditionally were appointed to women. The creation of metro-sexuality found in the Giorgio Armani ad gives evidence that indeed there are new forms of masculinity that are now acceptable in society and can be used to advertise something like a fragrance. The model was “I am a rock”, “the leaner”, and “face-off” all labels to describe different types of representation of men in modeling, but put into one model to create a form of masculinity for Aqua Di Gio. The dual visual effect of the photo of the model and the photo of the ocean created visual effects to make you think even deeper about the ad and metro-sexuality by looking at the photos together or separately. The comparison and contrast of the Aqua Di Go ad versus the Acqua Di Gioia ad provided evidence of similar foundations for male and female modeling, with only little difference to make sure the two were still recognizable as masculine and feminine. Men have over time picked up some habits and characteristics that traditional were seen as feminine and brands like Giorgio Armani are using it to represent products and exude metro-sexuality to the world, and it looks as if men are willing to spray it on and step out into the world masculine whether you can recognize it or not.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Quick Write
Based on Marable's "The Black Male: Searching Beyond Stereotypes" comment on one of the following.
1. How did history contribute to a negative/ poor image of black male?
Slave owners seperated black males from their families creating this scenario of black men being seperated from their family responsibilities. No interaction with women or there children. An awful situation that is still be reproduced through history even though slavery has ended.
3 Sterotypes about black males put in place by white males:
1. How did history contribute to a negative/ poor image of black male?
Slave owners seperated black males from their families creating this scenario of black men being seperated from their family responsibilities. No interaction with women or there children. An awful situation that is still be reproduced through history even though slavery has ended.
3 Sterotypes about black males put in place by white males:
- Why step up and be a man in a society where your not even recognized sometimes as being a human being.White men viewed black men as animals something like cattle used to held production.
- Black men represented a political threat to the slavery system.
- Black men were described as sexual predators, making them feared and not felt sorry for.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Revised First Draft: Paper # 1
Revised First Draft: Paper # 1
Male modeling as pointed out in a reading by Susan Bordo has developed into something new and slightly feminine making people wonder has femininity some how snuck its way into the representation of men in advertisement and thus into men themselves. Giorgio Armani's new Aqua Di Gio fragrance advertisement brings new light to the growing topic of whether or not there is now more than one acceptable form of masculinity in our society today by bringing to life a form of masculinity of their own for the representation of there new fragrance. The model in the ad brings to question different labels from a reading by Susan Bordo that implies that advertisers use different types of looks to portray different kinds of masculinity that are normally used separately. The ad is double-sided showing where the advertiser is using multiple strategies in order to reach the viewer and draw them in with not only a visual stimulus of the model but other images as well. The product being advertised also raises many questions about whether men and women have become more similar over time through the use of similar products and there advertisements like the Acqua Di Gioia female fragrance that acts as a counterpart to the Aqua Di Gio male fragrance. Regardless of all the different points that can be thought of it all goes back to the model in the ad, cause obviously he is the individual your meant to put a great deal of your attention on.
The model in the Giorgio Armani fragrance ad doesn’t fit one of the normal labels given to models depending on there pose and representation of masculinity, in my opinion the model fits all three in essence creating a masculinity for the representation of the new fragrance. Bordo in a chapter called “beauty (re)discovers the male body” discusses the advertising world as it pertains to men modeling and the labels “I am a rock”, “the lean” and “face-off” (186). The photo is black and white giving the model this stone-like demeanor which helps to fit the “I am a rock” label which goes back to traditional views on masculinity even though the models entire body is not in view, he is still able to appear strong and masculine. The model then also exudes some feminine characteristics that are labeled in the modeling world as “the lean”. He is leaning on one arm as he pushes his hair back, his face isn’t rugged but clean-shaven and smooth, and he appears to recognize that he is being admired and is embracing it. Then finally the model facial expressions falls under the label “face-off” by providing this primal intensity through his eyes that opens up a type of stare down between him and the viewer that he does not intend to lose. By combining the three portrayals into one model I think Armani has created a masculinity that is based off traditional views but allows men the freedom to safely partake in some feminine characteristics, successfully creating a type of masculinity the Aqua Di Gio fragrance can be based on. Armani was also clever by making there ad double-sided so if the model didn’t pull you in maybe the second page alone, or the combination of the two would get you.
The Aqua Di Gio fragrance ad featured is double-sided; one page featuring a black and white photo of a model, the other showing the roaring rushing waves of the ocean. In my opinion because the ad is double-sided Armani wanted you to question your opinion of masculinity through subliminal messaging with the picture of the ocean. For one we know water to be deceptive, with the ability to reshape itself and reflect things. Maybe Armani was hinting that men’s masculinity is now reshaping itself to fit a new ideology or taking on characteristics of women by reflecting some of the characteristics seen in them back. Another aspect to think of is that water is forever changing going from calm to a roaring destructive force. Armani could have been saying that the stone like image of the model is life-less until he puts on the fragrance, which provides him the life-like energy and power of the ocean. In essence Armani has also given visual on the nature of the product being sold, from a distance you cant smell a man you can just see him like how the model depicts, but once you come close enough his aroma fills your nose and in some ways that man has now sprung to life capturing you with his physical attributes and scent together. This all goes back to the type of masculinity Armani is trying to reinforce; the traditional everyday cool and collected young man, whose masculinity is made roaring and refreshing through the use of a fragrance that incorporates feminine and masculine characteristics. All this talk of fragrance and masculinity is confusing when fragrances are something to describe as feminine in nature and purpose, but Armani has created a fragrance ad for Acqua Di Gioia which is for woman that is surprisingly similar to the Aqua Di Gio fragrance ad for men.
The Aqua Di Gio fragrance ad also has a female counterpart that is not in the GQ magazine because it’s a men’s magazine but both ads are advertised on the Giorgio Armani Website. They both sell a fragrance and its expected for them to be entirely different but they do share similarities supporting the concept that Armani has created a masculinity of its own, that can even be found similar to feminine ads in certain aspects. In Bordo’s reading she discusses that men’s advertisements both sell similar products but men’s ads are made up in a way to recreate feminine characteristics in a masculine way. Each advertisements focuses on the models face and their facial expression but their facial expressions are different, hers inviting and alluring, his strong and slightly intimidating. The ocean is calm, there is floral scenery, and coloration throughout the female ad while, the male ad has the roaring ocean wave, coloration only regarding the ocean, and no floral scenery. Overall the ads share the same basic structure making them very similar, but only having small differences to allow the recognition of masculinity or femininity by the viewer. Even though today men and women are now using similar products which in itself crosses new boundaries for masculinity the ad shows an even bigger picture, that maybe men and women have grown to become more similar then we think.
Bordo and the Giorgio Armani ad has help in discovering that men’s modeling has developed into something new and slightly feminine, and that men in modeling and regular life have adopted some habits and characteristics that traditionally were appointed to women. The creation of this new form of masculinity found in the Giorgio Armani ad gives evidence that indeed there are new forms of masculinity that are now acceptable in society and can be used to advertise something like a fragrance. The model was “I am a rock”, “the leaner”, and “face-off” all labels to describe different types of representation of men in modeling, but put into one model to create a form of masculinity for Aqua Di Gio. The dual visual effect of the photo of the model and the photo of the ocean created visual effects to make you think even deeper about the ad and the form of masculinity be representing by looking at the photos together or separately. The comparison and contrast of the Aqua Di Go ad versus the Acqua Di Gioia ad provided evidence of similar foundations for male and female modeling, with only little difference to make sure the two were still recognizable as masculine and feminine. Men have over time picked up some habits and characteristics that traditional were seen as feminine and brands like Giorgio Armani are using it to represent products and exude a new type of masculinity to the world, and it looks as if men are willing to spray it on and step out into the world masculine whether you can recognize it or not.
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