Stylish Hard Bodies: Branded Masculinity in Men’s Health Magazine

This article examines a postmodern construct of masculinity in which male identity is based on consumption, a traditional role for women, rather than production. Data for this qualitative content analysis were drawn from a sample of Men’s Health magazine. Analysis of the front covers, stories and features, an advice column, and advertisements reveals a construct that I identify as “branded masculinity.” Branded masculinity is rooted in consumer capitalism wherein corporate profit can be enhanced by generating insecurity about one’s body and one’s consumer choices and then offering a solution through a particular corporate brand. The form of branded masculinity found in Men’s Health constructs muscles combined with a fashion sense and the appearance of financial success as the necessary characteristics for a real man today. Hair is important. Which shampoo will I use today? Maybe PsycoPath ® the sports shampoo with salon-grade micro protein packed in a manly black injection-molded plastic motor-oil canister. Your hair is you—your tribe—it’s your badge of clean. Hair is your document. What’s on top of your head says what’s inside your head. —Tyler, in Douglas Coupland, Shampoo Planet In Douglas Coupland’s Generation X novel, Shampoo Planet (1992), Tyler, the twenty-two-year-old protagonist, is continually concerned with choosing the right hair care products. Searching for his identity revolves not around a job, which Tyler lacks, but around appearance. Self-doubt and fear of not finding a place in the new world economy, rather than any narcissistic impulse, induces Tyler into excessive concern about grooming. From a sociological perspective, Tyler illustrates that the hegemonic masculinity of his father’s or grandfather’s day is mutating under the stresses of a new social structure in which consumption is more important than production. Masculinity itself is constructed as a product available for consumption if one merely chooses the appropriate brand names. The * Direct all correspondence to: Susan M. Alexander, Department of Sociology, Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, IN 46556-5001; e-mail : [email protected]. 536 SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES Volume 46, Number 4, 2003 process of consuming masculinity through name brands is fully understood by Tyler. When considering which styling spritz to use to complete his hair grooming, Tyler selects a gift from his mother, Mist of Naralon ® : “I haven’t used it much—it’s not advertised enough and is hence suspect. Always better to buy well-advertised products—preferably those products endorsed by a celebrity like Bert Rockney, my favorite actor—steroidal death toy and star of the blockbuster Hollywood motion picture HawkWarrior , which I’ve seen five times and heartily recommend” (Coupland 1992:133). The image of masculinity constructed purposely to sell a brand-name product also shapes the way men see themselves and others. Moving to the macrolevel, changing ideas of masculinity signal that a significant transformation of the social structure is under way. More than two decades ago, social theorists (Baudrillard 1981; Bell 1973; Derrida 1966; Lyotard 1984) established that Western societies like the United States were undergoing a shift from a modern industrial culture based on production to a postmodern culture informed by the consumption of products, ideas, and knowledge. As a transformation of the material base of society occurs, social institutions and cultural practices also undergo a transformation. One area in which this change is unmistakable is gender roles and gender identity. Numerous studies (Fraser 1989; Nicholson 1990; Smith 1987) have found that the postindustrial shift is affecting women’s roles in society. For example, the increasing number of women in the formal economy, both as wage earners and as consumers, has been well documented (Dobash and Dobash 1979; Hartmann 1976; Tilly and Scott 1978). Corporations, in their drive to increase profits by expanding market shares, exploit the changing economic structure and the accompanying changes in consumer identity through advertising. An example is cigarette companies’ play on feminist ideas of the 1970s: “You’ve come a long way baby!” This Virginia Slims slogan and others demonstrate the intentional targeting by advertisers of women whose economic and political power was on the rise after the 1970s women’s