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  • Essay / Men's Magazine Analysis - 1502

    The magazine I chose for analysis is a March 2010 issue of Men's Magazine. The magazine conveys health tips and suggestions on a cover and on the back. another cover, it contains tips for men's style. The magazine's 33 cover pages and 136 pages cover health, sex, relationships, fitness and nutrition, with about half of the magazine containing advertisements for a variety of products including cars, cologne , clothing, alcohol and healthy foods. The audience that Men's Health is aimed at are heterosexual men over the age of 18 who can afford to purchase the products advertised and have sufficient free time to try the health and fitness advice given. The goal of Men's Health is to be a comprehensive men's magazine that covers what most women's magazines are supposed to cover, such as health, relationships, sex and lifestyle. Men's Health may be the best of men's magazines, but it still has some hidden complexities, including sexism and bias. Looking through the magazine, I see many advertisements for products and toiletries that show men as manly in their poses or appearance. An advertisement for Dove Men + Care body wash on page 33 shows a man wearing a cycling outfit with the slogan "Be comfortable in your skin." Kirkham and Weller state in their Clinique case study: “…color plays an important role in gender differentiation…Men's are mostly packaged in gray bottles or tubes, with occasional muted blue” ( GRCM, 268). In the Dove ad, the bottle comes in a dark blue tube with the word "men" in bold letters to distinguish it from the Dove women's bottle. What's interesting is that the distinction is made so Dove can generate sales from men, but they are most likely using the same formula as for their...... middle of paper ...... the March 2010 issue of Men's Health and check out a fitness, health, romance and style magazine aimed at men. Upon further inspection, I found that there are other complexities that connect this magazine to continuing to show the hegemony of heterosexual white men over women and minorities. Although this is less apparent as in other magazines, for example Maxim and FHM, the complexities are still there with examples of gay window advertisements, male versions of toiletries and complementary text typically used by women's magazines. This magazine seems to be a great example of how modern has improved from what it was in the early 20th century, but it still lacks a comprehensive overview of all men's lifestyles. It improves on magazines of the era, but shows that we still need to do more to eliminate the sexism and minority bias that still exists today..