Digital Commons Network^™

Contextualising Identity : The Intersection Of Gay Culture And Consumer Culture On The Gay Male Body, Dan Gladden

Theses : Honours

Gay Culture is largely informed and influenced by the wider social values and systems that surround it. Commodity culture infiltrates every area of day-to-day living, and is no less influential within gay culture. Images presented by the media, particularly gay targeting media such as DNA magazine, show a male body as almost exclusively young, muscular, good-looking and of western appearance. The continuously repeated image of the male body as being of only one specific type can be problematic within a minority culture as it can lead to exclusion for those who do not measure up to the standards. While acceptance …