Digital Commons Network^™

A Content Analysis Of The Portrayal Of Men In Advertising: Gentlemen's Quarterly 1985-2000, Maryrose Mason

Theses

This thesis examines images of men and the products they promote in Gentleman 's Quarterly (GQ) magazine using the symbolic interaction theory of gender display developed by Erving Goffman in his monograph Gender Advertisements (1979). The study examines advertising images for evidence of sexual objectification of men, and reports on the extent different product types use gender displays to attract a male target market. 332 advertising images appearing in GQ from 1985 to 2000 were coded in ten categories of ritual display: setting, image position, image dominance, skin exposure, body portrayal, self-touch, gaze, and product type. The study concludes that …