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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 433 553 CS 510 134 TITLE Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (82nd, New Orleans, Louisiana, August 3-8, 1999). Magazine and Visual Communication Divisions. INSTITUTION Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. PUB DATE 1999-08-00 NOTE 292p.; For other sections of this proceedings, see CS 510 132-153. PUB TYPE Collected Works Proceedings (021) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC12 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Activism; *Advertising; American Indians; Body Image; Civil Rights; Foreign Countries; Higher Education; Journalism Education; *Legal Problems; Lesbianism; Periodicals; *Photojournalism; Racial Attitudes; Sex Role; Visual Stimuli IDENTIFIERS Digital Retouching (Photography); *Editorial Cartoons; Germany; *Media Coverage; USSR ABSTRACT The Magazine and Visual Communication Divisions section of the Proceedings contains the following 8 papers: "Beefcake, Breadwinner, or Babysitter: A Content Analysis of Male Images in Female-Targeted Magazine Advertising, 1978-1998" (Mikalee Dahle and Jennifer Greer); "The Impact of Larry Flynt: An Overview of One Publisher's Legal Battles" (Amy M. Drittler); "Black in a Blonde World: Race and Girls' Interpretations of the Feminine Ideal in Teen Magazines" (Lisa Duke); "Charles Moore's 'Life' Magazine Coverage of the Civil Rights Movement, 1958-1965" (John Kaplan); "Out of Their Hands: Framing and its Impact on Newsmagazine Coverage of Indians and Indian Activism, 1968-79" (Jennifer Bowie); "Cuddly Bear and Vicious Ape: Soviets and Germans in Editorial Cartoons, 1933-1946" (Samuel P. Winch); "Visual Rhetoric: A Semiotic Evaluation of the Misrepresentation of a Subculture within the Myth of Lesbian Chic in Mainstream Advertising" (Susan Zavoina, Tom Reichert, and Kevin Maly); and "Readers' Perception of Digital Alteration and Truth-Value in Documentary Photographs" (Edgar Shaohua Huang). (RS) ******************************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * ******************************************************************************** Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (82nd, New Orleans, Louisiana, August 3-8, 1999): Magazine and Visual Communication Divisions. Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. 1999-08 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND Office of Educational Research and Improvement DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION BEEN GRANTED BY CENTER (ERIC) EKT.his document hasbeen reproduced as received from the person or organization MCC ,I fr originating it. BESTCOPYAVAIL/kBLE Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. J TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES Points of view or opinions stated in this INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) document do not necessarily represent n 1 official OERI position or policy. tc , _. Beefcake, Breadwinner, or Babysitter: A Content Analysis of Male Images in Female-Targeted Magazine Advertising, 1978-1998 Mika lee Dahle, graduate student Jennifer Greer, assistant professor University of Nevada-Reno Reynolds School of Journalism/310 Reno, NV 89557-0040 Office: (702) 784-4191 Home: (702) 746-3892 j [email protected] Submitted to the Magazine Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, for the 1999 annual conference. Abstract Beefcake, Breadwinner, or Babysitter: A Content Analysis of Male Images in Female-Targeted Magazine Advertising, 19781998 A content analysis of ads featuring men was undertaken for women's magazines published in 1978, 1988, and 1998. Ads in 1978 publications tended to feature men in a clear role and related to the product; those in 1988 presented men in no clear role and unrelated to the product (a purely decorative role); and images in 1998 served as the middle ground between the two extremes. Clear trends also emerged across different magazine titles. Beefcake, Breadwinner, or Babysitter His name is Lucky, and he is known to the world as the Diet Coke guy. He is a man to be admired by many: physically fit, attractive, employed...and mercilessly ogled by every woman in what seems to be an all-female office. If only more men were that lucky. Lucky the Diet Coke guy may be only one image provided by one advertising campaign from the early 1990s, but a new impression of male images in advertising seems to be evolving. In this case, a strong male component existsnot in a stereotypically powerful role, but instead a stereotypically sexist role. Other roles for men in advertisements have recently surfaced as well. Many advertisements show a family situation in which the father only knows what to do based on printed instructions left by the mother, or chores are completed by the fatherbut they are done all wrong and must be fixed by the mother. The existence of sex stereotypes in advertising has stirred controversy for decades, but the focus of that controversy has usually been on the depiction of females. Now, a role-reversal has taken place. Whether it is the beefcake or the bimbo, images of men in advertising are seemingly becoming more and more unflattering (Ingrassia, 1994; Lippert, 1997; Foote, 1988). Despite the changing roles of men in society and the changing portrayals that seem to be reflected in the media, the bulk of the research focusing on role portrayals in advertising deals primarily and almost exclusively with images of females. A large body of literature exists addressing the professional and non-professional roles fulfilled by females. body orientation, physical attributes, positioning in relation to males, and levels of sexism (Ford & LaTour, 1993; Jaffe, 1991; Lanis & Covell, 1995; Sullivan & O'Connor, 1988). Many researchers suggest that the preponderance of studies that have been conducted on this topic stem from the women's movement and an attempt to redefine the limited set of roles portrayed by females in the media (Skelly & 5 Beefcake, Breadwinner, or Babysitter 2 Lundstrom, 1981; Fejes, 1994; Kolbe & Albanese, 1996). In response to the overwhelming number of studies conducted on female role portrayals, Andrew Wernick (1987) suggests: To round out the picture it is also important to consider how modern advertising depicts and addresses men. For men themselves, indeed, this question has become quite timely. For the sexual shake-up of the sixties and seventies has not only put in question prevailing notions of masculinity; it has also changed the relation of men to advertising itself (p. 278). But an examination of the literature regarding male roles in print advertising in this country reveals only four content analyses that focus on male imagesand three of these studies are more than a decade old (Skelly & Lundstrom, 1981; Soley & Kurzbard, 1986; Wolheter & Lammers, 1980; Kolbe & Albanese, 1996). This acknowledgment of changing rolesand the subsequent dearth of information about ithas led to the undertaking of the current study. This study will fill a void in the analysis of male depictions in magazine advertising, extending this research to include female-audience magazines in recent decades. This analysis investigates the images of males in four female-targeted publications (Vogue, Ladies' Home Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, Seventeen), assessing differences in these images over a 20-year time span (1978 to 1998). According to Fejes: The paucity of empirical media research on masculinity at this point represents a challenge and an opportunity to media researchers to contributed not only to a growing new area of research, but also to the examination and redefinition of one of the fundamental ways we define and act out our reality (1992, p. 22) Literature review The "Diet Coke Break" campaign was seen as just one example of new methods advertisers were using to appeal to females (Ingrassia, 1994). Other industry observers noted the rising numbers of ads featuring men as sexual stimuli (Lippert, 1997) and to other insulting depictions of men in ads (Goldberg, 1989; Foote, 1988). However, empirical research is not as abundant as these 6 Beefcake, Breadwinner, or Babysitter 3 anecdotal evaluations provided by general and trade publications. The handful of studies on male images in advertising will be reviewed briefly, starting with the broadcast medium. Broadcast advertising Historically, research on the role of the male in advertising has primarily been addressed in its relation to the female image. A content analysis that compared male and female images in television advertising in the 1970s found that men were portrayed as more autonomous than women, were more often shown in occupational roles or advertising big ticket products, and were more often shown in a business setting (Fejes, 1992). However, another content analysis of 1986 network television ads indicated some change in the 1980s. Ferrante, Haynes, and Kingsley (1988) found that although the stereotypically traditional male role of businessman was still heavily represented, the relatively new portrayal of man as father and husband was increasing significantly. Bred and Cantor (1988) found similar results when they examined 397 television advertisements from 1985. They found that men were more likely than in previous studies to be seen in domestic settings with no other apparent occupation. According to the researchers, "advertisements seem to be presenting a less sexist