‘Fair Dinkum Personal Grooming’ Male beauty culture and men’s magazines in twentieth century Australia Jennifer Burton BA (Hons) Faculty of Creative Industries Queensland University of Technology 2008 1 Keywords Men’s magazines, masculinity, grooming, metrosexual, representation, cultural economy, media, readerships 2 Abstract In this thesis, I analyse the representation of grooming in Australian men’s lifestyle magazines to explore the emergence of new masculine subjectivities constructed around narcissism and the adoption of previously feminine-coded products and practices which may indicate important shifts in the cultural meanings of Australian masculinity. However, in order to talk about ‘new’ subjectivities and ‘shifts’ in masculine behaviours and cultural ideals, then it is imperative to demonstrate ‘old’ practices and ideologies, and so while the thesis is concerned with discourses of grooming and models of masculinity presented in the new genre of men’s lifestyle titles which appeared on the Australian market in the late 1990s, it frames this discussion with detailed analyses of previously unexplored Australian men’s general interest magazines from the 1930s. According to Frank Mort consumption, traditionally associated with the feminine has now become a central part of imagining men (1996: 17-18) while the representation and sale of masculinity is an increasingly important part of the ‘cultural economy’ (Mikosza, 2003). In this thesis I am concerned with the role of men’s lifestyle magazines and magazine representations of masculinity in the ‘cultural economy’ of mediated male grooming cultures. 3 Table of Contents Keywords ........................................................................................................................2 Abstract ..........................................................................................................................3 List of Illustrations .........................................................................................................6 Statement of Original Authorship ................................................................................18 Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................19 Chapter 1 Introduction and Literature Review.............................................................20 Magazine Studies ......................................................................................................21 Literature Review: Masculinity and Men’s Lifestyle Magazines ................................33 The British ‘New Man’..............................................................................................33 Cultural Economy and the ‘New Lad’........................................................................44 Australian Research...................................................................................................50 Thesis Outline and Methodology...............................................................................59 Chapter 2 Vernacular Theory: Public discourses around the ‘metrosexual’ in the Australian popular press 2003 - 2004...........................................................................65 Introduction...............................................................................................................65 Defining the Metrosexual and Mapping the Australian Male Beauty Industry............67 What drove the emergence of a male beauty culture in Australia?..............................71 Discourses around the metrosexual in the Australian media in 2003 ..........................84 Conclusion ................................................................................................................94 Chapter 3 Historical Contexts ......................................................................................97 Introduction...............................................................................................................97 Hegemonic Seaboard and Colonial Masculinities ......................................................98 The Australian ‘Bloke’ ............................................................................................107 Modernity, Industrialisation and Urbanisation .........................................................110 Mass Media and Commercial Production.................................................................113 Conclusion ..............................................................................................................114 Chapter 4 Discourses of Grooming in MAN Magazine 1936 – 1974..........................116 Introduction.............................................................................................................116 4 MAN’s ‘New Man’ of the 1930s: Fashion, Style and Consumption .........................119 Discourses of Grooming in MAN ............................................................................123 The 1930s, 1940s and 1950s....................................................................................125 The 1960s and 1970s ...............................................................................................161 Conclusion ..............................................................................................................175 Chapter 5 Discourses of Grooming in Follow me Gentlemen 1984 – 1987................178 Introduction.............................................................................................................178 Representations of Grooming in Follow me Gentlemen ...........................................180 Discourses of Gender: Skin and Hair Care..............................................................184 Discourses of Gender: Fragrances...........................................................................188 Discourses of Gender: Science, Work and Sport ......................................................198 Discourses of Nationality.........................................................................................202 Discourses of Class..................................................................................................208 Discourses of Sexuality ...........................................................................................214 Conclusion ..............................................................................................................222 Chapter 6 Australian Men’s Lifestyle Magazines in the 1990s ..................................226 Introduction.............................................................................................................226 The Failure of Follow me Gentlemen ......................................................................227 Flops and Launches, 1995-6 ....................................................................................232 Max and Ralph: Successful ‘Blokes’ .......................................................................245 Conclusion ..............................................................................................................267 Chapter 7 Conclusion.................................................................................................271 Bibliography...............................................................................................................278 5 List of Illustrations Chapter 3 Figure 1: Philip Dawe, Pantheon Macaroni, 1773 accessed at http://muse.jhu.edu/demo/eighteenth-century_studies/v038/38.1rauser.html p.100 Figure 2: William Hogarth, The Bench, 1758 accessed at http://www.maximiliangenealogy.co.uk/hogarth/hogarth42.html p. 102 Figure 3: Nathaniel Dance, Captain James Cook, c 1775 accessed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cook p. 102 Figure 4: Unknown Artist, Governor Arthur Phillip accessed at http://libapp.sl.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/spydus/ENQ/PM/FULL1?200119,I p. 102 Chapter 4 Figure 1: Cover, Issue 1, MAN: The Australian Magazine for Men December 1936, National Library of Australia p. 117 Figure 2: Advertisement for Leslie T Stocks, MAN December 1936: 68, National Library of Australia p. 121 Figure 3: Fashion editorial, MAN December 1936: 69, National Library of Australia p121 Figure 4: Fashion editorial, MAN December 1936: 70, National Library of Australia p121 Figure 5: Advertisement for Langridge School of Physical Culture, MAN January 1938: 120, National Library of Australia p. 122 6 Figure 6: Advertisement for Langridge School of Physical Culture, MAN July 1937: 83, National Library of Australia p. 122 Figure 7: Advertisement for Maximax Blade Sharpener, MAN December 1937: 91, National Library of Australia p. 126 Figure 8: Advertisement for Sunbeam Shavemaster, MAN December, 1938: 119, National Library of Australia p. 127 Figure 9: Advertisement for Gem Safety Razors, MAN April 1938, National Library of Australia p. 128 Figure 10: Advertisement for Gem Safety Razors, MAN June 1941, National Library of Australia p. 128 Figure 11: ‘Men of Self-respect’ Gillette advertising campaign, MAN May 1950, National Library of Australia p. 130 Figure 12: ‘Men of Self-respect’ Gillette advertising campaign, MAN June 1950, National Library of Australia p. 130 Figure 13: ‘Men of Self-respect’ Gillette advertising campaign, MAN October 1950, National Library of Australia p. 130 Figure 14: Advertisement for Club razor blades, MAN July 1948, National Library of Australia p. 130 Figure 15: Advertisement for Club razor blades, MAN April 1949, National Library of Australia p. 131 Figure 16: Advertisement