The themes for the Muscle and Fitness
magazine were selling products that get men to look like the men in their magazine.
66 percent of the ads were dietary supplements. The whole point of supplements
is for men to get bigger than they already are. The taglines presented in most
of these ads either position the reader as inferior, promise a transformation,
or present hegemonic masculinity. Most of the magazine focuses on
transformation with taglines such as “Get ripped faster than ever” and position
the reader as inferior with taglines such as “so you think you are man enough.”
However towards the end of the magazine, more attractive females are shown in
sexual situations. The tagline for Hegemonic masculinity in this issue was “have
great sex…build more muscle.” It feeds into the testosterone-driven culture
that most men have when they workout and what they want after they workout.
Again, it’s a stereotype that guys want to look good because they would have a
better chance to have sex with women. The entire goal of this issue (and
magazine) is to turn boys into men physically which leads to better self-confidence
and leads to more sex. This is not promoting women's sports; its promoting a heterosexual view of how a man should look and and act. This magazine is selling sex.
Meanwhile, the SI for Women issue we
read actually celebrated women for their athletic competence, not just pieces
of meat. Athletic Competence makes up 70 percent of all the images presented in
this issue. The issue does a great job selling women’s sports. The next two
highest seen themes were ambivalence and All-American girl next door. Almost
every woman shown was presented with class and respect. This proves women’s
sports can be sold by actual images of women playing sports, not selling their
bodies. These women are proud of playing their sport for their country and are
having fun doing so.
I completely agree with you guys and since we looked at the same magazines (Muscle & Fitness and SI for Women) just different issue, I think we noticed a lot of the same things. Almost every page in the Muscle & Fitness magazine was for a dietary supplement but when people buy a magazine like that I'm sure that is all they are looking for, new workouts and or new products to get them bigger which seems to be what the magazine accomplishes. While we were looking through the SI for Women magazine at first I was surprised that there were so many pictures of women playing their sports, in their uniforms, and showing their athletic ability. I was expecting to see more "Sexy Babe" and "Soft Pornography" ads since that’s usually how we see women portrayed but we struggled to find those. Since the magazine is for women they aren’t concerned with those things and want to focus on their sport and not sex.
ReplyDeleteBy: Matt Goryance
I personally am a frequent reader of Muscle and Fitness magazine and it is becoming ridiculous how much of the magazine is advertisements for supplements. The things that they do not tell you in the advertisements is that while using that product in order to maximize and even see any results you need to eat a healthy balanced diet. Also when it comes to the before and after photos that they repeatedly show in the magazines, a vast majority of them are fake. In a documentary I watched the photographers admitted to shooting those photos in the same day. With the amazing technology of adobe photoshop, you can make an extremely muscular bodybuilder look like a fat blob. All it takes is a little touch up to show people a change and they immediately bite on it. I am lucky enough to know what works for me and not get sucked in to their scams. Don't get me wrong, some of the articles in the Muscle and Fitness magazines can be extremely helpful and that is honestly why I buy the magazine. It just amazes me how much of the magazine has become advertisements.
ReplyDeleteBy: Taylor Cook
While going through the magazines in class our group also noticed that there were TONS of dietary supplement advertisements. Also, there were a lot of adds making fun of the reader or encouraging them to make improvements to their bodies. Our magazine also had a few sexual advertisements toward the end of magazine. The major problem with advertisements is that they objectify women, and on the other hand, have an unrealistic image of the male persona. Average men do not look like the men in these magazines, and likewise, the average women doesn't dress or act like the women in the advertisements. There are some articles that have some helpful information in the Muscle and Fitness magazines, but then then, others are just repulsive. I will stick to reading Sports Illustrated and ESPN the Magazine because they have less advertisements that attack the average man.
ReplyDeleteBy: Derek Miller
I think its kind of crazy that nearly all magazines we viewed in class had the same content. The magazine my group had showed more than 70 percent of dietary supplements as well. I dont necessarily read those kinds of magazines but I dont think they really encourage men to become body builders. In these magazines, they belittle men and make them think that their own body is inferior and weak. I dont really even think a lot of men would like to be as big as a bodybuilder. Personally, I think men that big are disturbing to look at. I also feel like normal men, with or without huge muscles, are perfectly fine. In these magazines I noticed that there weren't too many female bodybuilders. There were females but I feel as though they represented how a female is "supposed" to look. Like the picture above, you see the big buff bodybuilder standing behind the small petite woman. This picture still represents how men and women are supposed to look in society.
ReplyDelete~Angel Akinkuoye
I thought that these magazines were absolutely ridiculous. Just from doing this exercise it annoyed me because of the amount of advertisements that were in these things. It makes me wonder if people that body build actually enjoy using them because there really isn't that much useful information in them, unless those people buy them for the sole purpose of the advertisements. I agree with Angel that these body building magazines for both men and women came off as very degrading. It gives you the impression that your body is never going to be perfect and that you should never be satisfied with what you have. And frankly, the men and women that we saw in these magazines were disgusting because of how overly muscular they were. I don't think that is a whole lot of people's ideal image that they want for themselves. And surely people don't think that that should be the ideal image for our society. One the other hand, these magazines did help me realize there are THOUSANDS of different supplements out there for people to buy.
ReplyDeleteBy: Taylor Brown
I personally receive Muscle and Fitness for men and Muscle and Fitness hers and I will agree saying that majority of the ads are dietary supplements with false information on them. What they forget to add is that you have to exercise, resistance train and eat correctly to even see results. Yes, some of the supplements will give you great results but unless you do those three things, you wont see any. I feel like that is one of the reasons why the reader can be looked at as "inferior" because they are believing the hype of the ad and then are let down. I also will agree with Taylor on the fact that a lot of the photos are photoshopped; even the transformation ones. Photoshop works wonders on photography and almost every photo you see is photoshopped. This applies also to bodybuilding competitions; that is why the contestants are spray tanned to extreme amounts before a show because under the lighting it emphasizes your muscles and definitions differently than if you were not spray tanned. So when people read these magazines, they need to understand that and have that knowledge.
ReplyDeleteJanelle Campbell
So, in this case, it turns out to be the Sports Illustrated magazine that actually portrayed women using their athletic abilities rather than portraying them for sexual purposes. However, Sports Illustrated still does use sex to promote its magazine. The swimsuit issue is a prime example. However, the women in that issue of the magazine are not pro-athletes. They are, instead, models. Female athletes are playing sports not trying to show themselves off. There is now, of course, the body issue of the magazine that shows female and male athletes in the nude in various poses. This sort of brings back the sexual aspect into the picture even though it is not as direct as the swimsuit issue. Anyways, unless the magazine is either the swimsuit issue or the body issue then it is probably best to just use pictures of athletes that show them playing their sport or displaying their physical abilities.
ReplyDeleteBy David Shelmon
I find it interesting that when talking about media covering women's sports in the past in this class, we've talked about how they try to sell women's sports as sex. Journalists and commentators seem to focus more on the female athletes' sex appeal, as opposed to focusing more on the male athletes' ability to play the sport and physicality. When analyzing these magazines, however, you've discovered that advertisements and pictures are different. These advertisements make claims of improving the image of males by getting them in better shape, thus leading to more sex. I'm glad to see that Sports Illustrated focused primarily on women actually playing their sport instead of their bodies and sexual appeal. It's a step in the right direction for advertising womens sports so that people will see them more as competitive athletes instead of eye-candy, which is what women's sports desperately needs.
ReplyDeleteBy Micah Stein
Even though Sports Illustrated does a good job of representing women within their sport. It is very hard to say that sex doesn't sell. In our society today, the reality of the matter is male athletes dominant over female athletes, when spectators want to watch a sport. As a result, the way for women sports to draw appeal the best is through sex appeal. In no way do I think it is the most ethical approach in representing female athletes, but it’s the best business approach. People who haven't heard of a certain female athletes begin to recognize them through sex appeal advertisements over a certain sport they play, unless they truly dominate their sport. If you look at the print industry today, sex appeal is a major business venture and opportunity for women. For example, even though sports Illustrated is a sports magazine. They publish every year a swimsuit edition of women in the magazine that always sells to the intended sports audience, when it has nothing to do with sports.
ReplyDeleteBy Anthony Pape