Gauntlett & Connell- MH notes

(Refer to MH magazines for analysis's)
Men's Health quote by MORGAN REES, EDITOR 'Men's Health is the magazine for active, successful, intelligent men who want to make the most of their physical, professional and emotional lives. We give men the tools they need to make their lives better.'

MH powerpoint Gauntlett:

They all usually contain something about sex and how to be the best. MH also almost always have an 'advice' column that instructs men on what they are doing wrong or what they have to do.

Extract slide 6- They force men into being married as it suggests an easier life, men may feel threatened by this and marry out of fear rather than love. According to MH men should be married or they can seem weird and not following the path society has made them go to. It also suggests that men can feel happier with a partner and safer as not being married can cause a risk in heart disease (from eating unhealthy) They persuade men to be married because it will boost their earnings by 20% which is more of a motivator than to do it because they want to. Connell might suggest that this is making men an overman or hegemonic. Gauntlett may suggest it makes men insecure and feel like they need to change their lifestyle to become a 'real man'.

Slide 7- The extract suggests that men need to be laddish to cover up their insecurities about their lifestyle choices. This extract is for a typical hegemonic male. They tell men to beat their friends at relationships by staying married at 30 even if your friends 'buckled'. It is border line sexist by implying that women are temperamental without sleep and that all women don't want a commitment. Instead of having a conversations they tell men to follow their advice which could be dangerous for certain relationships.

Slide 8- Tells men that married life will make you better emotionally, physically, and mentally because it helps to loose weight, be happy, and more attractive. In reality this is not 100% true as each individual is different but MH twists the truth into making married life better. Using statistics can help to persuade the men to believe them as they think these numbers are accurate and more believable.

There is evidence in MH that men can get insecure over the articles in the magazine because it suggests that all men need to be like this (refer to any front cover male who shows muscle) and if you don't then you are weird and makes them out to be 'losers' as some captions will include words such as 'to be the best' or 'fight and win'. Once MH have the men feeling insecure over their bodies and minds they have 'solutions and reassurance' that men can be who they desire (hegemonic) when in reality there was nothing wrong with them they just do this to sell the magazine.

Mode of address
Most MH magazines will have a laddish tone to protect their heterosexuality as they are given advice on relationships, health and cooking, and sex. These are more commonly found on women's magazines which is why men are taking back their masculinity (Bly) Gauntlett suggests humour and irony is used in a laddish tone to cover up the fact that men don't want other men to know that they read this stuff. It makes them feel weak and inadequate.

Identities are not given but are constructed and negotiated...(inviting) a fluidity of identities


slide 11-
An objectifying 'advice' column where a man informs other men on how to skirt around the issue of 'sex only relationships'. When men don't want a real relationship and the woman does, this advice column suggests lying and blaming the break up on her just to save the man's reputation. They care more about how the man is represented rather than the woman's feelings and how it could negatively affect her confidence. It could also be really bad advice as not all women and men are alike and so different situations will happen. This person is taking advantage of women's minds and exploits the fact that 'women are typically looking for a real relationship more than men', and 'women are more sensitive than men usually'. They try to show respect for the women by saying 'bad mouthing her won't reflect well on you', however, although they are suggesting to not bad mouth women (as they shouldn't) they are also showing that they care more about their reputation than the women's. To save themselves they must show women respect which is selfishness, they should be taught to show all people respect because it is courteous, not because it will reflect good on themselves. 
"She's not worth more to you than sex", Blumberg is suggesting that this is the real reason why some men don't want a real relationship by adding "It's a hell of a lot better than telling her [she's not worth...]" This is telling the men that showing yourself more respect (as a man) is what you should do and not show women much respect as equals because it shows weakness.