White and Gillett's article "Reading the Muscular Body: A Critical Decoding of Advertisements in Flex Magazine"gives an incredible perspective of a form of popular press regarding bodybuilding. The authors discuss various identities males take on when deciding to become body builders and how their insanely toned bodies are a representation of hegemonic masculinity. White and Gillett studied the advertisements in Flex Magazine based on two characteristics: descriptive (what products were promoted) and textual (the themes represented).In bodybuilding magazines, the pages are filled with supplements, training equipment and sometimes clothing. The men/women promoting these products are ripped, abnormal human beings that "supposedly" used the specific products to increase their muscle mass. However, what is inferred is that many of these "athletes" used anabolic steroids to look the way they do. To a naive reader, these body builders went through blood, sweat and tears to create the image they portray. To a realistic consumer, the reality is much less inspirational.
My group had Shape magazine and we found the articles and advertisements to be very feminine and conservative. Shape was trying to influence a healthy lifestyle to middle-aged active women (possibly mothers). The themes represented throughout the pages were inspiring and enlightening. I felt very calm and peaceful when browsing the pages of Shape. Everyone has their own opinion about the human body and how body builders should present themselves. Without passing judgement, Flex magazine has a very dominant, bold and cut-throat way of directing the themes of their advertisements. Clearly, the targeted consumers and subscribers have different lifestyles and that is the beauty of a target market. Brands can be specific and create material that is appealing to certain persons.
Body builders have a unique lifestyle and have, what seems to be, 0% body fat. They are fierce competitors and attempt to make a living off of their bodies. Magazines have a special role in popular culture. They educate the reader on various topics and subject them to material they have an interest in.
I found it interesting too that in the Shape magazine the methods for weight loss and just a healthy lifestyle were relaxing and attempted many ways to help people find their peace with their image. Like Dana said there is a big contrast with the muscle magazine , because unlike fitness programs that try and fit your personality and lifestyle, its seems like the constant theme is, “the bigger the better”; and the only way to get there is to lift weights and ingest a lot of supplements. The strategies seemed to be more direct and narrow as opposed to Shape which had more broad and laid back strategies. However, I do see a correlation between the magazines and their target market. Shape is more targeted to mainstream American women, a large demographic. Muscle magazine is directed towards a more narrow population, people who body build as a lifestyle or profession. So as different healthy lifestyle approaches are in these two magazines they seem to fit to the needs of their consumers.
ReplyDeleteThat photograph is just gross, imho, but then I guess it is what some people aspire to look like:-) It makes me wonder how someone can be "megarexic" (i.e., thinking that they are never big enough), but it is definitely a different mind set than what females typically learn (i.e., that you can never be thin enough).
ReplyDeleteThis was a very interesting blog. It is funny how magazines take different types of people and advertise completely different things. The muscle magazines were filled with pills and protein shakes and all sorts of crazy stuff to take to help build mass. And the Shape magazines were filled with very healthy looking individuals who seemed to be doing everything in a much safer way. I am going to have to say it is probably a very productive strategy and most people just purchase the muscle magazines simply for the discounts in the different things they are selling.
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