Meeste konstrueerimine naisteajakirja Cosmopolitan artiklites 2005-2009

Date

2010

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Tartu Ülikool

Abstract

Description

The aim of the present BA thesis „Constructing men in women’s magazine Cosmopolitan articles 2005 – 2009“ is to analyze how men are represented in one of the most popular women’s magazine in Estonia. The main idea of the thesis was to learn whether Cosmopolitan uses stereotypical approaches towards men and how eager are men themselves either confirm or contradict to those qualities. Textual analysis was carried out among Cosmopolitans that had appeared in print during the period of 2005 till 2009. It should be mentioned that the analysis of 2009 was carried out during author’s seminar work (look Kempel 2010). In total there were 48 magazines during 2005 – 2008 and 12 magazines in 2009. Largely, the thesis was divided into two – analysis of interviews and analysis of articles. Analysis of interviews focused on finding out if men are eager to represent themselves, using stereotypical approaches or to the contrary – show themselves as softer and more emotional than the stereotypical approach shows men to be. The aim of the analysis of written articles was to find out whether Cosmopolitan uses stereotypical approaches to present men and if there are some deflections from it. The author also wanted to find out if and how much Cosmopolitan presents new types of men. The results showed that stereotypical man was the main type of man that was constructed in Cosmopolitan. However, the results also showed that alongside the stereotypical male figure, the new types of men were also presented. Comparing to the presentation of stereotypical male, constructing new men types is modicum. But the tendencies show that constructing softer male figures is slowly increasing. The author of this BA thesis presented that due to the fact that the USA is considered to be masculine society and Cosmopolitan is largely an American magazine, the main male type presented there is related to American culture which is the stereotypical male figure. Secondly, it came out that articles which were about sexuality, men were presented as typical males – always ready to have sexual intercourse and always eager to try new sexual experiences. When talking about dominating, the analysis showed that Cosmopolitan constructs men and women mostly as equals – however, dominating men were also noticed, mainly in the articles that talked about sex. The difference between Estonian and American culture was noticed during the analysis of the interviews. Interviews that were taken into the analysis were carried out mainly amongst Estonian men and the results showed that men are quite eager to show them as emotional and family oriented males who are not afraid to show their emotions. On the other side, men were also eager to show themselves in the way that stereotypical approaches call for. The author suggested that it may be due to the fact that men want to get the approval of the society and they think that by using stereotypical masculine qualities when talking about themselves makes fitting in easier. In conclusion, the findings show that Cosmopolitan is a traditional magazine that is not so eager to change the main male types that are presented in the magazine. Although the representation of new male types was noticed, the main focus is on constructing stereotypical masculinity.

Keywords

bakalaureusetööd, meedia, trükiajakirjandus, ajakirjad, naisteajakirjad, artiklid (meedia), sugupooled, mehed, Cosmopolitan (ajakiri)

Citation