“We Are So Pumped Full of Shit by the Media”

Abstract

Men’s lifestyle magazines have long since been the focus of theorists in their examination of masculinity. However, research concerning men’s responses to such content, and whether these representations speak to their perceptions on embodying particular forms of masculinity in an Australian context, is largely absent. To understand how Australian men conceptualize their own ideas about masculinity and identity, interviews were conducted with twenty Australian men who were asked to peruse copies of men’s lifestyle magazines while pondering what it means to be masculine. Engaging with the theoretical frameworks of representational masculinity and masculine reformulation patterns, the results of this study found that the men interviewed identified four themes of social pressure perpetuated by these magazines regarding their own formation of a masculine identity. These include media representation and cultural consumption pressures, body image and muscularity pressures, performative sex and desirability expectations, and the fear of social judgment from both those who expect, and those who reject, particular performances of masculinity. Despite these articulations, however, the men maintained that these expectations affect other men and not themselves. While these men did not identify with these pressures, a textual analysis of their responses suggest otherwise, indicating a paradox in which they both accept and reject the mythscapes of aspirational masculinity presented before them.