The representation of men in fashion magazines

Over the past decades there has been an increase of the importance of men in the fashion industry, they have become popular. The images are seen in advertising imagery, as they appear in magazinesand billboards.
This has changed the traditional way fashion was promoted, this is described on John Berger's famous phrase, "men look at women, and women watch themselves being looked at."
The socalled “new social movements” is what has favored the “rise of the new man”. The new social movements are based on the disenchantment of politics and the sexual liberation; this has reinvented thetraditional masculinity and has helped the image of men emerge.
With the increase of communication over the past years a new target market has raised in the fashion industry: male consumers.
Advertisingreflects the new social and cultural beliefs and contours behaviors since it promotes certain beliefs regarding males and females and has “an effect in polarizing the sexes” (Bem, 1981, 1993).
Therepresentation of men since the 70’s until now has changed a lot. In the past men were represented as “blond gods” having a slim figure and muscle definition, sporty and healthy.
By the 90’s the menbody became hyper muscular with defined breasts, no chest hair… This image spread in the fashion industry and in the recent years the cult for the body has been seen in men’s fashion images.
We candivide this analysis in 3 main points:
• Feminism
• Gay community social acceptance
• Metrosexuality
• Men more interested in fashion
Feminism: This is sometimes described as the “crisis ofmasculinity”, (Brod (1995). Kimmel explains that “there has been a shift in masculinity that has generated unclear images about the male gender”. Men are usually expected to be seen as heroes and strongbut recently men’s fashion images tend to be more feminine and this is sometimes considered as socially abnormal.
Traditionally fashion was focused on women and for that reason there were not as...