1. What makes a man?

2. How do the media build up the image
of metrosexual man?
---Case study of "Queer Eye for the
Straight Guy" and “Esquire Magazine”
Tang Fangxin 09420282
Kitt Wongarsa 09420061

4. Cause
• Dead of Female cosmetic market
• Rise of Feminism
• Media

5. Defining Metrosexual Men
• Mark Simpson
• British journalist
• Salon.com
• “a young man with money to spend, living in or
within easy reach of a metropolis -- because
that's where all the best shops, clubs, gyms and
hairdressers are. He might be officially gay,
straight or bisexual, but this is utterly immaterial
because he has clearly taken himself as his own
love object and pleasure as his sexual
preference.”

6. David Beckham
first identified as the official prototype of
the modern metrosexual man.

7. Other famous people such as Brad Pitt, Patrick Rafter, Guy
Ritchie, and Justin Timberlake are also following the new
trend (Flocker, 2003).

8. Media
• Advertisement (CKU)
• TV ( Queer Eyes)
• Website (Men.style.com)
• Magazine ( Esquire)

9. Cultivation Theory
• Definition: “Heavy television viewers tend to adopt the television's reality as
their own real-world reality” (Gerbner,1998 )

10. Cultivation Theory
• Extention: Through constant exposure to the same images and labels, TV viewers develop a
commonality of outlook. (Dr. Du’s lecture)
Images and ads Stereotype
TV shows and text Media Audiences Knowledge
Values
News and movies Reality
How do the media influence the audience.
Our paper will mainly discuss the first two aspects.

11. Cultivation Theory
Argumentation:
• Can Cultivation Theory apply to printed media?
• Can Cultivation Theory help to build up gender identity?
Let’s first look at a set of magazine coverage.
Results:
• Printed media, like magazine, belongs to the mass media and follows the cultivation
theory model.
• The repeated similar coverage and images of male or female contained in the
printed media forms certain gender identity to the public.
• Printed media would also influence the public by text content. (will explain in
following cases.)

12. "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy"
• What is "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" (video)

13. "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy"
• How does Cultivation Theory link to Queer Eye?
• A step-by-step introduction of a Metrosexual-to-be.
Core value of the Metrosexual: The rich, fashion, dandy guys who live in the city.

14. Magazine Coverage
Back

15. • Before 1980s – few magazine about
metrosexual
• 1990s- present – many magazine about
metrosexual

16. Metrosexual Magazines
• Mens Health, GQ, Esquire (International)
• The Demand (Thailand)
• SENSE(Japan)
• MRRM(HK)

17. • Many magazines address national, regional,
and even international audiences unlike
newspapers which are majored at the local
level. (Fowles, 1996)

18. Esquire
• Content
Male/fashion/lifestyle/money (value of consumerism
• 14 languages / 18 countries

19. Esquire’s target
• Male reader
• Sophisticated
• Intelligent
• Well-educated
• Confident in themselves and their own sense
of style
= Metrosexual?

20. Traditional Male Magazine
Content
-pornography, erotica, sport, automotive, hobby

21. Esquire 1930s-1980s

22. 1980s
• We begin to see the
change
• Why?
• Growth of economy
• Men started in
buying cloth as a
result of advertising
and content in
magazines

23. 2010
• More than 60% page of magazine content
about men’s fashion, grooming, and beauty.

24. Ziz Clinical Skincare For
Men
Bodycopy : ”Ziz Clinical
Skincare offers an upscale
environment to the growing
male population
interested in maintaining a
youthful healthy look”

25. Ting House Beauty Clinic
Permanent Laser Hair Removal
Power Light Services
Remove Facial Black Spots
Skin Whitening Services

26. Cultivation of Esquire
• that the use of text and image in printed media
can also cultivate the way of life and gender.
(Gauntlett, 2002)
• the media text and images take the ‘stuff’ of
everyday life, in this instance gender and
sexuality, package it visually, textually (and
symbolically-ideologically) and sell it back to the
audience or consumer as it idealized fiction of the
lifestyles and identities for sale to those who can
afford them.

27. Cultivation Theory
• Extention: Through constant exposure to the same images and labels, TV viewers develop a
commonality of outlook. (Dr. Du’s lecture)
Images and ads Stereotype
TV shows and text Media Audiences Knowledge
Values
News and movies Reality
How do the media influence the audience.
Our paper will mainly discuss the first two aspects.

28. Conclusion
• Gerbner is out-dated?
• combination of media use is found to be more
effective as it is represented in this paper as it
helps shaping the ‘new man’.
• Media encourage and foster identification
with lifestyles and identities.