Men's Health: A Discourse Analysis on Ideas of the Body and
Ideal Manhood in Print Media
Perhaps one of the most interesting and novel phenomena of our contemporary world is the way
in which the media molds and shapes our thoughts, actions, and culture as a society. The news
media is often accused of having a "liberal bias", and while this may or may not be true, it is
startling to behold exactly how much influence the media has over Western political thought. The
public knows what it knows because the news tells it what to know; it is scary to think that
there are events in the world that might be happening that the public is simply unaware of
because they aren't being reported. In the same way, popular entertainment media is our
source of information about a great deal of cultural and social thought. In many ways, the
popular media holds more influence over the lives of ordinary people because it instructs them
on cultural and social norms, not just political thought (which is not as widely popular nor,
arguably, as widely influential in everyday life). Television, film, radio, and print media all
influence a number of decisions in our everyday lives. This includes everything from what music
to listen to, what television to watch, what products to buy, to which family and economic
situation is the most ideal and which people are the most beautiful. An extremely important
area in which popular media holds influence is in the espousing of social discourse on sexual
norms. The media is pervaded with ideas on ideal manhood, womanhood, and ideas about human
sexuality. In particular, ideas about masculinity are often presented in ways that are as equally
as oppressive and detrimental as the often-touted ideas about female sexuality. This text will
deal with print media, its ideas on masculine sexual discourse, and will focus on Men's Health,
a popular men's magazine. Edisol Dotson states:
"Maleness, now less identified and symbolized by historically or biologically
assigned characteristics-fulfilling the role of bread-winner or the possession of a
penis- has become a multifaceted and multidefined existence that includes ever-changing
and often confusing ideas of masculinity. More important, altered ideologies of male physical
appearance and male beauty play a pivotal role in the search for masculine identification; Only
within the last decade or so has notice of the male body, beyond its clothes, hair, and face,
been pushed to the forefront of cultural observation. Now, how men look without their clothes
is essential to who they are, what they become, where they go, whom they marry, and with whom
they will have sex." (Dotson 5)
