Michael Bane
National College of Ireland
Marketing Lecturer with the National College of Ireland who has research interests in contemporary male & female advertising portrayals, sociology in a marketing context and critical marketing.
IAM Abstract for the Upcoming Doctoral Colloquium
Michael Bane
National College of Ireland
michael.bane@ncirl.ie
An Examination of Contemporary Male Social Capital and Advertising Portrayals
Men’s’ bodies have become increasingly more visible in the fields of entertainment, fashion and marketing (Nixon 1992), propelling males into chasms of objectification and entrepreneurial self ‘body projects’ or ‘bodywork’ which have afflicted women for decades (Winch & Hakim 2017, Elliott & Patterson 2004, Shilling 1993, Crossley 1991). Some men welcome and aspire to the body type ideals purported by this ‘Spornosexual’ culture (Simpson 2014) wherein muscular and fit male physiques constitute social and erotic capital (Hakim 2010, Bourdieu 1984) in the wake of neoliberalist emasculation (Hakim 2015). The austerity policies enacted by European states since the financial collapse of 2007 have particularly affected 18-25 year olds across a broad scale of socio-economic groupings in terms of access to education (grants), labour entitlements/security and the evermore elusive realisation of owning one’s own home (financial independence), and as such, has resulted in young men turning to their bodies as the only means of production they can truly leverage (Hakim 2015).
This propulsion to ideal physiques, while invigorating to some, is problematic for considerable sways of young men – reporting negative body images, as well as, psychological and eating disorders if their own bodies do not mirror those projected in social and mass media (Winch & Hakim 2017, Diedrichs & Lee 2010, Grogan & Richards 2002). The ubiquitous nature of these ideals and images has resulted in young audiences constantly engaging in self-surveillance and for men, this has meant the inversion of the ‘male gaze’ where men assume the object position and are given licence to scrutinise the bodies of other men. Foucault’s (1979) Panopticon is a valuable concept which illustrates the inescapable nature of this ideology and how it exacerbates the oppressive sentiment experienced by a growing proportion of young men (Barlett 2008). Academic solutions offered are currently under researched which will constitute the main thrust of my Phd study – such as the appetite for widening the diversity of body types targeting young men in advertising and popular media (Barry & Phillips 2016), and/or the extension of ‘Love Your Body’ discourses towards men, which up until now have been solely targeted towards women (Murphy & Jackson 2011).
