Study of the history and nature of masculinity as a socially constructed concept may not affirm an idea or a definition, but a set of conflicting definitions and images that are consistently changing over time. Research on gender role suggests that the conception of masculinity has evolved over time in response to social and historical events (Brod, 1987; Kimmel, 1987).The visual representations of masculinity in print advertisements have also witnessed variations over time, suggesting shifts in social beliefs about males. This paper aims to understand the transition in the images of masculinity by studying the male representations in old and modern Indian print advertisements. Five advertisements, each from the pre-noughties and post noughties era, were selected, through a hand search of advertisements online, and analysed using semiotic analyses. The findings suggest that there is a visible transition in the idea of what constitutes masculinity. The older advertisements focused on hegemonic representations of masculinity with style, success, and power as being strong indicators of masculinity, whereas the modern advertisements emphasized male bodies, anti-femininity, playboy images and usage of gendered products as signs of masculinity and the achievement of the same.
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Study of the history and nature of masculinity as a socially constructed concept may not affirm an idea or a definition, but a set of conflicting definitions and images that are consistently changing over time. Research on gender role suggests that the conception of masculinity has evolved over time in response to social and historical events (Brod, 1987; Kimmel, 1987).The visual representations of masculinity in print advertisements have also witnessed variations over time, suggesting shifts in social beliefs about males. This paper aims to understand the transition in the images of masculinity by studying the male representations in old and modern Indian print advertisements. Five advertisements, each from the pre-noughties and post noughties era, were selected, through a hand search of advertisements online, and analysed using semiotic analyses. The findings suggest that there is a visible transition in the idea of what constitutes masculinity. The older advertisements focused on hegemonic representations of masculinity with style, success, and power as being strong indicators of masculinity, whereas the modern advertisements emphasized male bodies, anti-femininity, playboy images and usage of gendered products as signs of masculinity and the achievement of the same.
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Study of the history and nature of masculinity as a socially constructed concept may not affirm an idea or a definition, but a set of conflicting definitions and images that are consistently changing over time. Research on gender role suggests that the conception of masculinity has evolved over time in response to social and historical events (Brod, 1987; Kimmel, 1987).The visual representations of masculinity in print advertisements have also witnessed variations over time, suggesting shifts in social beliefs about males. This paper aims to understand the transition in the images of masculinity by studying the male representations in old and modern Indian print advertisements. Five advertisements, each from the pre-noughties and post noughties era, were selected, through a hand search of advertisements online, and analysed using semiotic analyses. The findings suggest that there is a visible transition in the idea of what constitutes masculinity. The older advertisements focused on hegemonic representations of masculinity with style, success, and power as being strong indicators of masculinity, whereas the modern advertisements emphasized male bodies, anti-femininity, playboy images and usage of gendered products as signs of masculinity and the achievement of the same.
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Male Representations and Transition in Masculinity: A Semiotic Analysis of Old and Modern Indian Print Advertisements » The International Journal of Indian Psychȯlogy
Study of the history and nature of masculinity as a socially constructed concept may not affirm an idea or a definition, but a set of conflicting definitions and images that are consistently changing over time. Research on gender role suggests that the conception of masculinity has evolved over time in response to social and historical events (Brod, 1987; Kimmel, 1987).The visual representations of masculinity in print advertisements have also witnessed variations over time, suggesting shifts in social beliefs about males. This paper aims to understand the transition in the images of masculinity by studying the male representations in old and modern Indian print advertisements. Five advertisements, each from the pre-noughties and post noughties era, were selected, through a hand search of advertisements online, and analysed using semiotic analyses. The findings suggest that there is a visible transition in the idea of what constitutes masculinity. The older advertisements focused on hegemonic representations of masculinity with style, success, and power as being strong indicators of masculinity, whereas the modern advertisements emphasized male bodies, anti-femininity, playboy images and usage of gendered products as signs of masculinity and the achievement of the same.
The author appreciates all those who participated in the study and helped to facilitate the research process.
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The author declared no conflict of interests.
This is an Open Access Research distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any Medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
P.S. Negi, & M. Mandalaparthy (2019). Male Representations and Transition in Masculinity: A Semiotic Analysis of Old and Modern Indian Print Advertisements. International Journal of Indian Psychology, 7(3), 232-246. DIP:18.01.029/20190703, DOI:10.25215/0703.029
Received:
June 11, 2019;
Revision Received:
August 16, 2019;
Accepted:
September 25, 2019
Responding Author Information
Parvender Singh Negi @ negi.parvender03@gmail.com
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ISSN 2348-5396
ISSN 2349-3429
18.01.029/20190703
10.25215/0703.029
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Volume 07, Issue 3, July-September, 2019
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Research Assistant at Department of Psychiatry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India
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DIP: 18.01.029/20190703
DOI: 10.25215/0703.029
ISSN 2348-5396
Download: 10
View: 643