"Appearance potent"? A content analysis of UK gay and straight men's magazines

Glen Jankowski; Helen Fawkner; Amy Slater; Marika Tiggemann

doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2014.07.010

"Appearance potent"? A content analysis of UK gay and straight men's magazines

Glen Jankowski, Helen Fawkner, Amy Slater, Marika Tiggemann

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

28 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

With little actual appraisal, a more 'appearance potent' (i.e., a reverence for appearance ideals) subculture has been used to explain gay men's greater body dissatisfaction in comparison to straight men's. This study sought to assess the respective appearance potency of each subculture by a content analysis of 32 issues of the most read gay (Attitude, Gay Times) and straight men's magazines (Men's Health, FHM) in the UK. Images of men and women were coded for their physical characteristics, objectification and nudity, as were the number of appearance adverts and articles. The gay men's magazines featured more images of men that were appearance ideal, nude and sexualized than the straight men's magazines. The converse was true for the images of women and appearance adverts. Although more research is needed to understand the effect of this content on the viewer, the findings are consistent with a more appearance potent gay male subculture.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	474-481
Number of pages	8
Journal	Body Image
Volume	11
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2014.07.010
Publication status	Published - 2014

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Jankowski, G., Fawkner, H., Slater, A., & Tiggemann, M. (2014). "Appearance potent"? A content analysis of UK gay and straight men's magazines. Body Image, 11(4), 474-481. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2014.07.010

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