marketing of masculinity

how do you eat cous cous with a fork anyway?

I don't understand why they are using the Levis design manual and then not putting a brand name in? It is just a free ad, for Levis, by someone else?

it's dockers, same company

I have a lot to learn about being a man.

RAWR.

Its not an ad, it's from their website:

http://www.us.dockers.com/season/landing.aspx

wait I thought khakis were for pussies...

jesus i came to work feeling like ray lewis and i'm gonna leave feeling like klaus nomi.

RAWR.

i eat my food off the floor, sometimes out of a bowl. . . if i'm feeling fancy. . . otherwise, it's off the floor

RAWR

feelings are for women, matt

I just punched a deer in the face.

RAWR.

i piss in the woods and shake hands with strangers and goddamn it I MAKE EYE CONTACT

RAWR

despite being flawless sometimes i make mistakes deliberately so i can stand up to admit to them.

RAWR

i taught a bobcat how to whistle the theme from rocky. my workout routine is running for my life every morning to its majestic ersatz trumpet fanfare.

RAWR

My Vietnam Vet dad looks UP to ME godammit

RAWR

this thread is turning into Courage Wolf Part II: The Wrath of Courage Wolf

RAWR

I will wear a Claiborne shirt with Calvin Klein pants without even blinking

RAWR

RAwr no what

RAWR?

my workout routine is running for my life every morning to its majestic ersatz trumpet fanfare.
wait a second
i've done this
does that make me a man?

(note: my name is amanda. when i was a kid people used to say "a man...DUH" and i think that moment is coming full circle for me right now in triumphant manliness)

howie long is my mantor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGI8IRXRqpo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3jUumdgPyw

sigh

God
I think the increasing fashion-awareness or image-consciousness in men that is characterized as "feminisation" is actually just a symptom of the broadening reach of consumer capitalism & marketing. someone once said that "metrosexuality" was concocted & encouraged by magazines & advertising because the paradigm of straight men being oblivious to what they wear is bad for business. more straight men today(and not just so-called hipsters) are more concerned about clothing, I believe, but overall perhaps it's just a triumph of marketing.

OR perhaps men are just exposed to way more media than half a century ago, ie, surfing the internet at work instead on the assembly line or something? i don't know just taking wild guesses

re: the "There's no more John Wayne's anymore," comment in the Emascualting Truth video. If this statement is true, I seriously don't think the cause lies with chemicals in water / food or whatever but rather in the fact that middle class men today are not being raised to fight in wars? during the world War II / Cold War era, the stakes were such that people just HAD to have a certain toughness that isn't necessary today & thus a certain image of John Wayne masculinity was the ideal, but that was always an extreme to begin with, plus I don't think even John Wayne himself was 100% John Wayne IRL

plus I reckon it's politically incorrect to act in such a way now what with women & gheys having "rights" these days, shucks

I always identified with Jack Kerouac 1000 times more than John Wayne actually

& the Kerouac ad actually kinda makes me want to wear khakis tbh

Famed metrosexual Marion Morrison, you mean?

I don't think even John Wayne himself was 100% John Wayne IRL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uv_WGEHr4I

http://www.glendalehigh.com/images2/johnwayne-1.jpg

I ate a caesar salad with crab meat for lunch today while wearing brown corduroy trousers and a kicky Missoni cardigan- am I part of the problem here?

I washed it down with an espresso, is that more testicular than a latte for some reason? Or is it Euro-faggy and thus not macho?

(I didn't use a plastic fork though- metal cutlery all the way).

single or double espresso?

See corduroys and khakis inhabit the same place for me.

double espresso

for me, its:

corduroy = hipster
khaki = probably has a job of some kind (Best Buy?)

how did indifference to one's appearance become a "masculine" trait, anyway?

I'm not indifferent to my appearance and I think its ridiculous that people trot out khakis as a synechdoche of that!

Chiming in late here, but one of the interesting things I get from this is not just the evolution of the aspired-to image of masculinity, of being a "proper fella," but the complete inversion of it.

For example, the Starbucks thing; you take the aforementioned previous desired image of men from the 50s/Playboy/Jetset/Bond era, the Clooney/Obama vector, shall we call it. The suave, debonair, cosmopolitan & knowledgeable man. Not just a grown-up, or a teenager 20 years on who's acquired a full golf bag of deficiency-compensating behaviors, but an actual adult with a developed inner self.

Where the postwar jetsetter ideal was the man(James Bond, Cary Grant onscreen, etc) who would easily walk into any cafe either in some deep beatnik enclave or on the Continent and order a vente. You have the image of a man sure of himself; a worldly, well-read fellow who's picked up a bit here and there, rather than the anti-intellectual/homophobic/insecure/reactionary thicko who'd call him faggit for using that term.

What was once the apex of masculinity became inverted to the level of the foppish homosexual. (That that 50s man was homophobic as well is an interesting irony)

Key example: shaving kits. I can't find a good magazine advert for a kit, but you get the idea; the concept that a proper adult male cares about what he looks like and makes an effort to look presentable both to the ladies and to the office.

The metrosexual thing just seems like a way to get that idea back into a pop comprehension, as such concerns("who gives a shit if I look like a schlub?!") were deliberately ignored for two decades or more.

this thread has been making me die laughing when i should be writing a paper. that is indicting this sort of thing.

smoke break. and btw, I'M A MARLBORO MAN.

This thread is making me swoon a little bit cos I don't really think about MEN as such all that often and now I'm thinking about it more.

goldmine:

http://pzrservices.typepad.com/vintageadvertising/advertising_from_the_1950s/

http://pzrservices.typepad.com/vintageadvertising/advertising_from_the_1960s/

http://pzrservices.typepad.com/vintageadvertising/vintage_advertising_to_men/

Looking at this stuff now, it's very difficult to see these old illustrated adverts that haven't be re-purposed by Winston Smith.

this whole "men caring about their appearance = feminisation" always comes across weird to me. I'm a schlubby and not particularly masculine man and my paternal grandfather was really macho, fairly successful at boxing while in the army, and always carried a comb (was nicknamed "el gato" for his love of grooming) and was perpetually drowned in cologne. Metrosexual bastard.

like the idea that it's a new thing.

how foppish were victorians with their antimacassars.

this thread does remind me that i need to get a couple of new suits.

how did indifference to one's appearance become a "masculine" trait, anyway?

think about it from the point of view of your modern american conservative: a "real man" just acts from his gut, he doesn't dally around with wishy-washy contemplation or emotions. He's got important things to do, snap decisions to make, and everything else is secondary. He's far too busy and important to worry about how pretty he looks that day. That's silly shit for wimmen & faggits & shit.

True wimmen will be attracted to his naturally rugged good looks(which of course are natural and thus require no effort or second thought) and masculine musk that he stanks out of his pores.

it's so weird that this happened considering what lefty commie fags and rightwing all american heroic dudes looked like 45 years ago.

how did indifference to one's appearance become a "masculine" trait, anyway?

Because when you're bad at, or ill-prepared for something, nothing is as classic as intimating that all of those skills you don't have are for losers, anyway.

the basic tom frank point is that masculinity, whatever its style, has always been marketed.

what i see in common, but don't really know what to make of, between ^^khakis ad, "the game", retroid style/identity moves either of the martini-classy or '30s beardo working-man variety, even Queer Eye, is: they are all about What To Do. they all offer a program, a way out of alienation. are you lost? are other men getting theirs? we can help!

http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/9804/tuxedo.jpg

Speaking of new suits, you could sell these now and make good money. Hell, I'd dress like fuckin' Jon Pertwee every day if I were allowed to, and could afford it.

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa48/spryte_album/MISC/RealMen.jpg

1982

i think the thing with a lot of those programs that are supposed to lead you to some ideal masculinity is that maybe in theory they're supposed to work well, but 90% of the time when i see guys trying to be sophisticated martini dudes or classy beardos in suits or guys who run circles around women w/the game book in hand, the efforts and execution are awkward or ugly and classless.

and hey, ketel one dudes? sorry:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51G4JT7FCVL.jpg

is there a commonality at all b/w the idea of men not caring abt the appearance and men not caring about their health/nutrition? seems like i've seen a number of ads for patently unhealthy food (fast food, "hungry man" dinners) that treat gustatory excess as some manly pursuit (counter this with most health-conscious food commercials being targetted at women).

men's health is usually for shit like boner pills and supplements/routines to get your RIPPPPPPPED