Secondary Source Report Title
By Braith Lane
Complete citation: Chelsea Barnett (2015) Man's man: representations of
Australian post-war masculinity in Man magazine, Journal of
Australian Studies, 39:2, 151-169, DOI: 10.1080/14443058.2014.1001422
Image Credit: https://researchers.mq.edu.au/en/publications/imansi-man-representations-of-australian-post-war-masculinity-in-
accessed; 27th of August.
Key Words: Post-war Australia, Masculinity and Man
Brief Overview: This
article examines the representation of masculinity in Man, a men’s
magazine, in post-war Australia. While the notion of the “sleepy 1950s” has
implied a period of social conservatism and gender stability, the
representation of (and commentary on) men’s social, cultural and familial
worlds in Man tells a rather different story.
Summary of key points:
-
Man remained attached to a near-misogynist attitude
to women.
-
Man positioned its imagined reader as desperately
unhappy and frustrated by the confines of suburban life and marriage
-
Portrays Feminism as a threat
-
became another way to restrict the lives and choices
of women
Important Quotations:
“These years ‘bear a heavy metaphorical weight of contemporary sentiments
about gender, intolerance and national identity’; all too frequently, the 1950s
are depicted as the period of gender rigidity “before” the transformations of
the 1960s and 1970s” (152-153).
“Man’s representations of frustration and resentment about
male responsibilities were overt, as was the articulation of the desire to
be liberated from these burdens. However, the magazine also acknowledged
that fulfilling these desires wasvirtually impossible” (166).
Usefulness to our group topic or individual
project:
This
Magazine is helpful to our group or an individual project as it outlines the
concept of masculinity and disenfranchised men that were persuaded by these so
called ”threats”
from feminist. This is a beginning article in the outline of conflict between
masculinity and femininity.
No comments:
Post a Comment