Class & Gender in Men's Clothing Advertisements

This paper will look at the upsurge in androgynous, non-traditional images of men in advertisements within a particular magazine. Specifically, it examines a number of ads from a recent issue of the upscale men's magazine Esquire. The focus of this paper is the function of the androgynous, less overtly masculine figures in the Esquire advertisements. Although the men featured in the Esquire ads were indeed non-stereotypical in looks, my question was whether the messages within the ads; the placement and role of women, the activities of the non-traditional-seeming men, adhered to the usual advertising template, making the less traditional, less overtly "macho" men in the ads merely new faces in an old production. Because the men pictured in the ads examined in this paper are not typical of other, less exclusive men's magazines, I also ask whether the differences in the Esquire ads serve to reinforce notions of class differences among readers of the magazine.

Because readers of high-end publications like Esquire tend to be educated, urban professionals, they are seen as less resistant to viewing men in non-traditional roles (Rohlinger 62). It would seem that, with this purportedly more tolerant view of men in non-traditional roles, a correspondingly tolerant view of women in non-traditional, less objectified roles would follow. Esquire then seems an ideal forum for challenging gender stereotypes within advertising. If, however, the Esquire advertisements merely show men who are, in appearance, less obviously masculine than men in traditional ads, but still presenting these non-stereotypical-appearing men in stereotypically "macho" situations that impart the same messages as advertisements in less exclusive men's publications, then the idea of educated, well-off men as more accepting of non-stereotypical representations of gender must come into question.