Is everybody masculine? : A qualitative study on the construction of masculinity in the representation of heterosexual men in Attitude Magazine

For many gay men, media is a crucial component in the process of creating an identity and finding support and guidance. Studies show that gay men are the group in society most strongly effected by the representation in media of societal ideals, and more specifically print media. In the past, gay men have been subjected to heteronormative representations through media of what being a gay man entails, in which he was portrayed as feminine; a process which has lead some gay men to attempt to adhere to a stereotypically masculine identity in order to find a sense of belonging and connection to society. The heterosexual man became a guidepost in this process. Through hegemonic masculinity, the process became problematic as homosexuality was considered less masculine by default, and the gay men were stuck in an identity crisis based in gender-identification and a need to distance themselves from feminine ideals. The purpose of this study was to analyze the construction of masculinity through the representation of heterosexual males in a print media aimed at gay men. Through the work of Erving Goffman and Sut Jhally, a semiotic analysis of 94 images of heterosexual males in 11 issues from 2013 of Attitude Magazine were analyzed for signs of masculinity. The results showed that the heterosexual males portrayed in the magazine were represented as stereotypically masculine, where signs of femininity were subdued by the enforcement of a masculine code. The findings suggest that heterosexual masculinity has a place in gay media and can be problematic, but that the representations also allow for a certain degree of deviation from strict hegemonic masculinity.