The sexuality in men's and women's magazines

Seksualnost je uvijek aktualna i zanimljiva tema, a posebno u današnjem društvu. Pogled znanstvenika koji su se njome bavili uglavnom se razlikuje u tome koju su količinu društvenog utjecaja pripisali konstrukciji spolnosti. Dakle, dio ih smatra da su seksualnost, spol i rod biološki determinirani, a dio da su kulturno determinirani. U ovom se radu pokušava usporediti način na koji muški i ženski časopis obrađuje teme spola i roda. Koliko su u njima prisutni i ponuđeni stereotipni prikazi muškosti i ženskosti? Stereotipe muškosti i ženskosti problematizira se u kontekstu tematike tekstova. Kao predmet analize izabran je ženski časopis Cosmopolitan, koji je najprodavaniji takav časopis u svijetu, i muški časopis FHM koji je bio jedan od rijetkih časopisa „muške“ tematike u Hrvatskoj. FHM je u Hrvatskoj prestao izlaziti 2011. godine. Zbog dostupnosti obrađeno je prvih šest brojeva oba časopisa iz 2009. godine. Analizom rezultata istraživanja zaključeno je da je u ženskom časopisu prisutan muški pogled i glas koji stvara konkurentsko ozračje među ženama fokusiranjem na izvanjski izgled. Muški časopisi ne opterećuju toliko svoje čitatelje izvanjskim izgledom muškaraca dok im je izvanjski izgled žena jedna od glavnih tema. Muški časopis više piše o raznim znanjima i informacijama iz svijeta, hobijima i zabavi, a ženski časopis se bavi vezama i odnosima, najčešće tjerajući ženu da se prilagodi muškarcu. Konačno, ženski časopis operira s rodnim stereotipima karakterističnim za tradicionalno društvo, pogotovo kada je riječ o prikazima suprotnog spola. Muškarci u ženskom časopisu su tako snažniji spol, zaštitnici. Prikazi spola kojem je časopis namijenjen osuvremenjen je i barem djelomično emancipiran od tradicionalnog stereotipa. Muški časopisi također operiraju s rodnim stereotipima karakterističnim za tradicionalno društvo pripisujući muškarcima interese poput automobila i sporta, dok ženskosti pristupaju isključivo s površne strane, vanjskog izgleda. :Sexuality is a subject that is always interesting, especially in today's society. Scientists that have studied sexuality can be divided in two groups: those who believe that sexuality is culturally determined and those who think it is biologically determined. This thesis tries to compare the manner in which men's and women's magazines talk about sex and gender. Will they offer stereotypical portrayals of masculinity and femininity? Content analysis of two Croatian magazines will reveal if these stereotypes exist. Women's magazine Cosmopolitan is chosen for this thesis because it is the top selling women's magazine in the world. The reason for choosing FHM magazine as an example of men's magazines, even though it is no longer published in Croatia, is that it was the only one that could be called the men's version of Cosmopolitan and it was one of the rare men's lifestyle magazines on the market. It stopped publishing in 2011. The thesis analyzes six issues of both magazines from the year 2009 because they were easy to acquire. Findings suggest that women's magazine has a male voice that pressures women to compete by focusing on their looks. Men's magazine also focuses on women's looks, making them a more important subject than men's looks. It has a bigger diversity of topics, such as hobbies, entertainment and all sorts of knowledge and new information while women's magazine talks about relationships, suggesting that the women should adapt to men. The conclusion reached in this thesis is that both magazines use traditional gender stereotypes, especially while describing the opposite sex, while having somewhat modern portrayals of the same sex. Women's magazines describe men stereotypically as the stronger sex, protectors of women. Men's magazines also use stereotypes, focusing on automobiles and sports as tipical male topics and ranking women based on their physical appearance