The growing commercial value of the male body: A longitudinal survey of advertising in women's magazines

Background: With the advances of feminism, men have gradually relinquished their once-exclusive 'masculine' roles as fighters and breadwinners. In res ponse to this change, the male body may have gained in relative importance as one of the few surviving marks of masculinity. We hypothesized that thes e trends might be quantified by using a commercial measure such as advertis ing. Methods: We examined the proportion of exposed male and female bodies portrayed in advertisements between 1958 and 1998 in two leading American w omen's magazines. Results: In both magazines, the proportion of undressed w omen in the advertisements has changed little over the last 40 years, where as the proportion of undressed men has increased dramatically, especially s ince the early 1980s. Conclusions: Trends in commercial advertising offer t entative support for the hypothesis that the male body is increasing in imp ortance as a mark of masculinity - at least as judged from the actions of a dvertisers seeking to influence women's attitudes. Copyright (C) 2001 S. Ka rger AG. Basel.