Media as Global Change Agent

Research Review

Renegotiating male gender identity through advertising

By Josh Lee

Some social creativity is needed to survive in today’s globalized world. Our social identities are constantly being bombarded by the global media, making us compare ourselves with the “other” and looking at our own identities to renegotiate a positive sense of self. One area where this has become particularly salient is gender identity. Martha Wörsching explores this concept in her article, “Gender and images of nature and sport in British and German news magazines: the global and the national in images of advertising,” published in the International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics.

The global media can be a very positive force, bringing diverse points of view into our lives. However, uncertainty also arises amid this global marketplace of ideas. Who am I? Who is the “other?” How can I make myself more like them? By looking at two magazines, one British and one German, Wörsching has discovered the renegotiation of the male concept through the use of sports in advertising. For example, Der Spiegel, a magazine from Germany, once ran an advertisement for luxury watches featuring international tennis star Boris Becker. For males exposed to this marketing, this association with global forces (the internationally famous athlete) and elitism (the high-end watches) have created a refiguring of male identity as men increasingly become concerned with the need to “demonstrate their high social status” through “global domination.” Men have seen how global figures live their lives, felt uncertainty about their own, and have changed their social identity to fit that image, creatively constructing their own local identity.

Is this reconstruction a good thing? Wörsching shows concern about these possibly “hegemonic” forces coming to bear on the local. However, more important to think about is how this social creativity brought on by globalization has rocked people’s core sense of who they are, and now they have inevitably and permanently changed.