The sexualization of masculinity: idealized representations in American physical culture magazines (1930s-1980s) and the possibility of a male homosocial continuum

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  • Okada Kei
    Kanto Gakuin University, School of International Studies, Department of Comparative Cultural Studies

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  • セクシュアリティ化される男性性の理想：1930―80年代の米国フィジカル・カルチャー雑誌における男性身体表象とホモソーシャル連続体
  • セクシュアリティカ サレル ダンセイセイ ノ リソウ : 1930-80ネンダイ ノ ベイコク フィジカル ・ カルチャー ザッシ ニ オケル ダンセイ シンタイ ヒョウショウ ト ホモソーシャル レンゾクタイ

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Abstract

 This study analyzed the momentum of the (hetero) sexualization of masculinity through physical culture magazines published during the 1930s-1980s in the United States, and also examined the social conditions caused by the corresponding changes. Since Foucault suggested the “repressive hypothesis” of sexuality, it has been widely recognized that, at some moment in modern history, same sex desire was identified as an inevitable identity, rather than just a deviant act, as considered previously.<br>  However, several recent studies have questioned this hypothesis as being oversimplified. By reviewing previous research, this study examined the momentum of segregation between hetero/homosexual desire, which was observed in the 1950s, i.e. much more recently than generally recognized, and the obvious hetero-sexualization of the masculine ideal, which occurred after the 1970s.<br>  The method employed was to compare 2 major physical culture magazines. To provide a contrasting perspective with regard to different sexuality, the first (famous) physique magazine, which began to be published in 1951 for potentially homosexual customers, was adopted to comparatively and diachronically examine the representation of male figures on the cover pages. This analysis revealed the following results:<br>  1. During the 1930s-1950s, the ideal of masculinity was not yet hetero-sexualized and exemplified a broad range of desire which was not yet segregated as hetero/homosexual.<br>  2. During the 1950s-1960s, physical culture magazines started to exclude non-heterosexual elements from their representations because of the risk that they could be potentially interpreted as homosexual.<br>  3. The rise of the sexual minority rights movement in and after the 1970s, and the 1980s AIDS panic promoted homosexual visibility and expedited homophobia as a form of counter-action. This advance caused rapid and obvious hetero-sexualization of mainstream physical culture media.<br>  In conclusion, the reason for the hetero-sexualization of physical culture magazines was a reaction to the increasing presence of homosexuals. It could be said that the rise of heterosexual self-consciousness itself was, to some extent, a counter to, and paradoxically caused by the creation and increasing awareness of homosexual identity. Moreover, these changes in the masculine ideal, and especially the examples before the 1950s, suggest the possibility of an ideal masculinity shared by hetero/homosexual males, which Sedgwick (1985) suggests is a homosocial continuum—namely, homosociality without discontinuity between homosocial and homosexual desire.<br>

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