Marketing the new man warrants national attention
Sex sells, or so they say. But research shows that being bombarded with media images of the perfect model selling everything from sports cars to swimsuits may be taking its toll on the way men view their bodies. That?s right, men.
Jamie Farquhar, a fourth-year Mount Allison student from Charlottetown, PEI, examined how male models were presented in the advertisements of Sports Illustrated during the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, to present. And his findings suggest that media images of men encourage men to think differently about their bodies.
Jamie?s work is the first of its kind and has not only gained
him national media attention but also a chance to showcase his study ?Marketing
the new man: Changing the body from process to object? at the annual
conference of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP)
in Palm Springs California this January.
?Men are demonstrating increased dissatisfaction in their overall
appearance, but little research has been done to examine what has contributed
to these increases,? Jamie said.
He said his first step was to examine how male bodies are being presented
in the media. Past research has indicated that there are two ways to
conceptualize the body ? ?body-as-process? and ?body-as-object.?
His interest was in finding out if body presentation has changed from
?body-as-process? (emphasizing instrumental abilities) to
?body-as-object? (emphasizing aesthetic qualities).
?I created a way to measure changes in body presentation, and
applied this to male models in the advertisements of Sports Illustrated,
a popular weekly sports magazine read predominantly by men. I found
that since the 1970s, men have been presented more as ?body-as-object?:
models are more posed, more nude, more fragmented, less active, have
less direct eye gaze, and use the advertised item less.?
Jamie said these changes appear to map the increases in body dissatisfaction
among men, and may, therefore, contribute to these increases. His next
step will be examining the causal relationship between body presentation
and body dissatisfaction.
Jamie said while he suspected that there would be changes in the way
men?s bodies have been presented in the media, he was surprised
that there was such a steady trend from the 1970s to today, where the
male form is being presented more ?body-as-object?.
So what brought Jamie to this fascinating topic in the first place?
?I am very interested in the self, and self-evaluations. In particular,
I am interested in how we evaluate our physical appearance,? Jamie
said. ?When determining what area of this interest I wanted to
explore for my honors thesis, I had to address the gaps in previous
research. Since body image research has primarily focused on women,
my supervisor and I decided to address the body image concerns of men.?
Jamie said that no other study has examined body presentation in this
way. ?To my knowledge, this is the first study for either women
or men that has examined the proposed two ways the body can be presented/conceptualized
(body-as-object vs. body-as-process).?
With the SPSP conference right around the corner, Jamie is well aware
of the opportunity at hand.
?Having attended the conference last year in New Orleans as an
observer, I can say that the vast majority of presenters are at the
graduate and post-graduate level. For me to be presenting research completed
at an undergraduate level is thrilling,? Jamie said. ?I
am looking forward to discussing my research with students and professionals.
I hope that this will be a growing experience for me.?
Jamie?s research has been featured in news articles across the
country, including the Moncton Times and Transcript, the Telegraph Journal,
the Cape Breton Post, the Halifax Herald, the Ottawa Sun, and the Vancouver
Province. Mount Allison?s communications office has even received
an inquiry from Holland regarding Jamie?s research and he?s
very excited about the media attention.
?My primary goal, beyond successfully completing my research
and degree at Mount Allison, is to market myself to clinical graduate
programs. I hope that any attention I receive will highlight my research
abilities - so that I can successfully continue my education in psychology.?
Wanting to pursue a PhD in clinical psychology, Jamie is interested
in working with a large range of mental disorders, keeping a special
focus on eating disorders and other body image disturbances.
SPSP is the largest organization of personality and social psychologists
in the world and has the goal of generating and disseminating research
and Jamie is the first psychology student from Mount Allison to present
his research at this conference. The selection committee described Jamie?s
submission as ?interesting and worthwhile? and declared
that they were excited to have it on the program.
Jamie is one of 11 psychology students who will be completing an honours
thesis this academic year and will continue to work under the supervision
of Dr. Louise Wasylkiw.
