In the movie Friends with Benefits,
Justin Timberlake’s character Dylan works for GQ magazine. There is a particular scene in the movie
where Dylan has to make a decision to make Shaun White the cover of next
month’s issue or make it Barack Obama.
In this particular scene Dylan’s gay friend Tommy who also works at GQ
wants Dylan to pick Shaun White who should be on the cover. He states “choose Shaun, he’s stylish,
transcendent in sport and has an ass like a kumquat. ” Dylan responds to this
by saying that he has heard that Shaun is an asshole (he previously met him in
the film). Tommy shoots back at Dylan saying “no he’s not you’re just
threatened by him because he’s the greatest snow sport athlete in the universe
and get more squirrel then an oak tree.” He then proceeds to call out to Dylan
that “no one wants to fuck Obama.” While
this scene is known as comical it gives us insight to some aspects of men’s
magazines.
This scene relates to what we read in “The Role of Lad Magazines in
Priming Men’s Chronic and Temporary Appearance-Related Schemata: An
Investigation of Longitudinal and Experimental Findings.” In the reading it states that there are two
categories of messages for males in magazines.
One being women looking sexual and the other having information about
fashion, sex, technology and pop culture that are directed at men who want to
be in style. Like the article says, it has been found that men can be
associated with concerns about muscularity and fitness because of the themes
they have seen in men’s magazines. Also it has been studied that when men see
other models dressed in fine clothing with big muscles they have responded with
significantly lower-self esteem. The
overall theme of this reading is what is shown in men’s magazines, does have a
significant role in how men feel about their own confidence and their bodies.
We
see in this scene an act of priming.
Priming is when certain media content can activate cognitions that are
related to that particular media event in a short time period. Dylan being the
straight character chooses Obama for his cover choice because he instantly
feels threatened when he sees Shaun White.
Shaun White is known as a star athlete, has great clothes, and gets with
a lot of women. All of these aspects
make Dylan feel less confident for this brief moment causing him to choose
Obama. On the other hand, Tommy is gay
and wants Shaun to be on the cover because he does not feel threatened by
him. Shaun poses no threat to Tommy’s
ego because he does not have to compete with him for women.
I
think this poses a really interesting idea about men’s magazines in
general. You would think that men’s
magazines would want to leave their readers feeling confident. However, by showing strong good looking men,
and showing sexualized women like they do in the reading, it leaves men feeling
less confident about themselves and their bodies. When Tommy yells “no body
wants to fuck Obama” we laugh however no one points out that the magazine is
geared towards straight men and being attracted to the cover man isn’t the
goal. Without intending to this scene
shows us why some men might leave magazines feeling less confident and the types
of issues that cause this effect.
References
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