title: Aging and masculinity: portrayals in men's magazines.
abstract: Textual and visual representations of age are instructive as they suggest ideals towards which individuals should strive and influence how we perceive age. The purpose of our study was to investigate textual and visual representations of later life in the advertisements and interest stories of six widely read North American male-oriented magazines (namely, Esquire, GQ, Maxim, Men's Health, Men's Journal, and Zoomer). Through a content analysis and a visual textual analysis, we examined how older men were depicted in the magazine images and accompanying texts. Our findings revealed that older men were largely absent, and when portrayed, were positively depicted as experienced and powerful celebrities or as healthy and happy unknown individuals. The magazine advertisements and interest stories collectively required individuals to engage in consumer culture in order to achieve age and masculinity ideals and stave off the transition from the Third Age to the Fourth Age. We consider our findings in relation to theorizing about ageism, age relations, the Third and Fourth Ages, and idealized aging masculinity.
authors.affiliation: School of Kinesiology, The University of British Columbia, 156-1924 West Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z2. Electronic address: laura.hurd.clarke@ubc.ca.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hurd Clarke
authors.affiliation: School of Kinesiology, The University of British Columbia, 156-1924 West Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z2. Electronic address: ericavbennett@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Erica V
authors.initials: EV
authors.lastname: Bennett
authors.affiliation: School of Kinesiology, The University of British Columbia, 156-1924 West Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z2. Electronic address: christopher.liu@live.ca.
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D063506:Ageism / Q000523:psychology; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D057228:Masculinity; D008402:Mass Media; D008571:Men / Q000523:psychology; D010465:Perception / Q000941:ethics; D010506:Periodicals as Topic
keywords: Age relations; Ageism; Content analysis; Masculinity; Media; Third and Fourth Ages