Masculinity, Sex and Popular Culture

1982年，当卡尔文·克莱因（Calvin Klein）推出他的男士内衣广告时，布鲁斯·韦伯（Bruce Weber）拍摄了一个肌肉男模特（前撑杆跳高运动员）只穿了一条y字胸裤的标志性形象，这张照片引起了轩然大波。展示在纽约25个公交候车亭的广告牌图像在第一天晚上全部被盗。三年后，蒂姆·里昂（Tim Lyon）为李维斯（Levi’s） 501牛仔裤做的广告中，模特尼克·卡门（Nick Kamen）在洗衣店里脱下衣服，只穿了一条平角短裤，同样引起了媒体的轰动，公众的反应在娱乐、兴奋和尴尬之间摇摆。从那时起，男性身体的性感表现成为广告活动成功的关键，也是两家公司（以及几家模仿者）营销策略的支柱。这些展现阳刚之气的图片开始在更广泛的文化中出现，当时被称为“身体意识”的东西越来越受欢迎，并成为一种主流兴趣。尽管如此，这些色情的，在某些情况下公开的同性恋，图像仍然是罕见的，事实上，它们的稀缺性是他们的震颤和吸引力的关键。如今，在21世纪，不到30年前相对不寻常的男性化性感形象，已经从边缘变成了媒体文化的主流。从八卦杂志到慈善日历，从流行视频到化妆品广告，从肥皂剧到真人秀，从好莱坞电影到网络色情，所有这些都例行公事地将男性和男子气概的形象作为性快感的邀请。曾经可能被描述为同性恋、色情或淫秽的图像现在经常出现在媒体产品中，并告知男性对自己身体的看法和在网上表现自己的方式。虽然这样的图像已经变得越来越普遍，21世纪媒体技术的快速变化意味着获得男性气质的性化表现变得越来越容易，但在这一领域的学术研究程度上仍然缺乏，或者至少是不一致的。在某种程度上，这与一种长期存在的尴尬有关，这种尴尬往往会使关于性材料的讨论蒙上阴影，尤其是那些代表男性的讨论。也有可能，这样的表述往往被认为意图如此明显，以至于不值得批判性地关注。这种缺失意味着，围绕男性气质不断演变的文化建构的重要问题，以及围绕所谓的文化“性化”的争论，仍然没有得到回答，这正是为什么这个话题至关重要，需要进行调查的原因。这个为期24个月的研究网络是由PI和CoI最近委托Routledge出版社编辑的系列丛书中出现的，它将汇集国际知名学者、早期职业研究人员、学术界以外的专家和评论员，探讨围绕当代男性气质性别化的辩论，并为后续研究制定议程。该网络将在三个欧洲城市组织三次会议，并在每个地点举办相关的公众参与活动。我们将建立一个网站，分享我们的研究成果并促进对话，我们将委托编写新的专著和编辑集，并将编写和出版一份关于男性性别化的报告，供文化产业、教育工作者、卫生专业人员、决策者和媒体使用。

When Calvin Klein launched his men's underwear campaign, in 1982, shot by Bruce Weber with the now iconic image of a muscular male model (and ex-pole vaulter) wearing nothing more than a pair of y-fronts he created a storm of publicity. The billboard images, displayed in 25 bus shelters in New York were all stolen in the first night. Three years later Tim Lyon's advert for Levi's 501 jeans featuring the model Nick Kamen stripping to his boxer shorts in a launderette was similarly met with a media furore and a public reception veering between amusement, excitement and embarrassment.Sexualised representations of the male body were to become key to the success of the advertising campaigns and pillars of the marketing strategies of both companies (and several imitators) from that moment onwards. These images presenting masculinity as sexual spectacle were beginning to emerge within a wider culture where, what was then described as, 'body consciousness' was gaining popularity and becoming a mainstream interest. Nonetheless, these eroticised, and in some cases overtly homoerotic, images were still something of a rarity, indeed their scarcity was key to their frisson and appeal.Now in the 21st century images of sexualised masculinity that were relatively unusual less than 30 years ago have become part and parcel of media culture from the margins to the mainstream. Gossip magazines to charity calendars, pop videos to cosmetics commercials, Soap Opera to Reality TV, Hollywood cinema to internet pornography all routinely present images of men and masculinity as invitations for sexual pleasure. Images that might once have been described variously as homoerotic, pornographic or obscene are now routinely deployed in media products and inform the way that men think of their bodies and represent themselves online. Whilst such images have become increasingly commonplace and the rapid shifts in media technologies that have taken place in the 21st century have meant that access to representations of sexualised of masculinity have become ever easier there remains a paucity, or at least an inconsistency, in the extent of scholarly research in this area. In part this is to do with a perennial embarrassment that can often overshadow the discussion of sexual materials more generally, especially those that represent men. It is also perhaps that such representations are often regarded as seeming so obvious in their intent that they are beneath critical attention. This absence has meant that important questions around the evolving cultural construction of masculinity, aligned to debates around the so called 'sexualisation' of culture remain unanswered and this is precisely why this topic is of crucial importance and needs to be investigated.This 24-month research network, emerging out of a recently commissioned Routledge book series edited by the PI and CoI, will bring together scholars of international standing, early career researchers and experts and commentators from outside of academia to explore the debates around the contemporary sexualisation of masculinity and to set an agenda for subsequent research. The network will organize three meetings across three European cities with an associated public engagement event at each site. We will develop a website to share the findings of our research and to foster dialogue, we will commission new monographs and an edited collection and will prepare and publish a report on sexualized masculinity that can be used by cultural industries, educators, health professionals, policy makers and the media.