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Race to the Top

Masculinity, Sport, and Nature in German Magazine Advertising

Loughborough University, United Kingdom

This article focuses on the myth of hegemonic masculinity in the context of discourses of gender, sport, and nature in advertising, with reference to Der Spiegel, the leading German news magazine, and to Dav Panorama, the largest European mountaineering magazine. The article considers commodity advertisements that employ masculinist sports metaphors (in Der Spiegel) and contrasts them with others designed to sell a range of outdoor sports equipment and/or to promote the idea of sustainable human interaction with the natural environment (in Dav Panorama). Advertisements targeting affluent men are critically discussed, and the symbolic codes of masculinist aesthetics—visualizations of the desire to "conquer" all social constraint—are highlighted. Sports metaphors of all-out competition are compared with broader, less masculinist concepts of sport and nature to underline the ideological character of promotional constructs produced to exploit men's—and women's—fears of failing within a social and cultural order dominated by men.

Key Words: advertising • femininity • gender • Germany • masculinity • media • nature • popular culture • sport • sustainability

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Men and Masculinities, Vol. 10, No. 2, 197-221 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1097184X05284225


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This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Wörsching, M. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?