Masculinity, Sex and Popular Culture

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.

The scope and nature of the research that will emerge from this network is such that its impact will inevitably reach beyond academic circles, furthermore it is our intention for it to do so. The proposed plan of public engagement described in Pathways to Impact illustrates that we have considered a range of ways in which non-specialist audiences can engage with and benefit from the outcomes of the discussion of the network. Given the manifest focus on questions of sexuality, the meanings of masculinity in the contemporary moment, and the sexualised male body and the attendant wider social and cultural issues it is clear to see that our plans have the potential to provoke widespread public interest. Indeed, one of the key motivations for establishing this network is the desire (and the belief in the necessity) to initiate a wider and informed debate about the nature, status and function of sexual representation and the meanings of modern masculinity in this specific context.
The anticipated benefit of the activities of the network will be felt by five broad constituencies listed below and both the academic dissemination plans and the impact plans have been designed to encourage as wide participation as possible with these core groups in mind.
Policy Makers
The research that is at the heart of this project is concerned with questioning and reconceptualising the ways in which masculinity and men's bodies are sexualised within popular culture. There are a host of implications here for policy makers involved in health and well-being, including mental health. Recent reports indicate for example that instances of body dimorphism are on the rise amongst men, 'sexting' practices amongst young people has become a cause of public concern, the youth of dating apps has been connected to issues around sexual health and well-being.

Sexual Health/Sex Education Workers
The network considers the ways in which masculinity has become sexualised in mainstream media and this inevitably connects to the work of those involved in sexual health and specifically sex education not least because this is the kind of research that provides a platform for a discussion about issues relating to body image, sexual ethics, sex education and sexual objectification.

The ambition of scholars in the network is foster an informed debate and in the process to challenge some of the orthodoxies that underpin prevailing attitudes around sexualisation through a belief in the need for effective sex education. Therefore it would be our hope and our anticipation that the network will provoke a debate amongst both of the groups described above.

The Media
Media outlets will inevitably be attracted to research that has sexualised masculinity and as a focus and our plan is to actively encourage and capitalise on this kind of interest, which is often based on novelty value, to open up opportunities for a more considered, and necessary, debate. Network members recognise that the media play a central part not just in reporting on but in the construction of the models of sexualised masculinity that we are interested in exploring. It is to be anticipated that both mainstream news media will take an interest in this work. The report that will be produced as one of the outcomes of the network is especially envisioned with policy makers, sexual health workers, educators and media outlets in mind.

The General Public
The issues that underpin and motivate this network are ones that matter to the wider public. Concerns around sexualisation more generally and the role and function of modern masculinity often inform public debate and this research makes an intervention in this territory. The impact plan provides for opportunities for interested members of the general public to become involved in these discussions.