The Sexualization of Masculinity: Representations of Ideal Masculinity in Physical Culture Magazines and the Possibility of a Male Homosocial Continuum

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26350796
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Sports science
• Research Institution: Kanto Gakuin University
• Principal Investigator: Okada Kei 関東学院大学, 国際文化学部, 教授 (90386657)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 男性性 / マスキュリニティ / マンリネス / ホモソーシャリティ / セクシュアリティ / 身体 / フィジカル・カルチャー

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The momentum of the (hetero)sexualization of masculinity was analyzed through physical culture magazines published from the 1930s-80s in the United States. The analysis revealed the following results: From the 1930s-50s, the ideal of masculinity was not yet hetero-sexualized and exemplified a broad range of desire which was not yet segregated as hetero/homosexual; From the 1950s-60s, PC magazines started to exclude non-heterosexual elements from their representations. The reason for the hetero-sexualization of PC magazines was a reaction to the increasing presence of homosexuals. It could be said that the rise of heterosexual self-consciousness itself was paradoxically caused by the creation and increasing awareness of homosexual identity. Moreover, these changes in the masculine ideal, and especially the examples before the 1950s, suggest the possibility of a homosocial continuum - namely, homosociality without discontinuity between homosocial and homosexual desire.

Free Research Field

スポーツ社会学