Roland Barthes - Theory of Enigma Codes

Texts operate through the creation of a series of mysteries/questions raised - enigma codes.

Readers respond by looking for solutions.

Enigma codes can be used to encourage greater engagement with a text or to get us to 'buy for answers'. 

- Hermeneutic code: story not fully explained, full truth avoided, keeps audience guessing till final scene when all is revealed.

-Proairetic code: action/event that indicates something else is going to happen. By witnessing this, audience can say what character will do/what will happen next.

David Gauntlet: Men's Magazines and Modern Male Identities 2002

Argues against the notion of men’s lifestyle magazines representing a reassertion of old fashioned masculine values, or a backlash against feminism.

Supports the idea that identities are fluid and found magazines offer readers an opportunity to ‘pick and mix’ from magazine advice

Media messages in the form of role models, directing men in constructing identities and lifestyles.

Identities are fluid and personal change is both possible and necessary.

Gauntlett considered the idea of manhood conveyed my men's lifestyle magazines, and whether these magazines are:

- simply mainstream vehicles for old fashioned attitudes

- soft porn pleasures

- offering new models of male identity to modern men

Across all the men's lifestyle magazines he studied, Men's Health is the only one to regularly feature semi-naked men, instead of women, on the cover. It is also the one which closely parallels women's lifestyle magazines! e.g.

- emphasis on body & appearance; including fitness, healthy eating and weight loss

- psychological strand including advice on positive thinking, improving self esteem & using mental techniques for success

- how to keep passion alive in a relationship and sex advice.

Gauntlett summarised that MH actually provides a clever 'masculine' packaging of everything women's magazines are expected to be about - looks, sex, relationships, diet, lifestyle, career, success.

The MH ideal he found to be supremely fit, good in bed, knowledgeable but above all, and most problematic, is the notion that the ideal MH man is everybody's ideal.

He suggests that men's magazines show men to be insecure and confused in the modern world seeking help and reassurance. 

'Laddish' tone used as a defensive shield: writers will anticipate that many men may reject serious articles on relationships, advice on sex, health and cooking, and so they present their pieces with humour, irony and laddishness. Gauntlett suggests this humour is a requirement - men's magazines could leave out coverage of sex & relationships but don't, so it could be argued that users do want articles on those things but don't want others to think that they do, or even don't want to think that they themselves want them. 

Robert Bly (1992) Mytho-poetic male

Pre-industrial man: violent when hunting, protectors, active role in nurturing male child (would train him to be a man), tests of endurance/strength/self reliance at adolescence. 

Post-industrial/modern man: refuses the male role of protector & hunter/gatherer, perhaps why man interested in violent, fast paced movies. 

Later, men expected to work & leave mother to bring up children, rites of passage/tests become binge drinking/drug use/losing virginity.

Problems with shame, no outlet to express frustration/confusion with role. Men's groups a safe place to do this. Bly suggests outside of civilization where men can re-establish 'male rhythm', express rage, reconnect with 'natural' male state. 

Connell might consider this 'protest masculinity': society has not provided men with the means to attract women and impress other men with wealth and status so they over-compensate with displays of toughness. 

Robert W. Connell/Raewyn Connell: Types of Masculinity

Born Robert W. Connell, Raewyn Connell is an Australian sociologist. Outside of Australia, she is best known for studies of the social construction of masculinity. 

• Hegemonic Masculinity: Male supremacy, power & authority, hetrosexuality, aggression, 'laddish' culture, can be macho & sexist, value physical strength, traditional role, can objectify women.

• Subordinate Masculinity: a masculinity associated with gay men who are stereotypically viewed as behaving differently to the expectations of the dominant hegemonic male.

• Marginalised Masculinity: labour market has meant they can no longer assume there will be jobs for them after school, leaving many with a crisis, sense of loss & disconnectedness. 

• Complicit Masculinity: a masculinity which new men, for example, might be said to adopt in taking on a shared role in the family.