| This content analysis investigated the portrayals of males within female-targeted publications (Better Homes and Gardens, Ladies' Home Journal, Vogue, and Seventeen) during a 20-year time span, investigating prominence, model type, depiction of the male as alone or with a female, occupational role portrayal, product type, decorative presentation function, and interactional role portrayal. These constructs also were investigated in one general-interest publication--Life--for comparison purposes.; Within the female-targeted publications, statistically significant differences were found between the decades studied, with 1978 representing one extreme in depictions, 1988 representing the opposite extreme, and 1998 seemingly representing a middle-ground. These differences were not found between the decades in the general-interest publication. Differences were also discovered between the female-targeted magazine titles investigated. A comparison of the depictions found in Life with those in the female-targeted magazines did reveal significant differences, suggesting that advertisers represented males differently in the female-targeted and general-interest publications. |
