Media and Masculinity Essay Example for Free

Media and Masculinity Essay Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk memahami dan mendeskripsikan: (1) Konstruksi maskulinitas pada majalah laki-laki gaya hidup FHM. Tujuan tersebut dilengkapi dengan penjelasan realitas sosial yang melatarbelakangi hadirnya majalah laki-laki FHM (global dan lokal/Indonesia); (2) Konstruksi maskulinitas pembaca terkait dengan maskulinitas FHM. Penelitian ini menggunakan paradigma konstruktivis dengan kajian teoretis pada teori konstruksi sosial atas realitas (termasuk juga teori interaksionisme simbolik, dramaturgi dan semiotika), teori media massa dan konstruksi sosial, audiens dan pengkonstruksian makna, majalah laki-laki, dan teori-teori maskulinitas (jender). Penelitian dilakukan dengan menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif dengan menggunakan sasaran studi majalah FHM, pembaca FHM di kota Solo dan Yogya, reviu media (akses internet) serta buku-buku literatur. Reviu media serta buku-buku literatur tersebut dikaitkan dengan realitas sosial yang melatarbelakangi hadirnya majalah laki-laki gaya hidup secara umum di mana FHM merupakan salah satu diantaranya. Teknik sampling yang digunakan untuk studi majalah dan pembaca adalah purposive sampling. Untuk majalah, dilakukan dengan menggunakan teknik maximum variation terhadap rubrik-rubrik tetap yang menghadirkan maskulinitas yang kontradiktif dengan maskulinitas tradisional. Terbitan yang diperiksa adalah FHM edisi perdana (September 2003) s/d April 06. Hal ini dilakukan agar memperoleh gambaran variasi konstruksi maskulinitas yang secara konsisten disampaikan majalah melalui seluruh terbitannya. Setelah menemukan variasi maskulinitas tersebut peneliti membagi rubrik-rubrik tetap yang dimaksudkan ke dalam area-area maskulinitas yang mewakili mereka. Dalam masing-masing rubrik tetap, tidak  semua artikel yang ada sepanjang terbitan yang diteliti akan diambil. Tapi akan diambil artikel tertentu yang dianggap peneliti memiliki variasi ‘teks’ paling lengkap yang ditujukan untuk dapat membahas maskulinitas tertentu secara lebih komprehensif. Untuk pembaca dilakukan purposive sampling dengan kriteria pembaca yang membeli rutin majalah minimal telah membaca selama setahun serta masih berlangsung sampai dengan saat penelitian berlangsung. Pencarian pembaca ini dilakukan melalui milis fhmindonesia, agen-agen majalah dan informasi yang diperoleh dari teman. Pengumpulan data untuk studi majalah dilakukan dengan menggunakan teknik analisis media yaitu menggunakan analisis wacana yang difokuskan pada jender. Sementara itu pengumpulan data untuk studi pembaca dilakukan dengan menggunakan teknik wawancara mendalam dan pengamatan berperan pasif (observasi). Hasil-hasil penelitian dapat dikemukan sebagai berikut: (1) Studi terhadap majalah dan pembaca menunjukkan bahwa majalah laki-laki FHM menampilkan  progressive masculinity (androgyn). That is the masculinity which developes femininity. Yet this magazine still emphasizes the traditional masculinity. The finding which shows the masculinity proggressivity (androgyn) is: (a) Manly character â€Å"Metrosexual† (body image area); (b) â€Å"The equality pattern in the interpersonal relationship between man and women (interpersonal area); (c) The character â€Å"Emotional Man† (emotional area); (d) The character â€Å"FashionedTechno Masculinity† (intellectual area); (e) The character â€Å"Caring Man† in the sexual relationship affairs (sexual area); (f) The lost of man’s role as a breadwinner/a maker a living (functional area). The magazine presents the man’s image as â€Å"Single Blessedness Forever† owns a chance to wish of pleasure for himself and leads the exciting consumption activities; (g) The masculinity with the character â€Å"Social Butterfly† (pleasure area). (2) The progressive masculinity in the fixed rubric on sexual areas as mentioned above are also considered still emphasizing to the the traditional masculinity values: (a) Constructing manly/masculinity as a gender which is ‘having’ (‘to have’) relationship; (b) Constructing manly as a voyeur (a man obtains the sexual satisfaction from gazing woman’s sexual activities) and the texts of woman as a gazed object by man/male gazing. (3) FHM magazine is born in the middle of the rising of a new gender which is called â€Å"Metrosexual† (women-oriented man) as the influence of the success of global feminist movement. (4) Studies on the readers shows that they objectivate  the magazine’s masculinity. It means that readers accept the magazine progressive masculinity as an objective reality. The objectivation of magazine’s masculinity can not be separated from the individual masculinity experiences which are obtained through the socalization of family’s values, peer group, work surroundings, society dan the other media. This matter explains two issues: the first, the magazine’s masculinity objectivation by the readers are always negosiated by individual experiences. The second, magazine’s masculinities is not a new issues at all for the readers, but it is already observed in the daily life (peer group, work surroundings, general society) and the socialization of the other media, so, refer to that explanations the magazine functions is empahasizing the masculinity. Eventhough the magazine offers the new masculinity or the progressive masculinity at the same time, which looks contradictive against the traditional masculinity (which has been normalized), the interaction between the readers and the magazine is dynamic, a competition between push and pull. The interaction result is there is a push toward and a pulling the readers on masculinity which is offered by the magazine. (5) Studies on the readers also shows that readers objectivy traditional masculinity on sexual areas, which means that: (a) Manly/masculinity as a gender which is ‘having’ (‘to have’) relationship; (b) Manly as a voyeur (a man obtains the sexual satisfaction from gazing woman’s sexual activities) and the texts of woman as a gazed object by man/male gazing. (6) Masculinity is â€Å"a classed masculinity,† the objectivication toward the magazine’s masculinity can not happened absolutely because of the existence of some factors which are obstacles such as: economy, interest, necessity, job and marital status.

the status of ancient egyptian women :: essays research papers

The Status of Women in Ancient Egyptian Society Unlike the position of women in most other ancient civilizations, including that of Greece, the Egyptian woman seems to have enjoyed the same legal and economic rights as the Egyptian man-- at least in theory. This notion is reflected in Egyptian art and historical inscriptions. It is uncertain why these rights existed for the woman in Egypt but no where else in the ancient world. It may well be that such rights were ultimately related to the theoretical role of the king in Egyptian society. If the pharaoh was the personification of Egypt, and he represented the corporate personality of the Egyptian state, then men and women might not have been seen in their familiar relationships, but rather, only in regard to this royal center of society. Since Egyptian national identity would have derived from all people sharing a common relationship with the king, then in this relationship, which all men and women shared equally, they were--in a sense--equal to each other. This is not to say that Egypt was an egalitarian society. It was not. Legal distinctions in Egypt were apparently based much more upon differences in the social classes, rather than differences in gender. Rights and privileges were not uniform from one class to another, but within the given classes, it seems that equal economic and legal rights were, for the most part, accorded to both men and women. Most of the textual and archaeological evidence for the role of women that survives from prior to the New Kingdom pertains to the elite, not the common folk. At this time, it is the elite, for the most part, who leave written records or who can afford tombs that contain such records. However, from the New Kingdom onward, and certainly by the Ptolemaic Period, such evidence pertains more and more to the non-elite, i.e., to women of the middle and lower classes. Actually, the bulk of the evidence for the economic freedom of Egyptian women derives from the Ptolemaic Period. The Greek domination of Egypt, which began with the conquest of Alexander the Great in 332 B.C., did not sweep away Egyptian social and political institutions. Both Egyptian and Greek systems of law and social traditions existed side-by-side in Egypt at that time. Greeks functioned within their system and Egyptians within theirs. Mixed parties of Greeks and Egyptians making contractual agreements or who were forced i nto court over legal disputes would choose which of the two legal systems in which they would base their settlements.

Coffee †Starbucks Essay

Starbucks is a premium coffee wholesaler which has strayed from its original service of coffee. The advent of newer technology has diminished the Starbucks experience. Howard Schultz, Starbucks chairmen, sent a memo on February 14, 2007 addressing this problem to the president and chief executive officer of Starbucks, Jim Donald. In the memo, Schultz voiced his opinion on how the rapid expansion of Starbucks is causing him to revaluate the company’s values between how it operated when it began and where it is heading in the future. Starbucks isn’t the same neighborhood store as it was when it was established and no longer shows the passion for coffee that they had in the beginning. â€Å"I have said for 20 years that our success is not an entitlement and now it’s proving to be a reality. Let’s be smarter about how we are spending our time, money and resources. Let’s get back to the core† (Schultz). Along with its expansion, Starbucks has been trying to utilize new technologies to improve the product they sell to consumers. Starbucks changed their espresso machines from manual to automatic to speed up service and efficiency. These machines â€Å"blocked the visual sight line the customer previously had to watch the drink being made, and for the intimate experience with the barista† (Schultz). People no longer have that intimate connection with the people making their coffee, or to the finished product. The employees are also more disassociated from their work because of these new machines that speed up production. Starbucks also incorporated flavor-locked packaging to supply the demand for fresh roasted coffee. This is a great service to the customer because it keeps coffee grounds or beans fresher longer, yet the effectiveness of the flavor-locked bags contributed to the loss of aroma, â€Å"perhaps the most powerful non-verbal signal†, in Starbucks (Schultz). The romance of Starbucks is lost with these improvements and the unforgettable scent is lessened along with its heritage. Starbucks is still a coffee-loving company, and consumers are still receiving the coffee delicacies they want, but at what cost to tradition. https://sites. google. com/site/hollymadalyn/writing/Starbucks-Research-paper SYNOPSIS Starbucks Corporation, originally founded in 1971, but purchased by Howard Schultz in 1987, is the market leader in selling gourmet coffee (Starbucks, 2008). Starbuck’s main objective is to establish itself as the most respected and recognized coffee brand in the world (Fact Sheet, 2008). Starbucks has accomplished this objective and experienced much success through their competitive strategy of clustering several stores within the same community and through their distinctive competencies of roasting and selling the quality coffee while providing high quality customer service. The question is, can Starbucks continue their market share growth with rising competitors? Should they focus more on their international operations? Can they continually reinvent themselves to maintain their strong brand image in the long run? PROBLEMS. †¢ Overall economic downturn can affect Starbucks’ market share if management neglects to address competitors’ strategies with lower priced offerings as consumers are becoming more conservative in spending their discretionary income. †¢ Loss of identity and authenticity focused upon the foundational Starbucks experience, which, if unaddressed by management, can result in dissatisfied customers, loss of sales, and decreased market share. †¢ Considering the economy and increasing domestic competition within the U. S. , Starbucks must address their less profitable international operations. SWOT ANALYSIS[1] INDUSTRY EVALUATION In the past two decades, the coffee industry has experienced a significant increase in the demand for premium coffee. Today, about one in five Americans drinks some type of espresso-based coffee drink each day. The average yearly coffee consumption per capita in the U. S. is around 4. 4Kg. Among these coffee drinkers, the average consumption is 3. 1 cups of coffee per day, with men drinking approximately 1. 9 cups per day, and women drinking an average of 1. 4 cups per day (Coffee Research†¦ [continues].

Alice Meynells Classic Essay By the Railway Side

Though born in London, poet, suffragette, critic and essayist ​Alice Meynell  (1847-1922) spent most of her childhood in Italy, the setting for this short travel essay, By the Railway Side. Originally published in The Rhythm of Life and Other Essays (1893), By the Railway Side contains a powerful vignette. In an article titled The Railway Passenger; or, The Training of the Eye, Ana Parejo Vadillo and John Plunkett interpret Meynells brief ​descriptive narrative as an attempt to get rid of what one may call the passengers guilt -- or the transformation of someone elses drama into a spectacle, and the guilt of the passenger as he or she takes the position of the audience, not oblivious to the fact that what is happening is real but both unable and unwilling to act on it (The Railway and Modernity: Time, Space, and the Machine Ensemble, 2007). By the Railway Side by Alice Meynell My train drew near to the Via Reggio platform on a day between two of the harvests of a hot September; the sea was burning blue, and there were a sombreness and a gravity in the very excesses of the sun as his fires brooded deeply over the serried, hardy, shabby, seaside ilex-woods. I had come out of Tuscany and was on my way to the Genovesato: the steep country with its profiles, bay by bay, of successive mountains grey with olive-trees, between the flashes of the Mediterranean and the sky; the country through the which there sounds the twanging Genoese language, a thin Italian mingled with a little Arabic, more Portuguese, and much French. I was regretful at leaving the elastic Tuscan speech, canorous in its vowels set in emphatic Ls and ms and the vigorous soft spring of the double consonants. But as the train arrived its noises were drowned by a voice declaiming in the tongue I was not to hear again for months--good Italian. The voice was so loud that one looked for the audience: Whose ears was it seeking to reach by the violence done to every syllable, and whose feelings would it touch by its insincerity? The tones were insincere, but there was passion behind them; and most often passion acts its own true character poorly, and consciously enough to make good judges think it a mere counterfeit. Hamlet, being a little mad, feigned madness. It is when I am angry that I pretend to be angry, so as to present the truth in an obvious and intelligible form. Thus even before the words were distinguishable it was manifest that they were spoken by a man in serious trouble who had false ideas as to what is convincing in elocution. When the voice became audibly articulate, it proved to be shouting blasphemies from the broad chest of a middle-aged man--an Italian of the type that grows stout and wears whiskers. The man was in bourgeois dress, and he stood with his hat off in front of the small station building, shaking his thick fist at the sky. No one was on the platform with him except the railway officials, who seemed in doubt as to their duties in the matter, and two women. Of one of these there was nothing to remark except her distress. She wept as she stood at the door of the waiting-room. Like the second woman, she wore the dress of the shopkeeping class throughout Europe, with the local black lace veil in place of a bonnet over her hair. It is of the second woman--O unfortunate creature!--that this record is made--a record without sequel, without consequence; but there is nothing to be done in her regard except so to remember her. And thus much I think I owe after having looked, from the midst of the neg ative happiness that is given to so many for a space of years, at some minutes of her despair. She was hanging on the mans arm in her entreaties that he would stop the drama he was enacting. She had wept so hard that her face was disfigured. Across her nose was the dark purple that comes with overpowering fear. Haydon saw it on the face of a woman whose child had just been run over in a London street. I remembered the note in his journal as the woman at Via Reggio, in her intolerable hour, turned her head my way, her sobs lifting it. She was afraid that the man would throw himself under the train. She was afraid that he would be damned for his blasphemies; and as to this her fear was mortal fear. It was horrible, too, that she was humpbacked and a dwarf. Not until the train drew away from the station did we lose the clamour. No one had tried to silence the man or to soothe the womans horror. But has any one who saw it forgotten her face? To me for the rest of the day it was a sensible rather than a merely mental image. Constantly a red blur rose before my eyes for a background, and against it appeared the dwarfs head, lifted with sobs, under the provincial black lace veil. And at night what emphasis it gained on the boundaries of sleep! Close to my hotel there was a roofless theatre crammed with people, where they were giving Offenbach. The operas of Offenbach still exist in Italy, and the little town was placarded with announcements of La Bella Elena. The peculiar vulgar rhythm of the music jigged audibly through half the hot night, and the clapping of the towns-folk filled all its pauses. But the persistent noise did but accompany, for me, the persistent vision of those three figures at the Via Reggio station in the profound sunshi ne of the day.