I guess that it was about time for a post like this. The following post is part of my essay ‘1988
– 2012: Contextualizing GQ’s
Cover Face; masculinity,
representation and male celebrity culture.’ for my 'Cinema,
Performativity and Gender: Globalisation,
Celebrity Culture And The Fashionable Image' module; and if this enormous title does not make any sense to you, don't worry, it does not make any sense to my either! Let's keep it simple and call this module - just - 'Celebrity Culture'. As you have probably already understood my fascination with 'Masculinity' continuous, and since i realized that not only GQ's articles and themes interest me, but also its men's fashion editorials catch more and more of my attention, i decided to examine how
the magazine's cover face developed through the years. I initially started reading the British GQ as part of my research for one of my former essays on Steve McQueen, and till then i have become a loyal reader. I will never forget the hours that i spent at the British Library carrying trolleys with loads of GQs, but i have to confess that it was a great research experience and a quite enjoyable one. For your information this essay got an A; and this is one more reason that i am proud of! Since a considerable part of my essay was dedicated to David Beckham, a special post will follow within the next few days. For those of you who are David's fans, please stay tuned!
Throughout
the 1980s, a considerable number of writers, described the shifts in men’s lives and behavior as a
‘crisis’ in masculinity; a ‘crisis’ that, according to them,
reflected the changes that happened in society in relation to: work,
education, parental authority, sexuality and representation (Mort,
1988; Rutherford, 1988; Whannel, 2002). However, there is also a
number of writers who support that ‘Masculinity is not in crisis,
and it is actually quite secure’ (Whannel, 2002:26; see also Edwards, 2006).
Based on Connell’s argument that ‘the term “crisis”
presupposes a coherent system of some kind, which is destroyed or
restored by the outcome of the crisis.’ (1995, cited in Edwards,
2006:17), this post will adopt the view that what constitutes a
‘crisis’ is not only unclear, but also that the word ‘crisis’
draws negative connotations and is generally related to a situation
(a ‘crisis’ in economy for example), rather than a procedure of
change, as with the case of masculinity.
Starting
in the mid to late 1980s, a series of ‘apparently unprecedented and
diverse developments’ (Edwards, 2011:48) took place in relation to
men’s appearances and men’s relationship to fashion and
consumption. Fashion designers showed a particular interest in
designing fashionable clothes for men and started to include menswear
in their catwalk shows. Moreover, the expansion of male-oriented
products, particularly in the field of cosmetics and grooming, made
men more conscious about themselves. Most importantly, the commercial
success of lifestyle magazines aimed directly at men as consumers,
along with the increase in the advertising of men’s products,
promoted ‘new ways of seeing and, [perhaps], new ways of being a
man.’ (Jackson et al., 2001:2) Among these magazines, GQ
(originally Gentlemen's
Quarterly)
was launched in order to become ‘the essential reading for a
particular kind of man – a lifestyle manual for the professional
who has achieved success with style’ (Daily
Telegraph,
1988 cited in Nixon, 2003:142) and managed within a few years to
establish its position as one of the most successful men’s
lifestyle magazines in the United Kingdom.
GQ
positioned
itself as a magazine that wanted to attract a more mature audience (25-45
years old): ‘a more serious minded, conservative [audience]’
(Nixon, 2003:159). In order to make this distinction clear, GQ
chose
the businessman and politician Michael Heseltine to be its first
cover face. According to Nixon (2003:159), ‘Heseltine represented
for GQ
both
a conservative version of “style” and – [most] importantly –
the centrality of success and the making of money.’ Under the first
issue’s titles: ‘Degrees of Style’ and ‘Speed and Danger in
St Moritz’, and especially under the cover’s story ‘Heseltine:
On the Road Back to Power with Britain’s Beautiful Bad Boy’,
several correlations can be drawn. The use of Heseltine made it clear
that GQ
will
be addressing men that could embody both taste and achievement.
Michael Heseltine (GQ, Dec/Jan 1988) |
From
1988 to July 1993, GQ
remained loyal to its initial position, featuring only males on its
front cover and having a certain preference to British actors,
businessmen and politicians. Up to the 1990s, it had become clear that the emergence of the UK
men’s magazine market not only offered new role models for the men
to follow and emulate, but also made it legitimate for men to look at
other men in a different, ‘homosocial’ way (Sedwick, 1985 and
1993). What was for years, almost exclusively, a privilege for women started
to attract men’s interest too. The timing was
right. On the one hand, men’s interest in their appearance had
become one of the most important issues for them, and, on the other
hand, there was a market full of products that wanted to ‘target
men as the wealthier gender and … to make money out of men’s
concerns with their appearance alongside women’s.’ (Edwards,
2011:50)
In
August 1993, Michael VerMeuler (GQ’s
creative director from April 1992 to December 1995) placed Sharon
Stone, the American actress and Basic
Instinct’s (Paul Verhoeven,
1992) leading star, on the cover of GQ
and,
since then, a new era for the magazine started. By using the title
‘Sharon Stone: Seriously Sexy’ and featuring Stone in a rather
sexy pose, wearing only a nude color gabardine that deliberately
revealed her shoulder, her breast heart-line and her leg, it became
clear that the magazine was moving towards a new direction, leaving
behind its established and secure practices.
left: Alan Rickam (GQ, July 1992) & right: Sharon Stone (GQ, August 1993) |
left: Caprice (GQ,
May 1997) & right: Emma Noble (GQ, December 1998)
|
left: Naomi Campbell (GQ, Dec 1994) & right: Eva Hergicova (GQ, Dec 1995) |
Continuing GQ’s
cover historical overview, there has been only three and a half years
left till the circulation of its most recent issue in April 2012.
Throughout these years, several comments can be made in order to
demonstrate the magazine’s current profile. First of all, an
apparent balance between males and females has occurred (either 6
male/6 female, or 5 male/7 female). Moreover, a certain tendency
towards hosting actors and actresses on the magazine’s cover can be
observed, underscoring, once again, the significance of cinema in
shaping modern celebrity culture and fashion taste. It is also worth
noticing that on July 2009, the fictional film character Brüno
and not the original actor of the
homonymous film (Brüno, Larry Charles,
2009), Sacha Baron Cohen, appeared on GQ’s
cover. Representing, what Chris Rojek
calls, a ‘celeactor’, and defines him as ‘a fictional character
who … becomes an institutionalised feature of popular culture.’
(2000:23), GQ’s
cover showed not only how a film character can become more important
than the actor himself, but also how
rational has become such a queer personality to appear on the front
cover of a straight men’s magazine.
left: Brüno (GQ, July 2009) & right: Jeniffer Aniston (GQ, December 2008) |
Throughout GQ’s
front cover overview several conclusions can be drawn, considering
not only how the face of the male celebrity has evolved from 1988 to
the present day, but, most importantly, how different patterns of
masculinity have developed during the last 24 years and how this
progress has been reflected on the magazine’s front page. Taking
into account only the men that appeared on GQ’s
cover, this post will conclude by making the following points.
Starting from the beginning, Michael Heseltine, GQ’s
first cover face, gave its place to David Bowie, who was replaced by
John Travolta, who few years later appeared on the same cover with
David Beckham, who was subsequently substituted by Brüno.
So close and, at
the same time, so distant these
random examples illustrate how ‘Masculinity is not an eternal and
static object; masculinities change over time and the boundaries of
masculinity are almost always the subject of redrawing, policing and
contestation’ (Whannel, 2002:29). From Heseltine, the businessman,
to Brüno,
the gay fictional movie character, there is a big
distance and it is precisely because of this that celebrity culture
can wield such power which blurs boundaries and brings these so
different and diverse personalities to the same level.