The_GQ_cover_face: It's a man's world._

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)

Until this issue, GQ’s tradition was to include men and only men on its front cover and to focus on their face, in order to subconsciously emphasize the idea of thought and to privilege the male mind, without paying much attention to men’s bodies and clothes. Up to 1995, not only more and more women started to appear on GQ’s cover, but also American actors outnumbered the British ones, adding an international prestige to the magazine. Amongst them, Clint Eastwood, Robin Williams, Michelle Pfeiffer, Drew Barrymore, Johhny Depp, Uma Therman and Meg Ryan clearly demonstrated that Hollywood started to play an important role in shaping overseas celebrity culture. It is also interesting to point out that during that period the first models started to appear on GQ’s cover. Away from its original placement within the marketplace, GQ repositioned itself. In April 1997, James Brown moved to GQ and his drastic influence became immediately obvious on the magazine’s covers that were released under his guidance. Not only more and more females, particularly models, started to appear on GQ’s front cover, but most noticeably the poses that these female adopted fetishized the female body in an almost pornographic way. 

left: Caprice (GQ, May 1997) & right: Emma Noble (GQ, December 1998)

From November 1999 to March 2002, and this time under Dylan Jones editorship, only women were featured on GQ’s front page. For 30 consecutive issues, exclusively female stars from several fields were placed on the magazine’s cover. It was during that period that GQ’s coverage clearly showed its preference to popular models, and especially the Victoria’s Secret ones. What Stephen Gundle calls, ‘the phenomenon of the supermodels’ (2008:362), which was particularly enhanced during the 1990s by Gianni Versace, was evidently reflected on GQ’s front cover. Liz Hurley, Eva Herzigova, Naomi Campbell, Heidy Klum and Claudia Schiffer became the idols of that era, not only in the United Kingdom, but on a global scale. Not so obvious from the first sight, this fascination with the female body and the fetishization of women as the object of the male desire conceals the deeper anxieties that haunt men’s psyche.

left: Naomi Campbell (GQ, Dec 1994) & right: Eva Hergicova (GQ, Dec 1995)

Until 2005 it had been pretty clear that GQ was trying to redefine men’s style and to become Vogue’s equivalent for menswear (Jones, 2000:6). From 2005 to 2008, men started gradually to appear again on GQ’s cover and, it was about that time that GQ established one of the its most high-esteemed traditions: the GQ Men of the Year Awards, which added a further prestige to the magazine’s status. Since then, a whole new attitude occurred in order to emphasize GQ’s role and significance in reconstructing modern Britain’s male imagery. Furthermore, from 2005 and onwards, female actresses started to replace models’ roles, not only on the front covers of men’s magazines, but also in fashion editorials and catwalk shows. Proving that they are not only good-looking, but they are talented too, Rachel Weisz, Angelina Jolie, Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Aniston and Jessica Alba are only among the numerous actresses that posed for GQ during that period, adopting not so provokingly sexy, but rather relaxed and unconventional postures.

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) 

In a total of 274 GQ issues, more than 130 actors and actresses have been placed on the magazine’s cover. Especially after 2009, the percentage corresponding to the actors and actresses who appeared on GQ’s covers is equal to 60% and demonstrates clearly how significant is the contribution of cinema in shaping contemporary celebrity culture. More importantly, international male movie stars, such as Johhny Depp, Russel Crowe, Robert Downey Junior, Michael Fassbender and Daniel Craig have been employed, by the magazine’s editors, in order to attract the much coveted ‘straight’ and ‘upmarket’ male audience (18 – 45 years old). It is no coincidence that ‘[these] cinematic celebrities can currently generate intense media interest and function as fashion icons [and role models] quite independently of their on-screen roles’ (Church Gibson, 2011:53). Hence, modern men not only try to emulate the styles of these celebrities, but they also identify, on their faces and meticulously structured bodies, the kind of man they want to become.

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.