Citation

Roberson J. Men Masc. 2005; 7(4): 365-384.

Affiliation

Oxford Brookes University.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1097184X03261260

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article focuses on the marketing of "genki" energy health drinks to consider the role of media representations in the every day construction of ideologies of masculinity in contemporary Japan. It is shown that advertisements for these drinks have employed two dominant sets of images of Japanese men and masculinity, portraying either work- and company-based needs for energy and mental acuity or the (masculine) physical strength needed to compete successfully, overcome obstacles, or defeat foes. It is argued that such advertisements have participated in the representational circumscription of the visual codes of masculinity in contemporary Japan, and through this representational regime have reflected and reproduced a dominant gender ideology that sanctions a powerful, corporatist, middle-class masculinity.