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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION



1.1 GOALS OF THE WORK

The main goal of the project is to apply discourse analysis methods in examining popular culture youth media to:

1.2 IMPORTANCE OF THE TOPIC

The way in which certain groups in society are able to represent themselves in the media relates directly to their socio-economic and political position in society. Some have access to publishing and television production, others do not. Some can build networks to communicate to other members of the group, others are less succesful. Some get their voice and message out, some are silenced. The media conglomerates, and indirectly the advertisers, really are the power brokers in this process. It is important to understand how and whose knowledge, culture, and representation is allowed onto the market, and whose is not, so that we can learn how to assist those groups that are under-represented.

1.3 APPROACH TO THE TOPIC

The corporate world has institutionalised a ubiquitous and intense focus on eroticism in our society to secure economic growth. Cultural manifestation, rather than sexual activity alone, determines what we have come to understand as sexuality. However, a dominant white, middle class, hetero-normative ideology is firmly in place to regulate who is allowed to expose what to whom, when, and for which reasons. Some brands and media attempt to bend, or use, the rules by placing homo-erotic visuals and text in hetero-normative settings. Playing in and with that gray area seems to involve a degree of intended ambiguity or ‘fuzzyness’, as it is not possible for mainstream popular media to be explicitly gay within the current socio-political climate. The texts and images have to be polysemous in the sense that they must allow multiple interpretations, some of which must be plausible inside and some outside the dominant sexual norms of society.


1.4 DESCRIPTION OF THE CORPUS OF TEXTS

1.4.1. Overview

The corpus consists of a variety of texts and visuals from popular media such as magazines, advertising and websites. Most of the materials are aimed at youth (some gay, some straight, some for both), but comparisons are made with texts intended for the mainstream adult market. The corpus reflects a wide range of voices and opinions in the debate over sexuality, marketing and corporate exploitation. Some represent groups for ‘family values’, others the corporate legitimation of the advertising. Some are letters to the editors of magazines, others are letters from the editors. Some visuals are ads for major brands, other visuals show these very ads re-used by others to attack that very brand. All elements in the corpus have been chosen to represent one of the noticeable voices in society regarding topics of sexuality, youth, identity, normativity, marketing and new capitalism.

The most intensive analysis is directed towards materials from the gay youth magazine XY and from marketing efforts by clothing company Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F). The magazine and the clothing company are linked through the controversy over A&F’s strong sexually and homo-erotically oriented campaign, which, according to XY, targets young gay men while A&F in effect boycots their magazine when it comes to advertising. This ‘hypocrisy’, in the eyes of XY, as well as the nudity in A&F’s marketing campaign, have caused public debate over teenage sexuality, advertising, morality, and identification of young people with brand names.

Corpus material from both XY and A&F makes up the core of the corpus, together with texts from other sources which directly relate to the issue or either one of the organisations/publications. The core corpus consists of:

- texts and visuals from A&F Quarterly issues,
- texts and visuals from XY magazine issues,
- text from A&F's Annual Report for the year 2000,
- text from the American Decency Association's website,
- text and visual from a boy's personal website,
- text from an interview with an ex-Abercrombie sales representative,
- text from other youth magazines.

The materials listed above have been selected for this study after reviewing a much larger corpus of materials. Even though much of the material would be extremely interesting for analysis, the ones that eventually ended up in this paper do present and represent most saliently the issues I wanted to study. I visited dozens of websites and chatrooms related to the controversy, reviewed 8 A&F catalogs, 12 XY magazines, 3 A&F Annual Reports, and engaged in numerous discussions on issues of youth identity, popular culture, and sexuality. The results of preliminary work have been presented in a text-analysis workshop I led at the annual Lavender Languages conference (2002) at American University in Washington DC. As a result the organisers have asked me to organise a symposium for 2003 focussed on semiotics and multi-modal analysis, and I have pulled together a group of linguists, sociologists and anthopologists from this year's conference to start engaging with both issues of youth identity, sexuality, and popular culture and consumption, as well as the challenge of analysing an predominantly multi-modal heteroglossic corpus.

Even though the controversy around A&F and XY both sparked a limited public debate as well as prompted me to study the issue more, I considered it important to also look at texts from sources outside the core sources. To what extent is (youth) sexuality a topic, an issue, a marketing tool, in media produced for heterosexual or non-GLBTQ-identified youth? For straight adults? In fashion magazines? For the adult middle class gay market? And what about differences between material produced in the USA and other countries? Naturally I had suspicions that the role of popular media, their use of sexuality and eroticism, and issues of (youth) identity, form a rich area for investigation from a discourse perspective in texts outside the core corpus as well. To confirm some of these initial thoughts, as well as create some kind of comparison with the core material, a large number of texts have been included in a secondary corpus, which defines this broader discourse domain. In no way can I 'cover' the topic, or present a comprehensive overview or discussion of all media here, which would require a much larger study, at least the size of a dissertation. What I do want to do, however, is gain some insights that may lead to the right questions that need to be asked in a follow-up study.

For the seconday corpus, I have reviewed a much larger amount of material than what actually has been selected for inclusion in this paper. The examples in this paper have been selected for their salience in (re-) presenting the issues mentioned above. The sources consulted for this secondary corpus include:

GAY YOUTH MAGAZINES ('community based', non-commercial)
- EXSPRESZO (Netherlands)
- UITKOMST (Belgium, Flanders)

GAY GLOSSIES (commercial, middle class, gay adult market)
- SQUEEZE (Netherlands)
- OUT (USA)

TEEN MAGAZINES (commercial, middle class, heterosexual orientation)

- YM (USA, lifestyle & popular culture)
- POP STAR (USA, focus on pop music)
- TEEN BEAT (USA, focus on pop music and popular culture in general)
- DOLLY (USA, marketed to girls)
- CLEO (USA, marketed to girls and young women)
- TEEN PEOPLE (USA, lifestyle and popular culture)

LIFESTYLE/FASHION GLOSSIES (commercial, adult, non definite orientation)
- ARENA (United Kingdom)
- VOGUES HOMMES (France)
- MAN (Netherlands)

1.4.2 XY and A&F

XY Magazine


The first issue of XY was published in March 1996 by Peter Ian Cummings in San Francisco. Since then, 35 issues have been published and XY has grown from a miniature startup with minimal, local distribution, into a serious presence in the gay media market. The magazine is now sold in the major bookstore chains, but is still struggling under the refusal of virtually all major brands to advertise in a medium aimed at young gay men.

Most articles in each themed issue are submitted by boys and men within the official 12-29 year old target audience. Most of the topics center around issues of school, relationships, being gay, sexuality, popular culture, and coming out. The magazine is published on high quality glossy paper, in full color, and always carries a high percentage of visuals. Much of the visual material consists of fashion photography and the models are almost always boys and men within the target group. The tone of the texts, both written and visual, can be described as direct, frank, playful, and personal. It is important to note that issues of sexuality are discussed explicitly by the contributors, and a wide range of possible lifestyles and ways of sexual behavior are represented.



Key data

XY media limited
4104 24th Street #900
San Francisco, CA 94114

Publisher: Peter Ian Cummings
Assistant publisher: Brian Knecht
Distribution: Deyco
Frequency: monthly except January and August
Copies sold: 60.000
Readers: 200.000 per issue
Current newsstand price: USD 6.95
One year subscription (USA): USD 40
Availability in-store: USA, Canada, Western Europe


This is how XY magazine describes and presents itself on xy.com:


What is xy?


Recently celebrating our sixth year in print, we're published monthly (except January and August). XY is the third-largest gay magazine in the United States, and it sells off the newsstands faster than any other gay magazine in the world.

You can find XY on sale in Borders, Tower Records, Virgin Megastores, B. Dalton, Barnes & Noble, Waldenbooks, and many other newsstands and national chains. You can also order a subscription or XY merchandise online!

We sell over 60,000 copies per issue and have more than 200,000 readers from all over the world. Our average reader age is 22, according to our last reader survey, and XY is officially targeted toward 12-29yo young gay men.

Pick up your copy of XY today. Find out what all the fuss is about!

Dewd! I'm trying to get to my locker



ABERCROMBIE & FITCH (A&F QUARTERLY)

Abercrombie & Fitch is a clothing retailer with hundreds of stores in the United States, mainly targeting a teenage and adolescent market of middle class, white, suburban youth with casual wear. Since they adopted a new marketing campaign in 1998 sales have increased dramatically, and they succesfully shed their image of a rather conservative, dull brand. Prominent photographer Bruce Weber, famous for fashion photography and male nudes, shoots the art work for the catalog and advertising that is put out in the market.


Abercrombie about Abercrombie:

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. is a leading specialty retailer encompassing three concepts - Abercrombie & Fitch, abercrombie, and Hollister Co. The company focuses on providing high-quality merchandise that compliments the casual classic American lifestyle. The merchandise is sold in retail stores throughout the United States and through catalogs. It also operates an e-commerce website at www.abercrombie.com, a kids website at www.abercrombiekids.com, and publishes a magalog called the A&F Quarterly. Abercrombie & Fitch, which targets ages 18 through college, went public in October 1996 and spun-off from The Limited in May 1998. abercrombie kids (ages 7 – 14) was introduced in 1997. Their latest concept, Hollister Co. was introduced in July 2000, and targets 14 – 18 year olds.
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Key figures from A&F’s financial summary over the year 2000:
Net sales (thousands) : USD 1,237,604 (163,156 in 1994)
Net income (thousands) : USD 158,133 (8,251 in 1994)
Stores open : 354 (67 in 1994)
Associates (employees) : 13,900 (2,300 in 1994)

Abercrombie & Fitch Campus (Head Office)
6301 Fitch Path
New Albany, OH 43054, USA
________________________________________________________________

When the new marketing campaign started in 1998 to lead A&F towards a younger market and higher profitability, a catalog was published under the name 'A&F Quarterly'. Photographer Bruce Weber shot the pictures, which typically make up about half of each approximately 300 page issue. Most photographs depict young men, either alone or in groups, engaged in all kinds of social activities. In many cases they wear few clothes, and almost always reveal some or all of their naked bodies to the viewer. Other sections in the catalog include interviews with well-known people in society, letters to the editor, columns, and tips on music, books, games, etc. About a third of each issue is made up of a representation of the actual clothing which is for sale, and it is represented with captions describing the article and its price, but without actual models wearing them. The Quarterly started to include significantly more girls, also frequently in different stages of undress, when A&F started selling women's clothes in 1999. The catalog is sold in A&F stores, wrapped and upon proof of legal age (18), as well as through subscriptions.

Abercrombie about the A&F Quarterly:

More than just a catalog…the A&F Quarterly is our signature magazine offering great photos, clothing and editorial. Irreverent, unbiased and sexy, it includes celebrity profiles, travel, music, movies and books; all with our own unique take. With four great releases per year: Spring (February), Summer (April), Back to School (July) and Holiday (November).