Preliminary Thesis: Retro sexuality is the new look.
I. 1st Supporting Point: Masculine grunge clothing
A. His clothes aren't well put together.
1. His GAP jeans are covered with dirt and look kind of worn out.
2. He looks like he has on work boots and has just finished a job.
B. Real men are work hard and take care of business.
II. 2nd Supporting Point: Confidence
A. A confident stance.
1. He's standing tall on his own.
2. The model is faced head on with his eyes on the audience.
B. Retro sexual men exude confidence.
III. 3rd Supporting Point: A strong facial expression
A. His face is looking at the audience.
1. He has uncut facial hair and his hair is ungroomed
2. He doesn't convey a smile nor a frown, his face is solid.
B. Mean need to portray a strong demeanor in order to be manly.
I like your thesis and agree that the GAP model's look is a bit of a retrosexual masculine look. You hit the nail on the head with the grunge look, which is very much 90s. The three supporing points are quite good: clothes(grunge), confidence(conveyed by his pose) and facial expression. But think a bit more about the last two points and consider what Bordo mentions about 'rocks' and 'leaners' and about 'men acting and women appearing.' Good job.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very well thought out thesis. your supporting points do show how the model is definitely confident and expresses masculinity, but I noticed you didn't talk about his posture which makes me wonder like Ms. B. whether the model portrays the leaner the rock or is he something in between.
ReplyDeleteMiss B, I am a little conflicted about the "leaners and rocks" and "men acting and women appearing" cause although the model looks to me as the rock type, he doesnt fit the acting role he seems like he invites the reader to admire him but not in the pretty leaner way. I'm still a little stuck with how to precieve it.
ReplyDeleteHey Tiffany,
ReplyDeleteMaybe your model and the advertisers are going in the direction of creating a new look all there own. Now and days regualr guys can fall into categories of "the rock" or "leaners" even when not modeling, but in 2010 guys are wearing all types of different looks regardless of the different characteristics they display. So maybe your model is the regular masculine guy but he s changing it up a bit and a new "swag" to his wardrobe. Also look at the brand gap is a friendly type of clothing line where as if it was something liek Hugo Boss the ad would be more harder and edgy.
Hey Tiffany,
ReplyDeleteI know this is late, but I think you dealt with this "leaner-yet-not-feminine" pose well in your paper. And I think Jason gave a some great advice :)