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From Manet to GQ: a critical investigation of ‘gentlemen’s pornography’
Dissertation (MA (Visual Arts))--University of Pretoria, 2003.
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| Format: | Thesis |
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University of Pretoria
2013
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| _version_ | 1867613533697474560 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author2 | Van Eeden, Jeanne |
| author_browse | Van Eeden, Jeanne |
| author_facet | Van Eeden, Jeanne |
| collection | Thesis |
| dc_rights_str_mv | © 2003, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. |
| description | Dissertation (MA (Visual Arts))--University of Pretoria, 2003. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/23114 |
| institution | University of Pretoria (South Africa) |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:37:39.871Z |
| license_str | Other — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository |
| publishDate | 2013 |
| publishDateRange | 2013 |
| publishDateSort | 2013 |
| publisher | University of Pretoria |
| publisherStr | University of Pretoria |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository |
| spelling | oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/23114 From Manet to GQ: a critical investigation of ‘gentlemen’s pornography’ Van Eeden, Jeanne upetd@ais.up.ac.za Du Preez, Amanda Viljoen, Estella Simulacra Female empowerment Authorship Aesthetic experience Cultivation Mechanisms of disguise Branding Aspirationa Tropes of violence and sex Fetish Objectification Subordination Gaze Obscene Erotic Representational discourse Gentlemen’s pornography Gq UCTD Dissertation (MA (Visual Arts))--University of Pretoria, 2003. This thesis offers a reading of GQ South Africa 2000, the first glossy men’s magazine to be launched in South Africa (in 2000). It traces the possible iconographical genealogy of glossy men’s magazines to canonical erotic artworks and examines the aesthetic conventions used by GQ to elevate its contents through an implied association with art. This thesis, furthermore, investigates the commonalities between GQ, a ‘mainstream’ publication, and ‘pornography’ (as defined by the United States Civil Rights Ordinance 1985). In this way, the fluid impermanence of ‘art’, ‘pornography’ and ‘popular culture’ as typologies is highlighted. The new taxonomy of ‘gentlemen’s pornography’ is introduced in order to counter the notion that material that has the gloss of ‘high culture’ and is deemed socially acceptable, cannot be pornographic. This thesis submits that a critical reading of glossy men’s magazines from an interdisciplinary perspective is imperative in order to reveal their ideological assumptions. The ideological position that informs this study is the radical feminist belief that pornography objectifies and subordinates women and is, therefore, harmful. The thesis is simultaneously grounded in the theoretical methodologies of visual culture and art history, and as such assumes the intonation of these disciplines. From a Postmodern point-of-view, popular visual culture not only wields power in terms of generalising (capitalist and sexist) western paradigms, but is also skilful at masking its significant influence in doing so. For this reason, this dissertation endeavours to raise a critical dialogue concerning the ideological ‘message’ of glossy men’s magazines. The sometimes antithetical nature of discourse critically centered on gender representation in visual culture may be attributed to the pervasiveness of familiar (and therefore seemingly harmless) female objectification in the popular media. This thesis examines the iconography of gendered stereotypes against the erotic/pornographic, high culture/low culture object/subject binaries, and, furthermore, situates these types in the wider dialectic of ‘obscene’ (off-scene) versus ‘acceptable’ culture. The glossy men’s magazines that form the interest of this study are a trade situated in the alliance of social elitism and representational control over the female body, and, thus, this thesis marks the point of intersection between consumer culture and the politics of display. Visual Arts unrestricted 2013-09-06T14:31:51Z 2004-03-12 2013-09-06T14:31:51Z 2003-05-08 2003 2004-03-12 Dissertation Viljoen, E 2003, From Manet to GQ: a critical investigation of ‘gentlemen’s pornography’, MA dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://hdl.handle.net/2263/23114 > http://hdl.handle.net/2263/23114 http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-03122004-082238/ © 2003, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf application/pdf application/pdf application/pdf application/pdf application/pdf application/pdf application/pdf application/pdf University of Pretoria |
| spellingShingle | Simulacra Female empowerment Authorship Aesthetic experience Cultivation Mechanisms of disguise Branding Aspirationa Tropes of violence and sex Fetish Objectification Subordination Gaze Obscene Erotic Representational discourse Gentlemen’s pornography Gq UCTD From Manet to GQ: a critical investigation of ‘gentlemen’s pornography’ |
| title | From Manet to GQ: a critical investigation of ‘gentlemen’s pornography’ |
| title_full | From Manet to GQ: a critical investigation of ‘gentlemen’s pornography’ |
| title_fullStr | From Manet to GQ: a critical investigation of ‘gentlemen’s pornography’ |
| title_full_unstemmed | From Manet to GQ: a critical investigation of ‘gentlemen’s pornography’ |
| title_short | From Manet to GQ: a critical investigation of ‘gentlemen’s pornography’ |
| title_sort | from manet to gq a critical investigation of gentlemen s pornography |
| topic | Simulacra Female empowerment Authorship Aesthetic experience Cultivation Mechanisms of disguise Branding Aspirationa Tropes of violence and sex Fetish Objectification Subordination Gaze Obscene Erotic Representational discourse Gentlemen’s pornography Gq UCTD |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/2263/23114 http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-03122004-082238/ |