The Ultimate Silver Lining: The Normalization of White Male Privilege Through the Guise of an Objective Body

Undergraduate Honors Thesis

Citations

Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/undergraduate_honors_theses/6969z1320

Abstract

This research looks to uncover the perpetuation of White masculine privilege through men’s health magazines. The cover stories from Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle and Fitness will be examine to reveal how White value systems and hegemonic masculinity are encouraged under supposedly objective lenses, specifically, the use of the body. Money, individualism, innate physicality, and examples of the nuclear family were some of the concepts used to code for whiteness. Concepts dealing with fatherhood, heteronormativity, and career uncovered examples of masculinity, where as strength, power, muscularity, and attractiveness lead to understanding the ideal male body. Through research grounded in whiteness, masculinity, and the body, I will examine how the body promoted in men’s health magazines serves a primary purpose of encouraging White privilege under the guise of pursing a fit body. By focusing on the oppressor’s role in social inequality, this research will expose the ways privilege is unknowingly perpetuated to prolong social injustices in the United States.

Creator