A study of domestic violence and patriarchal ideologies in popular men’s magazines

This study examines the prevalence and nature of the portrayals of domestic violence in popular men’s magazines. The sample consists of 20 articles drawn from five popular men’s magazines. The small size of the available sample exemplifies that articles discussing domestic violence continue to be relatively uncommon. Through the qualitative method of continuous comparative analysis, this study identifies four common perspectives that are exhibited within articles on domestic violence: gender symmetry, feminist, GS-Neutral, and F-Neutral. The most common perspective, gender symmetry, was exhibited by 45% (9 of 20) of the articles, and is characterized by an ignorance of the context of domestic violence and a lack of criticism of the occurrence and handling of the issue. The second most common perspective, feminist, was exhibited by 25% (5 of 20) of the articles, and is identifiable by its fair discussion of the context and criticisms of domestic violence.