• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.460-468
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• 1998

The purpose of this study were 1) to identify the differences between homosexual and heterosexual men in clothing behaviors(fashion leadership, preference for up-to-date style and sexual attractiveness), lifestyle and sex-role attitudes, and 2) to investigate the relation- ships between clothing behaviors and lifestyle and sex-role attitudes. The data was collected via self-administered questionnaires from 183 adult men(88 homosexual, 95 heterosexual men) living in Seoul, and was analyzed by factor analysis, t-test, correlations and multiple regressions. The result of this study were as follows: 1. Two factors of fashion leadership. were identified: fashion opinion leadership and fashion innovativeness. Four factors of lifestyle were identified: appearance awareness, self-confidence, authoritativeness, and achievement. 2. The result of t-test between homosexual and heterosexual men in clothing behaviors and psychological characteristics, homosexual men showed higher scores in fashion innovativeness, fashion opinion leadership, preference for up-to-date style, and appearance awareness of lifestyle characteristics. 3. From the result of analyzing the effects of psychological characteristics on 4 variables of clothing behaviors, appearance awareness of lifestyle characteristics was found to be the most influential factor for all the clothing behavior variables in both groups.

• International Journal of Costume and Fashion
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.101-120
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• 2016

The primary purpose of this study is to explore the daily lives of gay men and assess their interests in fashion and appearance management with the goal of better understanding the roles or meanings of fashion in their lives. In-depth interview method was adopted and the responses were analyzed qualitatively. Six homosexual men were interviewed, and the outcome of each conversation was recorded and analyzed; each man had a different background and thus showed different behavioral patterns. The life patterns distinct to Korean gays, the importance the highly patriarchal society places on family lineage and mandatory military service, for example, were discussed. Even though the interviewees asserted that their interests in fashion is not related to their sexual orientation, fashion was utilized as a means of self-expression by these gay men.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.58 no.1
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• pp.43-67
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• 2012

My essay aims at illustrating Whitman's homosexual vision of utopia with a close reading of his representative homosexual text, Calamus. His expansive self is based upon his intimate contact with the world and is almost always drawn to a wider vision of community in which different individuals share the locus of commonness and reach beyond their empirical boundaries. While foregrounding the contingent and the singular, Whitman forges bonds with other people through a series of ecstatic moments that carry us into the public sphere and common interests. Contrary to the current Whitman studies, his homosexual text doesn't repress contingency in order to celebrate the universal, but fully develops the commensurability among diverse historical agents. Whitman knows well the social taboos and inhibitions at the time of national crisis and expansion, but keeps imagining the world where homosexuality plays a central and significant role in founding a democratic solidarity and achieving a desirable social structure. His ideal of America is not a deferred wish for the future, but a concrete vision that can be achieved here and now, realized by the spontaneous bonding and instant attraction among free men. Instead of interpreting history or suggesting practical alternatives, he keeps questioning the dominant ideologies and the given orders of social control, and suggests a free and open relationship among men where no exterior power or mediating other intervenes. His utopian vision is radical as well as ideal, in that it rejects the interventions of the power structure and its institutions and courageously inscribes his homosexuality in the process of writing about and reading his contemporary America. As a predecessor of a homosexual utopian vision of America, Whitman has inspired many later poets, showing a possibility of infusing a homosexual identity into a radical imaging of the nation and its future.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.62 no.6
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• pp.1-18
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• 2012

This study explores the clothing behavior of homosexual men for identity creation. Since homosexuality has been viewed in terms of immoral, medical or social problems, gay males have made efforts to construct presentational styles in order to hide or reveal their sexual identities. Kate Schofield and Ruth A. Schmidt found that there were three different layers of individual gay identity construction expressed in clothing: shared gay identity, tribal identity, and situational identity. Using their framework, 630 gay men's outfits found in the U.S drama 'Queer as folk' were analyzed, which dealt with the lives of a group of gay men living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Findings point that gay males use their clothing effectively to express their sexual identity. Firstly, they use certain fashion items as the signifier of homosexuality on a gay community level. They use their clothing to attract the sexual partners. On tribal identity level, diverse and fragmented styles could be shown besides the effeminate style. Homosexual men's clothing can be classified into the following four dominate styles: the drag look, the macho look, the androgynous look and conventional look. Findings also indicate that gay males make different clothing choices for different situations in order to blend into the heterosexual or homosexual society.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.327-338
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• 2001

The purpose of this thesis is to study the aspects of sex identity in the contemporary mens fashion expressed through sexual image and taste in the half of twentieth century. The aspects of sex identity expression in the contemporary mens fashion can be classified by image, that is, homosexual, heroic, bisexual, and fetish. 1. The homosexual image has shown the tendency to emphasize the masculinity since 1950.60s. It can be found in \"Cowboys costume\" which is typical of American traditional fashion, and jeans and underwear fashion expressed by muscular men has homosexual characteristics which contain narcissism. 2. Based on mens traditional gender role, the heroic image emphasizes mens physical characteristics and expresses tough and offensive masculine beauty in mens suit which is free from the authority and formality. 3. The bisexual image denied the division of gender role by costume and destroyed the traditional sex model by resolutely applying womens costume such as skirts to mens fashion. 4. The fetish image is similar to bisexual image in that they wear womens costume, but different in that it expresses sexual desire or fantasy. It is expressed through brilliant color, leather and metal ornaments, and sensual element of women which emphasizes \"body\". This shows the sex identity of contemporary men who want more sensible and free life.sible and free life.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.13 no.7
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• pp.80-90
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• 2013

Despite the growing popularity of gay consumers as a fetching niche market, there has been little academic attention paid to the homosexual themes in print media, especially compared to research on gender, race, and sex imagery in ads. The present study aims to fill this void by examining advertisements with three different target audiences(homosexual, metrosexual, retrosexual consumer) through a comparative analysis of contemporary magazine advertisements. In this present study, we analyzed ads in three leading men's magazines (Out, GQ, and Maxim). Product (product category, price, and luxury brand) and human model (basic descriptions, sexuality, status, and masculinity) characteristics in ads were analyzed as the variables signifying the degrees of gay themes in ads across three magazines. The results showed that more expensive luxury brands were placed in GQ and Out than Maxim, and more male models were under-sexualized in Maxim than GQ and Out.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.21-37
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• 2002

The third sex implying a mismatch between sex and gender has been regarded as an extreme socio-cultural violation. In its earlier version, such a violation was expressed by cross-dressing; Women's cross-dressing was thought to invoke eroticism, while men's cross-dressing was considered comic or delinquent. However, as feminism developed more with the homosexual identity expressed openly, the third sex began to be visual. Thus, in 1990's, some homosexual monies began to develop to be pluralized enough to suggest the third sex and thereby, change the negative sex into a positive one. In this study, such a pluralization is discussed in terms of invisibility, dichotomy and androgyny. The cross-dressing movies show females in male attire or males in female attire to reflect the third sex. The cross-dressing may be divided into men's playful cross-dressing, women's political cross-dressing and homosexuals'cross-dressing or 'drag'. Gender identity is not an attribute fixed by some physical characteristics, but it tends to be changed or expanded by some social factors over time. In short, it may be a flexible, plural, individual and self-introspective attribute. Movies present diverse types of gender identities, and in particular, the movie costumes specify them. In other words, the costumes may be model means expressing the gender identities, and the gender identities shown in the movies tend to be imitated, re-created or assumed by the audience.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.65 no.3
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• pp.47-61
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• 2015

Dress functions as a clear boundary between gender differences In the past. However dress in the 21st century, due to movement of feminism during the 1960's, advance of mass media and the influence of postmodernism, the boundary of gender differences has been blurred. Especially in men's fashion, where there was no little changes in traditional menswear, it is noteworthy that there appears some changes. The research about gender has developed to queer theory, subjected on gender itself, founded on the gender diversity. The purpose of the study is to conduct the implied meanings of dress in contemporary society, when gender diversity has been expressed in men's fashion, and to review the characteristics of contemporary men's fashion through the collections and advertisements of post 2000's as well as internet sites. This research is based on theory of Judith Butler, which is on the center of feminism and queer theory. Homosexual expressions which are presented in male clothing and advertisement produce rejection of the dichotomous view of gender concept and allowing of individual gender identity expression.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.203-218
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• 2007

The early eighteenth century witnessed the birth of homosexuality as an identity and the emergence of a homosexual subculture in Britain. The homosexual subculture revealed itself through identified walkways and parks, gestures by which men might signal their interests to each other, and meeting places called "molly houses" where homosexuals could gather in relative safety. As early as 1703 the homosexuals seem to have overrun London. Homosexuals in eighteenth-century Britain provides a figure on which a variety of social anxieties could be displaced. Homosexuality is partly sexual transgression; mostly, it represents a variety of class, national, political transgressions. The association of British homosexuality with the fashion for Italian tastes was commonplace, and the growth of homosexuality was regarded as the greatest threat to the glorious Britain by destroying all its masculine virtues. Homosexuality was widely believed to be particularly common among the aristocracy and to be symptomatic of the increasing depravity of that class. The radicals in eighteenth-century Britain did not hesitate to exploit the surge in homophobia. They identified aristocratic patronage as one of the aristocratic practices that encouraged homosexuality and thus stigmatized the sort of male bonding that helped sustain aristocratic hegemony.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.275-285
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• 2010

As we enter an era of emotional and endlessly competitive society, there has been a lot of changes happening to the styles and images of men, traditionally associated with strength and power. Today, the media is giving information on today's trendy men's styles and images to meet the growing demand by consumers, and giving appropriate gains in the process to all - both information providers and consumers. Generally speaking, the cover of a magazine represents the concept and image of the magazine. The cover model is closely tied with the symbolic image of the magazine, the current times, and what the general public wants. Therefore, research on the cover models of a lifestyle magazine has significance in that the current style trends will be able to be understood directly. The present research investigated the sexual images of men's magazine cover models. In carrying out the research, the sexual images were classified into the following: homosexual, cross sexual, metro sexual, and uber sexual. The research findings showed that uber sexual is the dominant sexual image in men's magazines in Korea, followed by metro sexual. In conclusion, the findings suggest an expansion of the traditional image of men, happening with the changes in traditional sex roles.