ppriday

[ppriday]

Men’s Studies

Men’s studies is a comparatively new academic area of inquiry when compared to women’s studies and feminism. The publishing of Simone de Beauvoir’s seminal book The Second Sex in 1949 is often used to mark the start of second wave feminism. Its impact was immediate right there on page one in her famous and blistering opening sentence, “One is not born, but rather becomes a woman.

Men’s studies only started to come into focus three decades later in the 1980s with one of the key dates the publishing of R.W. Connell’s Masculinities in 1987.

So what are we to make of the time gap between them and why was de Beauvoir’s work so challenging?

de Beauvoir challenged the notion that sex and gender were universal and that men and women ‘inherited’ a natural order of gender that privileged men and subordinated women around the ‘nature’ versus ‘nurture’ debate.  De Beauvouir rattled the cage by acknowledging difference where gender could be considered to be individually constructed according to socio-cultural and economic circumstances.

The Victorian photograph shown here helps illustrate the universal, essentialist position. Male and female attributes are highlighted together with the social space they were expected to occupy. However, the male as breadwinner also controlled the domestic sphere (home). Herein lies the reason why it took time for men’s studies to be established. It wasn’t in men’s interest to challenge the status quo because they benefited from the essentialist argument enjoying what have been called ‘patriarchal dividends.’ They were in the dominant position and in control of social institutions like government, corporations, education, medical, legal and business corporations.

People are reluctant to consider changing power relationships which suit them and from which they enjoy social, economic and cultural benefits. But the gradual success of the feminist movement and the pressure it placed on men through such changes as the casualization and feminisation of work began to open up the need for inquiry.

But still there are those who cling to essentialist beliefs.  One of these is the anonymous Devil’s Advocate who responded to the Mumbrella article as follows:

‘Priday is a gender-studies post-graduate, in other word someone who’s spent the last four years being taught that all masculinity is evil and oppressive and that women are snowflakes that need our protection. It’s not a field of research and inquiry, but of political propaganda, the objective of which is to educates activists. So make no mistake, the conclusion was written years ago.’

These comments express a breadth of staggering ignorance haunted by conspiracy. Research post-graduate studies is not a period of ‘being taught’ but rather of discovery and research into new areas of inquiry. There is no agenda to present masculinity as evil and oppressive or that women are ‘snowflakes and in need of protection.’ And, it is a mistake to believe the conclusion was written years ago. This gender blind attitude is one of the main reasons men’s studies has gained momentum in recent years. I think the philosopher Karl Popper’s words best sum up the anonymous Devil’s Advocate: “True ignorance is not the absence of knowledge, but the refusal to acquire it.”

[ppriday]

9 January 2017 - Mumbrella

On January 9, Mumbrella published an article featuring my recently completed PhD thesis under the headline ‘Creative departments subordinate women, says researcher who spent six months inside two Sydney agencies.’ Advertising is a male institution, as I have confirmed, but this is not news to the advertising industry and to infer that creative departments take a universal position of subordinating women is misleading. The women I interviewed in Sydney, Delhi and Shanghai could all recall individual experiences of subordination but did not suggest they worked in creative departments where this was standard practice. Nevertheless, the gender imbalance in creative departments is something that the agencies who participated in my research are acutely aware of and are trying to find ways to correct. In fact, their awareness and concerns about gender issues were main reasons for supporting my research in the hope they learn and find ways to address them. Agencies and business in general are becoming proactive in this area. 

It is difficult to summarise a complex thesis in a few hundred word article and taking quotes out of context can lead to discrepancies and perceptions that are clearly misleading. For example, the article refers to Hailey, one of my female research respondents at M&C Saatchi, who recalled experiences with senior male creatives who avoided putting her work before clients and a creative director who commented that she would never earn as much money as him. This took place earlier in her career at another agency and had nothing to do with M&C Saatchi.

At both participating Sydney agencies it was clear that if creative work met the briefs and passed the internal reviews it would be presented to their clients whoever produced it: junior, senior, male, female. And, the idea that I ‘draw a picture of creative departments populated by arrogant male hipsters, being humoured by female account executives’ is inaccurate and misleading.

My project was a comparative study between three cultures: Anglo (Sydney), Indo (Delhi) and Sino (Shanghai) so extracting Sydney only content and comment limits the purpose and context in which the overall project was conducted. In any work environment gender relations involve various levels of power. Much as gender relations and issues of equality are receiving well deserved and overdue attention at the moment they were not the main focus of my study. This centred on the nature of creative work, the environment in which it is produced and the way it is used to build and present personal identity. It is also important to understand that the sample base included men and women. This is unusual in masculinity studies but I wanted the perspective of the juxtaposed opinions of the women who worked with the men.

The male centric nature of the industry is hardly news and the managements of both Sydney participating agencies expressed concerns about this and the frustrations they experience in trying to change things.

The Mumbrella article has prompted debate about an important issue and this is to be commended.

 Please see below for an explanation of my thesis: why and how I did it.

[ppriday]

Personal background

Like many of my generation, entry into advertising was via the mailing room and  I started at J.Walter Thompson in London in the mid-sixties before moving to Australia. I was fortunate to work at the Masius agency in Melbourne at a time when issues of originality and creativity were being seen as competitive advantages. During my time at Masius I worked with exceptional creative talents including the creative directors who went on to start the famous Campaign Palace and Peter Carey who went on to become a famous Australian writer. I became creative director of the Masius, Melbourne agency before becoming a foundation partner in my own agency, Begg Dow Priday. 

It was during my time in Melbourne that I acted as President of the Melbourne Art Directors Club expanding its activities into professional support and recognition of creativity in advertising. I opened the Begg Dow Priday office in Sydney in 1981. The agency later merged with J. Walter Thompson and I became the regional creative director in Australasia. During this time, 1984, I was Chairman of AWARD (Australian Writers and Art Directors) which was established along the lines of D&AD (Design and Art Direction) to represent, promote and recognise national and regional creative standards across all creative disciplines such as copywriting, art direction, photography, illustration, film production, graphic design etc. The AWARD School was launched in the same year with the express purpose of finding and training creative talent from any source. Both AWARD and AWARD School have become important Australian advertising institutions and continue to this day.

The next stage of my career has been consulting to both advertising agencies and advertisers. in 2002 I was invited to take up an adjunct role as a lecturer in the Discipline of Marketing at The University of Sydney. I have written and taught courses for undergraduates and postgraduates in creative communications and consumer behaviour whilst continuing with my consultancy practice. It was during this time I decided to embark on a PhD in gender and cultural studies at The University of Sydney which was completed and awarded in September 2016. The thesis: Obsession with Brilliance: Masculinities and creativity in transnational advertising is the foundation on which this blog is based.

[ppriday]

Introduction

After a long career as a creative director in transnational advertising agencies I undertook a PhD in Gender and Cultural studies at The University of Sydney. My thesis was accepted and the degree awarded in September 2016. The title of the thesis is: Obsession with Brilliance: Masculinities and creativity in transnational advertising agencies. 

The thesis is available on open access and has raised considerable debate around contentious issues such as the continued male dominance in advertising and gender relations. My research focused on the relationship between men and their work in the creative industries and how this is used to manage and construct individual identity. Fieldwork was conducted during 2014-15 in Sydney, Delhi and Shanghai.

This blog has been opened to provide a venue for comment, critique and continued conversation around masculinities, identity and the role of work in men’s lives.

Dr Paul Priday