Ben Barry

Beyond the Tweet Using Twitter to Enhance Engagement, Learning, and Success Among First-Year Students

This study incorporated social media microblogging technology (Twitter) across disciplines to provide 411 first-year undergraduate students studying in large-classroom settings with opportunities to connect in real-time, both within and outside the classroom, with their professor, other students, and members of the professional community. This extension to the traditional teaching and learning environment gave students unique opportunities to enhance their university experience, both from engagement, learning and community-connectedness perspectives. Based on student outcomes and lessons learned, we provide educators with insights into the effective use of social media microblogging technology in a large-classroom format.

The fashion engagement grid: understanding men's responses to fashion advertising

This study examines how men who are interested in fashion interpret fashion advertisements. Data are garnered from interviews with adult men who regularly read fashion magazines and buy fashion clothing. Findings reveal that men process fashion advertisements through the same five modes as women. The current study also demonstrates that mens responses to fashion advertisements can be categorized through the Fashion Engagement Grid which examines mens characterizations of and motivations for fashion behavior. This study expands theoretical understandings of gender in advertising research and recommends advertising elements to attract male consumers.

Fashionably Fit: Young Men’s Dress Decisions and Appearance Anxieties

Abstract This article explores how men’s everyday dress practices and associated social media usage influence their thoughts and feelings about their bodies. Through interviews with 20 young men of diverse ethnicities, body shapes, and sexual orientations, findings reveal that young men’s engagement with fashion and social media merge to create a cultural climate of heightened body consciousness. Contemporary slim-fit clothing trends magnified men’s appearance fixations and incited body surveillance in compliance with conventions of male attractiveness. The proliferation of outfit posts and selfies on social networks have further caused appearance anxieties as Web 2.0 apps impelled participants to compare themselves against their peers. This study concludes that men’s body image pressures have only reinforced hegemonic masculine boundaries and the subsequent power for those who conform to them. Men with bodies that deviate from the appearance ideals experience daily anxiety because they perceive their bodies as culturally deficient.

Does my bottom line look big in this

Purpose – This paper discerns key fashion and beauty advertising strategies pertaining to model selection in order to best attract North American and Chinese women.Design/methodology/approach – Recommendations are based on survey and focus group research of over 3,500 Canadian, Chinese and American women between the ages of 14 and 65.Findings – Advertisers targeting North American women are advised to cast models who mirror the size, age and race traits of their target market. Conversely, advertisers targeting younger Chinese women are suggested to hire idealized Western models, whereas those targeting older women are advised to hire thin Chinese models. Exceptions and emerging trends are also discussed and subsequent management recommendations are made.Originality/value – This paper provides the first comprehensive managerial guidelines for model casting in fashion and beauty advertising that targets North American and Chinese women.

(Re)Fashioning Masculinity: Social Identity and Context in Men’s Hybrid Masculinities through Dress

Modern Western society has framed fashion in opposition to hegemonic masculinity. However, fashion functions as a principal means by which men’s visible gender identities are established as not only different from women but also from other men. This article draws on the concept of hybrid masculinities and on wardrobe interviews with Canadian men across social identities to explore how men enact masculinities through dress. I illustrate three ways men do hybrid masculinities by selecting, styling, and wearing clothing in their everyday lives. The differences between these three hybrid masculine configurations of practice are based on the extent to which men’s personal and professional social identities were associated with hegemonic masculine ideals as well as the extent to which those ideals shaped the settings in which they were situated. Although participants had different constellations of gender privilege, they all used dress to reinforce hegemonic masculinity, gain social advantages, and subsequently preserve the gender order. Failing to do so could put them personally and professionally at risk. My research nuances the hybrid masculinities framework by demonstrating how its enactment is shaped by the intersection between men’s social identities and social contexts.