Abstract
This article examines the reconstruction of a virtual Israeli male fraternity in Israel's only men's lifestyle magazine, Blazer. Modeled after the global 'new lad' magazine format, the Blazer text engages its readers by forging a homosocial joking relationship. Focusing on a satire dedicated to Israel's Independence Day, this study delineates a series of parodic discursive practices employed by the narrators to deconstruct and appropriate traditional Zionist myths on which Israel was founded. The Blazer text thus mobilizes a key cultural trope known as the anti-freier frame (to avoid being a 'sucker'), implemented as a set of manipulations to outsmart the system. The Blazer text rearticulates the relationship between self and society based on a local version of the 'yuppie' value system. We argue that while this frame appears to reject collectivist values, it serves as a critical lens for connecting yuppie masculinity with its Sabra predecessor, thereby consolidating a modified form of national solidarity.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 42-65 |
Number of pages | 24 |
Journal | Israel Studies Review |
Volume | 30 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2015 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© Association for Israel Studies.
Keywords
- Freier
- Homosociality
- Israeli society
- Masculinity
- Men's magazines
- National solidarity
- Parody
- Yuppie