Can I represent gender equality in a "masculine" theme?

This week I was intrigued by the study of a news room run by women. The study prompted me to think about what responsibilities I have as a lady in media. Currently I work as a designer for a local magazine Austere in which all our leadership is female and in a staff of 31, 22 of us are women. As a designer I am one of the last people to see the magazine before it is published and usually make final choices about what photo shoots we use and how we phrase ourselves.
I feel strongly that despite our small readership I have a responsibility to represent both gender and racial equality in our work. Recently the owners of the magazine decided that in order to bring more men into our audience we would feature a more masculine aesthetic in our upcoming issue, and exclusively write about men in our feature stories.
While everyone we have chosen to write about is undoubtably an interesting or inspiring individual and and all of our fashion and life articles are turning out gorgeous and interesting, something about this business is making me uneasy. I consider the magazines that inspire us are sometimes more directed towards men, for example Monster Children, an Australian skate magazine. I hesitate to pull this card on people whose style and creativity I admire, sometimes I see articles and features which lean towards sexualizing women in a way that I don't think is necessary for the aesthetic of the magazine and while These magazines are interesting and creative but I don't really see a positive gender stance.
This is not to stay that a publication has a responsibility to take a stance on gender issues or that it is inherently wrong to show some boob, but in many ways I feel that in the cause of our magazine, a magazine produced by intelligent and creative women we have a responsibility to represent women with a focus on gender equality.
So can we do this if we are making an issue of our magazine that features men. I think the answer is yes, but it is also a challenge. I think that we have already made a step in the right direction, all the men we have chosen to feature are talented and respectable people, and the aesthetic that we are creating while maybe masculine is not inherently male, our design strictly feature men, and we only are choosing content that shows women in the same "masculine" setting and framing as the men shown.
I don't think that I will really know if we are successful in this until it has been finished and I hope that cultural norms don't hold me back from presenting all people in my work in an empowering light.

Week 2 Reflection

In last weeks discussion I was a bit shocked by how many students were unaware of black face, its history and social connotation. I understand that some people are educated in conservative areas and are perhaps sheltered from some of the more negative aspect of American history, but I am surprised that so many people can make it more than halfway through their college education without being exposed it it.

The reactions from our class made me wonder what such a  lack of exposure to such an important example of minority stereotypes in media means in a broader context as well as what will result from when so many people who have been sheltered from this history are planning to become part of the media itself.

I would guess that such a situation will relate to more incidents (perhaps like the taiwanese advertisement we discussed) where people lack the sensitivity to avoid the stereotypes and images that were depicted when blackface was commonplace.

I also am concerned that such unawareness furthers these racial stereotypes. Right now I am also taking a class that studies african american film, and have been studying the way that african americans were represented in early film and media, with a special focus on the tom, coon, mammy, buck and mulatto characters that were most common. Learning about these stereotypes is making me increasingly aware that while they are less severe now, the media is in no way devoid of them.

My concern is that if people are not educated about the history and context of these characters, it becomes difficult if not impossible for them to asses films, television )and really any sort of media that depicts these stereotypes) and understand that much of todays media still propagates age old stereotypes and more than often misrepresents minorities in a negative and demeaning light.