ABSTRACT
There is a common thread running through the representation of masculinity in advertisements of the Putin era that of the Russian male as super-hero. This heroic representation of masculinity is designed to reassure the male subject that the consumer is not necessarily any less master of the object world' than the producer. Homo consumens may be just as authentic and enjoy just as much inner freedom' in the shape of sexual appeal and social status as homo faber. The hegemonic masculinity on display in the Dodge advertisement, with its emphasis on peak physical fitness, can also be traced back to the Soviet era, to Soviet ideology and in particular to Soviet iconography. The concept of the gaze comes from psychoanalysis. For Lacan, the gaze plays a fundamental role in the formation of the subject, alongside the process of language acquisition. The first to apply this concept to visual culture was Laura Mulvey.
