ADAM: The First South African Men’s Magazine and the Sex Appeal of the Flapper!

Abstract

ADAM: A Paper for Bachelors was published by the Central News Agency in Johannesburg from December 1920 to February 1922. The initial print run was 1 400 but by the third issue this had increased to 7 500. Although little is known about the target audience, from the content of the magazine and tone of voice of the editorial team it seems as though the intended readership was white, middle- and upper middle-class men living in Johannesburg, with a taste for entertainment that inculcates a certain Englishness. The magazine was edited by J.E. Cross, an Englishman who sailed to South Africa from London in 1915 at the age of 22 and presumably started ADAM at 27. This article is not about the readers or editors of ADAM. It is an analysis of the magazine and in particular the February 1921 issue as a sample of the magazine’s somewhat paradoxical gender politics. The article considers how ADAM employed the male gaze to gently undermine and ridicule the small steps being taken by women towards sexual liberation. I argue that while ADAM represents single women as independent, confident and modern, it also sexualises this ‘empowerment’ for a heterosexual, male audience. In particular, it uses subtle mockery to undermine whatever authority and agency women are afforded on its pages.