my findings on the front cover of men's health magazine

·         NEW MALE SENSITIVITY

There was no new male sensitivity, mainly because it was the ‘Hardcore’ issue

·         QUICK FIX PROBLEM SOLVING  

Lots of quick fix problem solving mainly with to do with muscles, weight and manly issues e.g.:

Reboot your liver in 24 hours

Swap fat for abs!

23 ways to live 20 years longer

Ditch your love handles

The hot dog that burns fat

·         MALE SUPERIORITY / MANIPULATION

The front cover shows with its headlines and titles ‘hardcore’ the magazines is all about being strong and fit, with a muscly, dominant male fighter on the front.

It talks and has a focus on sex and organisms as being powerful ‘ Fight cancer with sex’.

·         MALE  NARCISSISM AND ANXIETY

There are headlines representing male narcissism and anxiety such as:

Fight cancer with sex

Is the recession harming you?

The main colours of the magazine are primary colours – blue, red, yellow with black as well these colours are very bold, standing out and catching the readers eye immediately. They’re manly colours only a slight bit of pink nothing to girly that would put the target reader off.

The print of the front cover is all in bold classic front no fancy curls; it is quite plane which makes the front cover uncomplicated like most men see themselves. The print is all in capitals and the fact it is also bold makes it seem as if the words are shouting at you, showing a strong powerful side to the magazine.

The magazine could be described as punchy. The headlines are punchy being short but sweet sentences that stand out with there bold font and colours ‘SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK’. The cover picture is also punchy, it’s a boxer punching with cracked glass by his hand. The picture on the cover is black and white, this is to show the target readers that the picture is more maniacal showing the structure of muscles not sexual having his top of.

There is a lot of male dominant words such as fight, master, hardcore, build, survive and power. This is very confident, strong language which reflects the stereotypical ideal man being strong and confident.   

There is a lot of use of statistics using numbers to entice the readers. It gives the readers the impression that everything is measurable and makes them think it is factual and therefore more true. This magazine used headlines such as ‘BLITZ 1.200kcal IN JUST 1 HOUR!. 

Butler - Madonna and Lady Gaga

Judith Butler is a theorist that argues gender is performed and not natural; it is learned and performed ‘Gender Trouble’ but a subversive act. Some say Madonna is seen as an icon of gender trouble performing gender and sexuality in her music videos and concerts, but is she just a product of the media machine? More currently Lady Gaga could conform to Butler’s theory with dressing differently to other celebrities such as a boy at music awards and wearing a dress made out of meat.

Lady Gaga has been known for saying Madonna is and role model and icon for her. However they've recently had a well known argument that has been in the media. Lady Gaga refused to perform in one of Madonna's concerts and Madonna retaliated and made a shout out in one of her shows to Lady Gaga starting the media argument. 

Fish Tank and Wasp article

This is a great link to an article on recent films we have watch in Media reflecting collective identity. 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/aug/23/andrea-arnold-fish-tank-cannes

The role of women in fairy liquid adverts

This range of Fairy Liquid adverts show the typical role of women in the 20th Century being a house wife. All these adverts for washing up liquid revolve around mother figures based in the kitchen always looking after their young. In these adverts the children are mostly always young girls, this shows they are learning from there role model (there mother) and trained almost into what is the role of a women.

There is no male figures in these Fairy Liquid adverts, implying they are of at work bringing the money in the for the family while the women stays at home and keeps the house and children under order. This shows very semitropical roles of male and female. 

The direct audience for these adverts are to women (mothers) and they stress the point of having very 'soft hands'. This gives the impression that it will almost make you look beautiful and attractive like the women in the adverts. 

Semiotics in the opening scene of pride and prejudice

In the opening scene of Pride and Prejudice you see horses feet, galloping strong and kicking up and wrecking the ground around them, this shows power and importance because they has mere disregard fort eh earth around them. The two men riding the horses are Mr Bingley and Mr Darcy the horses feet kicking up the ground strongly represents the how these two men are stirring up trouble in this quite if so boring new town in which they have arrived. The trouble and influence they cause is within the Bennet family regarding the Bennet sisters.

Mr. Bingley is riding a white horse showing purity and innocent, this could be a reflection of his character and personality with him being sweet and polite. This you see later on in the film with his ability to fall in live so quickly with one of the Bennet sisters. Where as Mr. Darcy's horse is almost a striking black. This shows darkness and and gives you a a warning of further occasions. the dark horse may show Mr. Darcy may be hiding something there may be a dark secret behind his calm look, you may even be able to say this reflect Mr. Darcy as a dark horse being someone you need to look over for whether that may be for good or bad reasons. 
The contrast of the colour difference of the two horses is another sign that the two characters of the men could be completely different yet could balance and counteract each other out.

Rowland Barthes - semiotics

Semiotics began to become a major approach to cultural studies in the late 1960s, partly as a result of the work of Roland Barthes.

Barthes is one of the leading theorists of semiotics, the study of signs. His work pioneered ideas of structure and signification which have come to underpin cultural studies and critical theory today. Barthes articulated a view of the critic as a voice from the margins.

A sign, in this context, refers to something which conveys meaning – for example, a written or spoken word, a symbol or a myth. Such as the colour white as a symbol of purity and red as a colour of danger and warning shown in real life such a warning signs on the road are red.

As with many, one of Barthes’s main themes was the importance of avoiding the confusion of culture with nature. Another important theme is the importance in being careful how we use words and other signs.

One characteristic of Barthes’s style is that he frequently uses a lot of words to explain a few. He provides detailed analyses of short texts, passages and single images so as to explore how they work.

Another trait of his work is his constant categorization. He draws up schemes for categorising the signs and codes with which he works, which can be applied to divide a text, a narrative or a myth into different parts with different functions. He draws up something like a blueprint of the areas of discourse he studies, showing how the different parts hold together.

references:
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem01.html

Film review on Vertigo focussing on the representation of women

The film starts with a dramatic chase sequence on the roof tops of buildings. This immediately gets you intrigued with the film and gets you wanting to know more. Then ‘scotty’ has a near miss of a building and nearly falls, using a trombone shot to show the danger of the height. This shot also first introduces the main theme of the film being ‘Scotty’ is afraid of heights and vertigo.

The first girl character we come across once the film has started is Midge; she’s blonde, very pretty and is a fashion designer. This occupation subjects women to the low end jobs such as a house wife not like the high end job you see Scotty has as a detective. Some could say this could be a representation of the theory of the ‘Male Gaze’.  Midge is portrayed in this film to be a traditional, caring, maternal role, helping Scotty with his fear of highs. You can tell Scotty is shown to be an independent, strong man having power over Midge; but this all come crashing down with his fear of heights. The main women in this film are rarely if not at all seen as powerful or independent they are always attached to man, midge with Scotty and the Kim Novak and her husband.

Women in general in this film are stereotyped and possibly shown in a slight misogynistic view, being men are more important and powerful then women. In scenes like the court room where Scotty is under trial to if he was guilty for Kim Novak’s death, there was no women in the court room or jury. This shows that women’s views and opinions didn’t count or are they important as women are seen as only good at things such a cooking and knitting. Kim Novak could easily teas Scotty into thinking she was mental or crazy, this I believe as women in the film are seen as weak and the men’s power used to help them. This could relate to the Male Gaze theory as well because the theory suggests men see themselves over women and that they are weaker.

The second main woman to be shown in vertigo was also very pretty, sleek and bleach blonde. The male gaze suggested a theory that films are directed by men to appear to men as an audience especially the way women are portrayed to be sexually appealing. This could be Hitchcock’s way to portray his fantasy women and the male gaze through his films. As he was known for the women in his films being typically blond, very pretty and slim nicknamed ‘ice maidens’. He also was very decisive in how they would look and dress. As Kim Novak was seen idyllically in a grey suit, even though grey was seen to wash out Kim with her blonde hair Hitchcock insisted it must be grey. So you could say in this film Hitchcock created his own male gaze view specific to how he viewed women.

The music in Vertigo shows the strong relationships men and women have in this film. It shows the fascination Scotty has with Kim Novak with romance and desire. It builds up in the right places to create intense feelings for what is happening in the film.