This particular cover proves Laura Mulvey's theory of women functioning in two ways only: As erotic objects of desire for people within a story, or as erotic objects of desire for the spectator. This female has been sexualised, she is pictured topless, this is appealing to a male target audience. Although she is covering herself she is still showing off a lot of her body. Using sex to sell is one of the most common tactics used by any media product. If you are appealing to a male target audience, putting a female on the cover half naked will more than likely increase your magazine sales. My magazine is going to be aimed at a mixture of audiences. Therefore a sexualised image of a female may not appeal to a female audience. Because of this I will not use gender stereotypes in my magazine.
Here we can see Lorde, a young artist, featured on the front cover. Bill Osgerby said that the representation of youth has not changed much over the past 100 years. He also said that you don't have to go far to find a bad representation of youth. This image however, portrays youth as successful. Although her clothing is not smart, it is stereotypically the sort of clothing a teenager would wear. This may be seen as a bad representation. However, she is on the front cover of a magazine, earning huge amounts of money for putting her talent out there. This shows that teenagers can be successful. My magazine is aimed at an older audience, so teenagers will not be featured. However young adults aged 20-30 will be featured. The images of youths I use, will show positive representations and connotations of youth.
Malik says that the word 'race' only applies to black and asian people. This is because they are the only racial groups that 'own' an ethnicity.Whiteness has been neutralised as though it is the 'norm' when it is quite clearly another ethnic group like the others. This particular magazine cover shows your stereotypically hooded black male. This is seen as threatening, although the crown and the title 'Usher in a new era' shows that this is a simple cover with no racial tags. Black artists usually feature in hip hop magazines however this artist features in a pop magazine, breaking the stereotype. Pop magazines are typically filled with white artists therefore my magazine will feature mostly white artists to in keep with the stereotype.
Lady Gaga is a female, bisexual artist. This can not be seen on the magazine cover. This breaks the trend, usually if somebody is gay or lesbian or bisexual, it is talked about and pointed out. However the media has changed over the past few years and it is becoming less of a big deal as to what somebodies sexuality is. Andy Medhurst says that sexuality disrupts representation, in the real world you cannot 'see' somebodies sexuality. Therefore you would not know their sexuality unless they told you. Media shows gay men as 'screaming queens' and lesbians as 'dykes'. Gaga breaks these stereotypes in her feminine pose, showing no signs at all as to what her sexuality is. My magazine will feature artists of all sexuality and gender. This will not break any stereotypes because most magazines feature all sexuality types anyway.
This magazine shows clear national identity. This magazine connotes that it is aimed at American readers as it features an American flag in the background. Andrew Higson says that "Identity is generally understood to be the shared identity of naturalised inhabitants of a particular political-geographical space- this can be a particular nation or region" My magazine will feature national/regional identity but not in any particular detail.
Richard Butsch said that working class men in the media are seen as "incompetent and ineffectual, often a buffoon, well-intentioned, but dumb. This magazine shows Eminem as a rough, uneducated male. This makes him seem a lower class than somebody like Adele for example. The way people dress can give off a stereotype of what they are like and how they may act towards people. My magazine will feature people of all classes as I feel that class should not affect how successful you are in an industry. Different styles of music create different representations. For example, the music genre HipHop, has embraced negative representations of their music genre. I feel that this is because the negative representations make the music artists feel like they have more of a status and power over people. Negativity towards their style of clothing, or choice of tattoos for example, may make them recognised more in the music industry.
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