How does the front cover of the set edition of Woman reflect the socio-historical context in which it was made? Make reference to the front cover and one other article from the set edition. Yes you can look at your notes, and the toolkit.
Representation is how a group or person re-presents ideological perspectives. This edition of Woman magazine came out in 1964 and cost 7 pence, making it accessible to pretty much everyone with over 3 million sales every week meaning it has a large audience in which it could influence easily. At the time of release there were many changing ideologies involving women as previously they were seen as housewives and the men in their lives were superior to them. Movements like the Women's liberation movement which emerged in the late 1960's which affected great change around the world. The magazine itself had a primary target audience of middle aged heterosexual women aged between 30 - 50 which can be seen through the blatant name 'Woman'.
The mise-en-scene of the front cover shows a physically attractive female model smiling at the audience which could bring an uncomfortable feeling towards some as the smile can be seen as forced and fake. Her haircut looks relatively conservative which makes an assumption about the audience being conservative too. The cover anchors the audience to feel as if women are suited for the lifestyle shown which could be seen as morally wrong as the editors and the producers of the magazine were male, possibly suggesting men at the time didn't want anything to change with gender stereotypes, that they valued the dominance and power in the relationship. This reflects the socio-historical context by showing the way women were represented by the media, in which most women had grown to accept their place within society which links to George Gerbner's cultivation theory, the idea that if the producer's ideology is repeatedly seen then after time some will begin to become influenced by it and end up believing it too. In this case the magazine had a weekly audience of 3 million which I would believe to be mostly female, and those women who read it week after week would soon see these aspirational women on the front covers, which in terms of advertising is good because it makes the audience self conscious, making them more prone to looking at a beauty product and wanting to buy it in order to look like the model used on, suggesting that women are vulnerable and easily influenced. The lexis on the front cover reinforces the idea that the target audience would have been female through the hegemonic norms. For example, the content bar at the bottom states: "Seven star improvements for your kitchen, Lingerie goes lively, are you an A-level beauty?" which shows you the kind of genres the media think women enjoy; that their main focuses are on beauty and housecare, it also implies that women are only interested in these things and don't have any other hobbies, inferring women are simplistic. Women are represented as Housewives, implying they don't have a job and instead it assumes the man in their life goes to work to earn the money. The connotations of lingerie are looking sexually appealing, mostly for your male partner which again assumes the whole audience are heterosexual females. The rhetorical question "Are you an A-level beauty?" acts as a proairetic code, suggesting the reader will find the answer to that inside the magazine.
The Breeze soap advert inside the magazine may make audiences in today's society uncomfortable because of the relatively commanding tone given - "You want a soap that can promise you absolute freshness. Because you're a woman" which connotes women are fragile and elegant. The image used is of a naked woman covered in bubbles with a full face of makeup and her hair looking nicely tied up, which creates an unrealistic expectation for women having to look good all the time, even in the bath which is a clear example of sexualisation You may consider nowadays why an image like this is being used in a magazine with a heterosexual female audience but it might be because women seeing the advert would see her as an aspirational figure, seeing what men see as appealing so that they can shape their lifestyle to please men, which helps sell the product due to the fact women may have felt they would become more physically appealing if they used this soap. it also assumes women are concerned about feeling and smelling fresh which creates a binary opposition in that men can't use this product as if they will be harmed by it. The advert uses a direct mode of address in "Because you are a woman" which further makes an assumption that 100% of the audience are women and uses hegemonic codes of gender representation in assuming men aren't concerned about things like soap. In this generation men were represented to be strong and emotionless, the opposite of what women were seen to be; and in turn all women needed a man in their life, making a huge assumption that everyone was heterosexual. David Gauntlet's theory of identity stated that audiences aren't passive and instead media products allow the audience to construct their own identities.
Band 4- 10B3
Representation is how a group or person re-presents ideological perspectives. This edition of Woman magazine came out in 1964 and cost 7 pence, making it accessible to pretty much everyone with over 3 million sales every week meaning it has a large audience in which it could influence easily. At the time of release there were many changing ideologies involving women as previously they were seen as housewives and the men in their lives were superior to them. Movements like the Women's liberation movement which emerged in the late 1960's which affected great change around the world. The magazine itself had a primary target audience of middle aged heterosexual women aged between 30 - 50 which can be seen through the blatant name 'Woman'.
The mise-en-scene of the front cover shows a physically attractive female model smiling at the audience which could bring an uncomfortable feeling towards some as the smile can be seen as forced and fake. Her haircut looks relatively conservative which makes an assumption about the audience being conservative too. The cover anchors the audience to feel as if women are suited for the lifestyle shown which could be seen as morally wrong as the editors and the producers of the magazine were male, possibly suggesting men at the time didn't want anything to change with gender stereotypes, that they valued the dominance and power in the relationship. This reflects the socio-historical context by showing the way women were represented by the media, in which most women had grown to accept their place within society which links to George Gerbner's cultivation theory, the idea that if the producer's ideology is repeatedly seen then after time some will begin to become influenced by it and end up believing it too. In this case the magazine had a weekly audience of 3 million which I would believe to be mostly female, and those women who read it week after week would soon see these aspirational women on the front covers, which in terms of advertising is good because it makes the audience self conscious, making them more prone to looking at a beauty product and wanting to buy it in order to look like the model used on, suggesting that women are vulnerable and easily influenced. The lexis on the front cover reinforces the idea that the target audience would have been female through the hegemonic norms. For example, the content bar at the bottom states: "Seven star improvements for your kitchen, Lingerie goes lively, are you an A-level beauty?" which shows you the kind of genres the media think women enjoy; that their main focuses are on beauty and housecare, it also implies that women are only interested in these things and don't have any other hobbies, inferring women are simplistic. Women are represented as Housewives, implying they don't have a job and instead it assumes the man in their life goes to work to earn the money. The connotations of lingerie are looking sexually appealing, mostly for your male partner which again assumes the whole audience are heterosexual females. The rhetorical question "Are you an A-level beauty?" acts as a proairetic code, suggesting the reader will find the answer to that inside the magazine.
The Breeze soap advert inside the magazine may make audiences in today's society uncomfortable because of the relatively commanding tone given - "You want a soap that can promise you absolute freshness. Because you're a woman" which connotes women are fragile and elegant. The image used is of a naked woman covered in bubbles with a full face of makeup and her hair looking nicely tied up, which creates an unrealistic expectation for women having to look good all the time, even in the bath which is a clear example of sexualisation You may consider nowadays why an image like this is being used in a magazine with a heterosexual female audience but it might be because women seeing the advert would see her as an aspirational figure, seeing what men see as appealing so that they can shape their lifestyle to please men, which helps sell the product due to the fact women may have felt they would become more physically appealing if they used this soap. it also assumes women are concerned about feeling and smelling fresh which creates a binary opposition in that men can't use this product as if they will be harmed by it. The advert uses a direct mode of address in "Because you are a woman" which further makes an assumption that 100% of the audience are women and uses hegemonic codes of gender representation in assuming men aren't concerned about things like soap. In this generation men were represented to be strong and emotionless, the opposite of what women were seen to be; and in turn all women needed a man in their life, making a huge assumption that everyone was heterosexual. David Gauntlet's theory of identity stated that audiences aren't passive and instead media products allow the audience to construct their own identities.
Band 4- 10B3
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