Representation of Gender in the Media

Female Representation

1) A sexualised, objectified female in advertising - Grand Theft Auto 5 promotional art

 The demographic audience for the game GTA 5 consists mostly of young (teens as young as 11 to adults as old as 25, despite the game's 18 rating), straight males of the B to F socio economic demographics. This is due to main focus of the GTA game series being on the criminal and violent lifestyles taking place in well-known American cities. In the games, women are prominently objectified and commonly antagonised, as well as rarely presented in a positive way, and so far none of the protagonists in the GTA series has been a woman, despite the presence of women in the crime underworld of cities being no less prominent. The use of objectification of women in the games makes these young men - who have yet to be in a position of any sort of authority - feel more empowered in the fictional world, as the game's protagonists have prostitutes and women readily available in the games to be treated in any way the person behind the controller sees fit.
This advertisement consists of a long shot of a white, blonde, young woman in a bikini, posing with her phone. This poster has been the poster most commonly used to advertise GTA 5, most likely since its controversial nature would bring attention to the franchise before the game's release. Her bikini exposes most of her skin, and the red colour brings attention to the only parts of her body that remain covered. She fits the stereotype of an attractive woman, as she's visibly thin, has flawless skin, large breasts, small facial features, a gentle tan and long blonde hair. The focus of the viewer's gaze is aimed for her chest, as the position of her in the photo places her chest to be in the centre of the image. The only way in which the poster links back to the objective and plot of the game is the background, which matches the setting of the fictional city based on Hollywood. However the woman who is the main focus of the poster doesn't seem to show any particular relevance to the storyline.

2) Domestic woman in a film or TV show - Lois Griffin from Family Guy

The demographic audience for Family Guy consists mainly of Americans of the C and lower socio economic demographics, with a narrower focus on teenagers and youth of both genders. Family Guy is a sitcom, and therefore has an episodic plot, almost always focusing on the Griffin family, of which Lois Griffin is a member of. She is the wife of Peter Griffin and the mother of their three children. Her portrayal throughout the series is mostly shown to be a carer for Stewie, the youngest child, as a full-time mom. She is a white, ginger woman, with a curvy figure and she's usually seen wearing red lipstick, earrings, a teal shirt, beige trousers and flat shoes - which suggests a casual appearance leaning onto a formal side. Aside from her large nose, her features are typical of a stereotypical suburban mother, as she isn't portrayed in a neither an attractive or unattractive way, though her lipstick and earrings might suggest that at least she tries to look nice.

As her job as a mother is mostly centred around taking care of the baby, she isn't seen out of the house as often as the other family members throughout the show. Her appearances and gags are often focused around housework and nurturing the needs of Stewie and her lazy husband Peter. Her role in the show seems to also focus on being the one to whom the other characters turn to for advice, which further stresses her portrayal as a stereotypical woman and mother - maternal, mature and understanding.

3) Post Feminism - Lilly Allen's "Hard Out Here" (2013)

Post feminism: Music Video: Lily Allen – Hard Out Here

The video begins with a scene where the singer is undergoing a liposuction. As a man in a suit, looking over her operation spews negative comments about what brought her to the hospital bed, she answers back with ‘I had two babies’, but is ignored. A television screen showing dancers wearing revealing clothes is also shown as part of the mise-en-scene.

The scene shifts to her dancing with the same dancers as shown before, as she sings the chorus ‘It’s hard out here / For a bitch it’s hard’, which is meant to represent how hard it is to be a woman in today’s patriarchal society. Some other lines in the song include ‘Forget your balls and grow a pair of tits’, which is a collocation clash to emphasise her intention to surpass males in the song and video. By ‘forget your balls’, she is disregarding the importance of men to encourage the message that females are just as important and tough as men, but it may also encourage men to see society from a woman’s point of view.

One of the most influential scenes of the music video is near the end, as Lily Allen is shown in the foreground of a bunch of balloons which spell out ‘LILY ALLEN HAS A BAGGY PUSSY’ which is a clear reference to a similar scene of Robin Thicke’s ‘Blurred Lines’ and the controversy that it has caused earlier within the year for its sexist lyrics and motifs – the inclusion of this scene in Allen’s video is a backlash at the encouragement of date rape and further stresses the feministic theme of the song.

Lily Allen’s demographic would be assumed to be fans of her music from the late 2000’s when she debuted. After taking a hiatus from music at about 2009, she came back in 2013 with this song, which possibly caused a shift in her demographic to a more female-focused one, as her new feminist-centred image has likely pushed away some of her male fans who struggle to agree with her views.

Mock Exam Improvement

In my mock exam which I have sat in January, I received 27 marks for Q1, a total of 17 marks for Q2, and 17 marks for Q3, with my final grade in the mock adding up to a low C.

Audience Question

• Be specific when mentioning age groups within the target audience of a media text: instead of generalising an age demographic (e.g. young girls, teenage boys, older men and women), mention a specific age group, e.g. young girls between the ages of 15 and 25
• Develop my answer further and add more detail

Representation Question

• 'Your own detailed examples' in the question refers to detailed research and must refer to specific media texts: different media texts such as an advert vs a magazine front cover may present the same person in different ways, so the mention of a particular representation of a person must include an example of the media text which presented them in this way 
• When mentioning connotations, justify why they have been used
• Denotation = the item; Connotation = the meaning behind the used item
• Mention the use of language in the media text more often

Revision and Study

To improve my revision, I think I should focus more on memorising the media terms and revise the  theories more, so I have a deeper knowledge of them and can use them in my answers more fluently. I should also learn to apply the relevant theories into different media texts. Another way to improve my revision is to link the use of media and technical terms back to their connotations more often.

Coursework

For my coursework I believe that the aspect I could improve the most on is the report, as I should focus on the most relevant features within my textual analysis and my magazine product in my writing. I could have also put more focus on the questionnaire, as I haven't used its results as prominently within my research at the start of the coursework as I should have done.

PRODUCTION: double spread final draft

For my final front cover, I have chosen the winter issue out of the two front covers I made, and the double page spread is loosely based on the winter front cover - what mainly links the two are the main images i used for the front cover and double page spread of my magazine, where the model is wearing the same clothes in both. The main cover line on the winter issue also links back to the double page spread's article, as both are about the same person.

(The faint guideline in the centre indicates where the page would be folded if it was printed)

 

This double page spread from INDIE magazine is what I heavily based my double page spread on:

However, I was only able to copy the aesthetic conventions of the above double page spread: my article text was improvised as I found the text in INDIE's article too small to read for me to have a basis on what to write. In my article, I considered that the target market of PIXIE, like in the case of INDIE, are young individuals of both genders from a higher economical income. Many of these young people interested in fashion who would read magazines like INDIE would run their own blogs on sites such as Tumblr, Blogger or Pinterest. This is why I have used a fair amount of lexis which is often used on such sites, as it makes the magazine seem up-to-date in terms of the latest trends, as well as interactive with these social media communities.

PRE PRODUCTION: Front cover final draft

As you may know, my magazine is called 'Pixie', and here they are: the summer issue and winter issue.

EDIT 09 / DEC / 2013: I edited the errors in the summer issue of the front cover, including the small 'S' near the main cover line that wasn't meant to be there. I also changed the main cover line font and text, as I felt that the exclamation mark doesn't go with the genre of magazine which my front cover is based upon. The new font is much bolder and easier to read, and the use of italics make it look more 'indie' and unique. I changed it to 'OLD SCHOOL' as it reflects the vintage-inspired, indie fashion often featured in magazines like these, and because it's a recognisable collocation. Additionally, I felt the colours of the first draft weren't warm enough, so I slightly altered the main image with the use of curves as well as lowering the contrast - which gave the photo warmer undertones to reflect the season of the issue.

Questionnaire!

If you have some time to spare, feel free to fill in my questionnaire for my AS media coursework! It will help me out a lot, and your answers are completely anonymous!

Click here for the questionnaire!

First draft front cover

For the genre of my front cover, I picked a higher-brow women's fashion magazine, with inspiration taken from the likes of Nylon, Indie, and Topshop magazine. The masthead I chose is 'Pixie' - it relates to the alternative 'pixie cut' hairstyles associated with more fashionable young women, and it is also a reference to the font it is written in, a pixel font. I think it's effective for this magazine as I feel that pixels and pixel fonts have connotations of video games, youth, punk/grundge, individuality, simplicity and retro. The chunky, 'bubbly' shape of the letters were inspired by the Nylon masthead, and also give the magazine a nostalgic and cute image, which goes well with the intended audience of the magazine being young girls and women from the ages of 16-25 who would possibly dress with cute and bubbly trends in mind.

I based the white frame of the magazine (which isn't very visible on here) on the layout present in every Topshop magazine which has been released since I was aware of its circulation. I feel that the frame works well with the white masthead and contrasts against the darker brick wall background, to give the front cover a sense of balance in colour. It's also sharp and clean-cut, which again contrasts against the brick wall's rough and heavy texture. All of this effectively make the front cover look individual, which is a vital feature of Indie's image in the press.

I was aiming to feature a minimal amount of cover lines, just like Indie usually does. However, I felt that the image I used was not enough to make a statement, so I added two additional cover lines to fill the space on the right. I also shifted the model slightly to the left, so her body fits better into the rule of thirds. I also did this to take a different approach from most magazine front covers which would place the model in the centre, to further strive for an individual overall image of the cover.

The main cover line is focused on the model, and is also written in a pixel font, to balance out with the masthead across the top of the cover. I featured only the model's first name, so it evokes a sense of familiarity amongst the model's fans. Because the main cover line text wasn't easy to read on it's own, I added a brush stroke underneath to make it easier to read, which resembles graffiti and adds onto the individual, youthful image even further.

Magazine Front Cover Analysis

For my coursework, I decided to focus on making a magazine front cover. I decided to focus on the women's style/fashion magazine.

This magazine is named after it's independent, quirky theme. There is only one cover line used here, and it's ambiguous, but assumably relates to the girl in the main image. The minimal amount of puffs used shows that this magazine aims for an image amongst the high brow magazines on the market. This is because many of these higher-end magazines would focus more on the image than the text, so the headline looks less cluttered, but prettier. The text is also juxtaposed in a way - whilst the font of the masthead is sans serif and clean-cut, the coverline is in a script, handwritten font. They are also placed opposite to each other on the cover. 

The issue is of winter 2010/11, and the cool colour scheme of the front cover reflect this. The texts used are all in white, as if they represent snow and cold weather.

The main image is a girl wearing a wooly jumper. Her clothing fits the season of the issue's publish date. The photo is a close up shot, so the magazine isn't trying to sexualise the girl by over exposing her body in any way - not only is she covered by the jumper she's wearing, her hands are covering her body as well. This approach is the opposite to what most style magazines tend to do, where they take full body shots to show off the model's body and clothes. This daring approach also reflects the independent image of this magazine. The background of the main image is of a pale blue colour, and looks vintage and worn. Again, it supports the image of what the viewer would believe an indie magazine would have elements of.

This front cover follows the rule of thirds effectively. Not all blocks of the rule of thirds are occupied, however, the masthead, face, barcode and coverline all fit into their own blocks in the rule of thirds, seperating each element from each other to provide the viewer with something to look at, no matter which of the thirds they are to focus on.

 Nylon is a lifestyle magazine, mainly aimed at older girls and young women of a higher social economic income. Though not as simplistic as Indie, Nylon also has elements of an individual and high end image. There are multiple puffs on this issue, all framing Ashley Olsen in the main image. The masthead is baby pink, unlike any of the coverlines which are in either white, red or yellow, which reinforces the main audience for the magazine with its feminine hue. The font looks modern, as it's very bold and contains clean cut, simple lines. The main coverline is of Olsen's full name, anchoring the image of her sitting on a bench. 'Un-zipped' suggests that inside, the issue contains an article about Olsen's life, specifically her secrets or less well known facts about her. This sparks curiosity within the audience, especially if they are fans of Olsen, or grew up to films and TV shows she starred in. The font in which this coverline is written in (as well as the '154' in "154 ways to get your jeans on") looks like capital letters with a scribbled outline, which allow the background (and a part of Olsen's leg on the left side) to shine through. This font also has a casual, quirky and school-like appearance to it.

The main image is Ashley Olsen, one of the Olsen twins famous for acting and singing. She is usually seen with her sister Mary Kate in the media, but on the cover of this issue she is on her own - it's as if Nylon is trying to deliver a message that she's an individual, which would grab the viewer's eye for the unusual lack of Mary Kate's presence. The photo is a full body shot of her sitting down, and it effectively shows off her clothes without sexualising her and still maintaining Olsen in an interesting pose, all at once. Olsen is wearing darker tinted clothes and a bright orange beanie. The beanie and skinny jeans she's wearing are usually associated with laid back young people who wear such clothes on a normal day. Her pose is rather casual too, and she is looking directly at the viewer with a neutral facial expression. Her head overlaps the masthead (showing that the magazine is well known and recognisable, and to make her the dominant element of the front cover) and interestingly the background is rather busy for a magazine. Complimenting the dark tones of Olsen's clothing, the background is of a dark, metal gate/fence. It adds onto this 'punk'-like theme of the issue. 

This magazine is also aimed at females with a high social economic income, but unlike Indie and Nylon, it has a slightly more mature vibe and feel to it. The masthead is a bold, tall font. This magazine is not as well known and thus the masthead is placed over the model. The