In this essay I am going to compare and discuss the representations of gender in both Men’s Health and Tomb Raider and how the purposes behind them are strikingly different. 

Firstly, on the cover of Tomb Raider, Lara Croft is the dominant signifier. She appears multiple times on the cover to show that she is the convention with the most importance. Her clothing, physique and positioning all add to the reason why she holds a lot of attention. She has been designed wearing petite shorts, a chest almost double the size of her waist and placed on the cover looking over her shoulder – a pose sometimes associated with being provocative. She is also standing unnaturally so that both her chest and bottom are visible for the targeted viewers. This introduces the first theme of Lara’s character being heavily sexualised. Leading on from this, the target audience surrounding Tomb Raider is predominantly (and stereo-typically) male, adding to the reasons why she has been designed to appear this sexually. This is due to the fact that male stereotypes would be just as interested in her body as they would the magazine/game. In contrast to the character’s sexualisation, Lara Croft has been designed with some features to represent a sense of masculinity. Firstly her clothing is green and brown, stereo-typically not very feminine colours. She is also positioned holding a gun, connoting a sense of power and strength and linking with the idea of masculinity, as it is more common to see males carrying weapons such as guns than it is females. The colours in the background are another masculine feature, the black and red connote danger which Lara is brave enough to face due to her power implied. This also contrasts the fact that most of the time it is men that participate on a dangerous quest to save a girl but this time the girl is the one on the quest. 

Both the overly sexualised and masculine ideas suggest that the cover can be viewed in a reactionary and radical manner. Tomb Raider can be seen as a reactionary text as Lara has been presented significantly sexually to satisfy the male target audience. Nevertheless, the cover can also be understood from a radical perspective as she is presented as a strong, powerful fighter due to her weaponry, which opposes stereotypical ideology.

On the other hand, gender is represented in a strikingly opposite way in Men’s Health. Vin Diesel is the dominant signifier, centre of the page and grabs the most attention. Vin Diesel’s body has been edited to portray the idea that he has more physical strength. A good example of this is shown through his heavily muscular arms. This differentiates from the idea that Lara had to be designed holding weaponry to even connote the idea of strength. Vin Diesel’s physicality needed only to be presented for that objective to be thought of, as evidently he holds different guns to Lara (and not the weapons.) This leads on to the target audience. For the cover of Men’s Health, Vin Diesel has not been created in a sexual manner. Again, the cover has been designed for male receivers, although this time it is for men to perceive in an aspirational sight instead of a sexual one. I don’t view Men’s Health in both reactionary and radical texts like I did Tomb Raider. This time round, I only invision it reactionary as the conventions included connote the idea that men hold all strength, which is still a heavy attitude supported by society today. As Tomb Raider has overly sexualised women for men and Men’s Health has not done the same, this relates to the point that males still maintain more control and dominance than females.

To conclude, I think the whole concept of Lara Croft’s gender representation on the cover of Tomb Raider is overshadowed by negative connotations. Although she included some positive aspects regarding her strength and masculinity, it was suppressed by her being excessively sexualised for the satisfaction of men. Whereas the gender representation portrayed on Men’s Health beams with positive connotations due to it being a man encouraging other males. Both these outcomes connect with how the two genders still remain today.