In both ‘The Men’s Health’ and ‘Tomb Raider’, representation of the male and female genders are both emphasized; although different techniques have been used in order to translate a representation which would attract that medias specific target audience’s dominant ideology. In order to appeal to their target audience, the producers of Tomb Raider use a negative stereotype of women; implying that things such as their breast defines them and is their most important feature. Whereas in ‘The Men’s Health’ magazine, there is a positive stereotype of men that has been used in order to convey the idea that the main subject is strong and independent, this can be seen through the subjects pose and how it’s sexualisation is very minor, making sure that things such as his behind isn’t at all visible unlike Lara Crofts.
When comparing the front covers of both magazines, The Men’s Health magazine represents the main subject – Vin Diesel as a positive stereotype as they haven’t objectified or sexualised his body. For example, when imagining a men’s health magazine, the dominant ideology would suggest that the main subject wouldn’t be fully clothed, exposing a lot of muscle in order to signify his health or how this magazine has ‘changed’ him and could benefit the audience; promoting them to look like Vin Diesel or some other muscular celebrity creating a constructed reality. However, the main subject of this magazine doesn’t show off a lot of muscle, only his arms whereas other Men’s Health related magazines such as ‘Muscle and Fitness’ repeatedly leave the subjects topless in order to focus directly on appearance and less on health. Therefore, I would consider this magazine as radical as it focuses more on the actual health of men and how to become healthy – “Demolish junk food cravings” – rather than just their appearance. This reflects Harold Lasswell’s ‘Hypodermic Needle’ theory whereby an intended message is directly received and wholly accepted by the reader. In this instance, the phrases surrounding Vin Diesel such as – ‘Shortcut to T-shirt arms’ is taken in by the audience, causing them to buy the magazine with the idea that by buying this magazine they will be advised on how to improve their health as well as their appearance.
On the other hand, The Tomb Raider game cover represents the female gender through a negative stereotype; yet for its time, would still be portrayed as a reactionary text. Lara Croft, the main subject, is over sexualised, symbolising the female gender as objects, emphasising only her breasts and behind. This idea is further reinforced by the positioning of the games title which is strategically placed above her behind but below her breasts; covering one of the only sections of her body which may not be sexualised. As this game was released in 1996, I would say that the sexualisation or objectification of women would have been more common than today, where women have more of a say in how they themselves want to be presented individually. Both the front cover of The Men’s Health magazine and Tomb Raider would be used in order to appeal to a similar demographic – men. Even though the Tomb Raider cover supposedly goes against the dominant ideology by using a female as a main character suggesting that this game maybe targeted at women, this idea is soon neglected when Lara Croft becomes more of an object through over sexualisation’s.
The back cover of the game magazine, Tomb Raider, uses a serif type font which could be viewed as more of a female related font due to the elegancy of it. On the other hand, the pages inside the Men’s Health magazine use more of a sans-serif type of font as it is ‘blockier’ and therefore may be considered more manly through stereotyping. As well as this, due to the genre of the media types, the Men’s Health magazine may have used this font style as it is more factual and serious; advising people of how to improve their health or lifestyle. Whereas Tomb Raider is a game and is therefore more of a form of escapism allowing the serif type font to reinforce this. Although here, I believe that due to the previous over-sexualisation of Lara Croft, the serif font has been used in order to back up the female presence as most action games are predominantly male based; this game was also meant to be dominated by a male character – ‘Gard had initially designed the original Lara as a male character instead because he had imagined “a guy in some tombs”.’
To conclude, I believe that the representation of gender in both magazines are both prevalent however, for contrasting reasons. The men’s Health magazine is very positive, non-objectifying and non-sexualising allowing the target audience to focus on the main point of the magazine rather than an unrealistic example. The magazine achieves this using positive stereotypes which promote the dominant ideology – this magazine can provide insight of how to be come healthier. On the other hand, the Tomb Raider game uses negative stereotypes in order to represent the female gender, highlighting such things by giving the main character unrealistic body proportions – enlarging her breasts. Therefore when comparing the two, the target audience of the Men’s Health magazine don’t necessarily have an unrealistic example to follow yet females who may see or buy the Tomb Raider game does as it is the dominant ideology.