The representation of gender in both Men’s Health and Tomb Raider portray different interpretations, through the use of semiotics and print language. In this essay, I will be exploring how each media sources portray this, explaining how they interpret it in their front covers, back pages and in the magazine (men’s health). I think that for both of these media sources they come across very different with gender representation through radical and reactionary ideas.

First of all, the representation of gender in Men’s Health and Tomb raider comes across both as very different especially through the use of images and semiotics. Tomb Raider represents traditional gender roles, sexual objectification and stereotypes, where women have a significant role of being cast as supporting characters because of gamers preferences, meaning for boys. Lara Croft (the main girl character) is portrayed differently to what the majority of females that are played in games. This allows the gaming industry to widen, allowing women to be presented as strong, powerful and equally as powerful as males that are in video games. There is evidence of this as seen on the covers of the game of Lara being seen as powerful. She is holding a gun with passion and confidence which creates a sense of power and danger in her. In other images on the back cover, she is shown fighting, climbing and jumping to keep this stimulus of Lara up. She is the dominant signifier of this game who is positioned sideways. This is done to show off her “unrealistic” body type, this is done on purpose to be sexualised, this proves Lara is designed to attract men, as her athletic physique would be attractive to many men who would describe as perfect. On the other hand, Men’s Health has a target audience for men, it creates an ideology of being the stereotypical man, staying fit and being a particular way in which society expects. The dominant signifier is a strong, tall and built man, this intention is carried on throughout the pages of the magazine. But there is a widen target audience accepted of older people, this is created through the interview and image of the 69-year-old man talking about his fitness “your only limit is yourself better”. Images are carried on the sense of fitness for men. Such as images that say “best fitness classes for men 2017”, “flour power” and “feel the benefit” all these quotes in the magazine show a key representation of gender which is men. I know this because there is no say or sign in images of interviews with women in.

Another way in which each media source represents gender is through the use of denotation and connotation of their sources. They both use the typical product styles such as a header, font type, size and colour, plugs, colour and many more. Tomb Raider uses signs and symbols (signifier and signified) to show the use of gender representation such as guns, Lara Croft herself and the different images on the back cover of the featured gameplay. These signs show the use of power and shows that games like this do not need a main character as a man to create this stereotypical gameplay. The main colours of the covers are black, yellow, red and brown. These colours are in some way good as it shows that having a main girl character doesn’t need typical girly colours such as pink etc. But these colours draw men in even more as the red symbolizes danger and it shows the character as more of an athletic figure, making them want to buy the “perfectly” designed character. The use of denotation in Man’s Health is quite different from Tomb Raider. Man’s Health screams the stereotypical man magazine. There is evidence of this through the title of the magazine “Men’s Health” this shows it is mainly for men and is the easiest way to keep females aways for the magazine. It is also due to the main image of the strong-looking man, this shows the main ideology of this magazine, fitness in men. The text size, shape and style help the magazine show this. The text is bold and uses man colours, blue and black. The magazine includes an interview in the format of columns about a man’s fitness “how has your fitness developed over the years”. This makes the magazine more attracted to men as the interview is about a man’s transformation of fitness. The use of text and phrases used in the magazine implies it is more for men “shortcuts to t-shirt arms” “lose 8kgs fast”.

In conclusion, gender representation in both sources suggest different ideas. Tomb Raider is based on showing that perfect women to men. Men’s Health shows how a stereotypical man should be presented. I think Tomb Raider has a radical response due to the presentation of women in this game. I think Men’s Health also has a radical response as all men do not need to be presented as strong. I think both the target audience for Men’s Health has been presented in a good way in such but Tomb Raider has not.