In this essay, I am going to compare the representation of gender in both ‘Men’s Health’ magazine and tomb Raider video game cover focussing on semiotics, print language, representation and audience theory. I will argue the negativity of how males should look in society, body shame, social ideologies, how language represents gender and uses and gratifications theory.
In ‘men’s health’ men are represented as strong and fierce. The cover image of a male has been staged so that his arm muscles are further forward making them the dominant feature of his appearance. This is an indexical sign linking to the dominant ideology of how people think men should look in society. All together, this is a negative representation of males in todays society as the majority of males do not look like this and it causes the audience to misinterpret the male gender. The main image is a bribe to persuade men to buy the magazine, A semiotician Ronald Barthes states that ‘ a photograph is a kind of speech in the same way as a newspaper article if an object means something it becomes speech’. This image on the cover speaks to the audience and impacts them to think this is how they should look negatively placing ideologies in the audiences head in order to sell their product.
Similarly, on the ‘Tomb raider’ cover Lara Croft is extremely sexualised to make her appealing to the audience. In the same way as ‘Men’s health’ the tomb raider cover uses Lara as an indexical sign linking to social ideologies. However, the purpose is different. In men’s health the purpose of the cover model is to provoke guilt and body shame in the audience so that they purchase the product but on the other hand the main character in tomb raider is sexualised to appeal primarily to men to buy the product so they can look at Lara. This product takes advantage of a feminist theory called ‘the male gaze’ which states that some media ‘presents and represents women as sexual objects for the pleasure of the male viewer.’
The print language In ’mens health’ represents men as lazy and impatient. Some cover phrases include ‘103 shortcuts to t-shirt arms’, ‘lose 8kg fast’, ‘burn 100kcals in 5 mins’ these create a constructed reality in male society that weight loss and muscle gain is simple which in most cases is really a misrepresentation. The producers of the magazine believe that the way to advertise to males is to use the dominant ideology that males will be attracted to quick results using the words ‘shortcuts’ ‘fast’. They are also represented in society as interested in war and fighting ‘vin diesel’s blueprint to wage war on flab’ the producers use metaphors such as this to attract males to be interested in weight loss and exercise.
However, on the ‘tomb raider’ game cover the print language represents men as gullible using the quote ‘tomb raider is till one of the greatest games ever made’- xbox 360 gamer. Since the quote is from a very vague source it seems fake and untrustworthy however the cover designers believe this will convince the audience to buy the game (the target audience being males). The text is also in a similar font to the well know Indiana jones movies this is because the game is roughly based of the movies. This adventure style font is gold and sans serif.
The audience for the ‘men’s health’ magazine is males who feel they need to loose weight, are interested in body building or feeling pressured by ideals of society to look how society thinks they should. Bulmer and Katz came up with ‘uses and gratifications theory’ this suggest that the audience chooses what it wants to consume for five different reasons. Information and Education, Entertainment, Personal Identity, Integration and social interaction and escapism. Men’s health would most likely be purchased for the audience to be inspired by others who are physical role models to them this would fall into the personal identity category.
On the other hand, the sexualisation of Lara croft is used pejoratively so that the product is consumed for entertainment (although a game would normally be purchased for entertainment the addition of a female character appeals to the target audience and boosts sales of the game).
To conclude, I believe that both CSPs represent gender (both male and female) pejoratively. I think that this type of media influences extreme body shame for individuals and creates a non-realistic representation of how society really is. Men’s health could be considered as an inspirational piece of material for males as it encourages them to become fit however it creates unrealistic goals and uses images to body shame. Tomb raider represents women to men as physically different to how women really are. This is a misrepresentation and creates false dominant ideologues in society which is also the cause of low self-esteem.