In this essay, I am going to compare the way that gender has been represented in Men’s Health magazine and the cover for the video game Tomb Raider. In particular, I am going to argue that in both media forms the representation of gender is an idealistic stereotype of how males and females should look. However, I am also going to argue that Lara Croft (tomb raider) is an iconic sign that is heavily sexualized for the male gaze whereas the images in Men’s Health aren’t represented sexually or targeted for a female audience. 

The cover for Tomb Raider features ‘Lara Croft’ who is a character from the game. There are five images of her on the cover where she is repeatedly wearing revealing clothing. Shown through David Gaunlet’s identity theory, this creates a constructed identity around the character, Lara Croft, that she is the only featured as a sexualized image for the audience. However, she is also represented as strong as she has guns and the back round colours of yellow, black and red connote danger and fear. Also, the man on the cover of Men’s Health is represented in the same way as strong and having an idealistic body. For both, the audience positioning helps to create this representation and as the images are both the center of the front page. Although the image of Lara Croft is sexualized for the male audience. This representation is influenced by the socials norms of society that woman is sexualized in media.

However, both Men’s Health and Tomb Raider represent gender very differently. The main image on the cover for Tomb Raider is the iconic sign, Lara Croft. She is represented as a strong female game character as she is carrying guns and breaking the dominant ideology that only men can fight. However, she is wearing minimal clothing and her bottom and breasts are visible which creates anchorage for the target audience that she will be visible the whole game. The stereotypical audience for video games is male which why the cover for tomb raider is a reactionary text as she is only represented sexually to suit the male gaze, however it could also be seen as radical as its a woman fighting which goes against dominant ideology. In contrast to that, the images in Men’s health are represented in a more aspirational way rather than a sexualized way. For example, the image and article of Phillip Howells, a sixty-nine year old man who runs marathons, which is immediately against the dominant ideology of marathon runners. This target audience for Men’s Health is men which is why some images of men are represented as more inspiring rather than sexualized. All together this represents males as having more authority over females as females are sexualized for men and men aren’t sexualized for women. 

The typography in Men’s health is also reactionary. Throughout the pages, the print language supports the dominant ideology of masculinity and fitness. On the front cover, the plugs have a semantic field of fitness and looking good using words and phrases like, ‘muscle’, ‘#slay’, ‘blast body fat!’. These plugs connote that the magazine is about fitness for men which links to the muscular, idealistic image of a stereotypical man on the front cover. Also, the typography in the inside pages uses words that all link to fitness and working out, ‘best fitness classes for men 2017’. Altogether this represents the male gender in a positive manner and that they care about themselves and are trying to become more healthy. The reason behind this representation is to attract the target audience, who are aspiring to be better, to the magazine. The typography on the Tomb Raider cover is facts about the game and the usual title banner, institutional information and age rating. However, the paragraph is on the back page is radical as it states about how Lara Croft has to go on an adventure that challenges the dominant ideology around the fact that men are usually used to fight an go on adventures rather than women. In contrast to how the image of  Lara Croft is sexualized and represents her as a strong and empowered woman. This shows a similarity between both the media forms as both genders are represented as empowered and portray the constructed identity around both the genders featured. The reason for this is that it makes the audiences aspire to be like the personalities they have represented.

In conclusion, I think that the Tomb raider cover is both radical and reactionary as it supports the dominant ideology around how a woman is sexualized in the media but also represents her as strong and independent which goes against the dominant ideology that a woman needs a man. Overall I think that the female gender is represented with negative connotations. Whereas Men’s Health is reactionary and represents the male gender with counter-types as strong and with positive connotations. It also presents a wider demographic of the male gender and represents the audience, male, as self-caring and headstrong.