In this essay I am going to be talking about sexual representation in video games and magazines. For example, Tomb Raider the video game represents the female protagonist “Lara Croft” in a sexually appealing manner to straight males as well as Mens mens health because of their criteria to be masculine. 

When evaluating the front cover of the Tomb raider video game cover, we as a viewer we can notice the dominant signifier is an over sexualised cover image and character design with the short shorts and the crop top to show off her figure and reveal her body in a sexually appealing manner to straight males 13 and older buy copies allowing the company to make profit and an income from the product. In the background of the cover image there is a light source emitting through a logo with streaks of light directed to the side of the image to create links to her being similar to an angel being pure, important and something to inspire to be shining positive light on the character. The shot type used by the designer is a medium long shot to fit the majority of the characters sexually appealing assists into frame to increase how she is represented in a sexual manner. Finally the camera is angled from a worms eye view looking upwards towards the waist and upper body to draw further attention and increase sexual representation. The font used in the game cover gradually increases in size from smaller less important words and peaks on the key word or “raider” which is strategically place above her bottom to draw attention and focus to an over sexualised part of her body that isn’t realistic. The tomb raider franchise is a radical movement in the sense that a female follows masculine traits of being strong, brave and adventurous fighting against danger in hostile environments and the fact that a female is doing this re writes how females act and behave in society by giving them another role instead of being the rescued or the viewer instead of the rescuer and performer taking on a whole new role.

In addition, the magazine Mens Health is developing to withstand the issues of modern day society involving men by including sub headings that have connotations to mental health as well as the stereotypical physical strenght. Mental health is an important topic to talk about with men because suicide is the largest cause of death in men from teenagers to the age of 55 making this radical, revolutionary and a new definition of masculinity encouraging men to speak out about there issues  and over come them. This ideology and racial text came from the sub heading “Slay Winter blues”. The sad part is this is one sub heading out of nine that is radical, the others saying how a man should eat, look like and what expectations they have following the Reactionary audience theory. In the illustration of Vin diesel, he is wearing a tight shirt to show off his muscles in such a way that he should be an expectation for males. Disel is also tanned and not very pale which shows he is outside and away from home doing whatever he pleases. Furthermore his facial expression is a strong stare and smoulder to show strength, power and dominance representing him as an alfamale following the stereotype of what a male should follow. His body language is loose and shows lack of care and effort to try look threatening to other males which follows humans’ biological instinct of being attracted to them. Once again we are viewing the illustration from a worms eye view so we concentrate on the arms and shoulders of the man to create a sense of exception and guidelines to follow and compare yourself to with a shot type of another medium long shot to capture the full body and fill the cover image.Lastly, the colour of the writing is in a blue colour which matches with the stereotypical male colour so it stands out to the male audience as a high percentage of them posses that colour as their favourite growing up. To further back up my point, when looking at the front cover of Mens Health you can see that the mast header and smaller key subheadings that the producer want to see first are coloured blue.

In conclusion both examples both over sexualised the included genders one being radical (tomb raider) and the other reactionary (Mens Health) to the benefit of the selling company or brand to make more sales and profit. However, times are changing and words are changing to be more gender neutral and friendly towards both genders.