Task: Write up a 750-word formal essay (ie beginning, main body and conclusion) that compares the representation of gender in both Men’s Health and Tomb Raider, Use key language and specifically show your knowledge of SEMIOTICS, PRINT LANGUAGE, REPRESENTATION & AUDIENCE THEORY.
The Men’s Health magazine and the Lara Croft Cover are both signifiers of strength and sexualization, a pair to which is regarded as quite commonplace but when paired together can be classified as unique when we consider the gender of the main image of the magazine and gaming front cover, Vin diesel and Lara Croft, which is merely one of the similarities that both forms of signifiers have in common but there are differences as well what I will be discussing further in this essay.
when I use my range of knowledge of Semiotics to break down the two forms of media I discovered that the denotations of the magazine and gaming front cover as well as the connotations were similar. the magazine denotes Vin Diesel as a strong, tanned man which of whom is similar as it’s connotation is of a strong, sexualized, idealistic man which of whom correlates with Lara Croft who is denoted as a rugged explorer also connoted as quite sexual as well as idealistic. To further develop the understanding of Semiotics we must comprehend its meaning which is the interpretation of symbols and signs, in this regard I had identified the interpretation/ signifier to be idealistic and strong as well as sexual which both media forms main image had in common. The page that was taken from Men’s health also has the main signifier of being strong and masculine as it is all quite chunked and blocked together with images of products that will make you stronger and slimmer, to focus on the word I mentioned beforehand I associated masculinity with strength and power and this is considered a myth, stereotype or dominant ideology as universally the thought of strength, power and dominance was seen as a more masculine quality but as time progresses this feature seems to slowly be changed and the best way to emphasise this point is with the media, main image Lara croft as she is a counter type as she has what is considered as masculine qualities like being strong and independent and so to compare the representation of our media’s Men’s Health is more stereotypical as it emphasises typical masculine men must be strong types whereas Lara croft is a counter type as I mentioned previously.
to enhance our understanding of gender representation of Semiotics we need to consider Representation but first, we must understand stand what representation means the portrayal of a certain thing or person. The Men’s Health magazine front cover and inside page both portray a negative stereotype of how men should be strong and independent which in a sense there a not negative qualities but men should also be allowed to have the qualities that women are stereotyped to have like being kind and for the sense of understanding representation the stereotype of women being kind is called a positive stereotype. The main character of Tomb Raider, Lara croft is what I mentioned beforehand a counter type, to give more clarification, a counter type is an opposition and contrast against a stereotype in usually a more positive manner. The counter type is interesting to discuss especially since we are evaluating the representation of genders as we have the more old, dominant ideology of stereotypes like men’s health but then we have a more different New, opposing character like Lara Croft but we can argue that Lara also has the old negative stereotype due to the sexual manner of the character. As I have mentioned As well previously is how the media’s show the signifiers of idealistic views of how a person should be perceived as the main images are selected representation, what is when a certain group or person is specifically chosen to be focused on, as in our media Lara Croft and Vin Diesel were specifically chosen to show strength and sex appeal. These qualities were specifically chosen due to our dominant ideology and constructed reality of how women should be kind and sensual and men should be muscular and strong, constructed society is something I want to focus on as it is argued by sociologists that what they call habitualization where society is created and formed by human interactions and humans themselves, what this has relevance is due to our habitualization of portraying men as strong and cool who always attract women we have created this stigma and dominant ideology and agree that is how a man should be but as time is progressing this ideology is being changed. Something I also wanted to discuss is how the men’s health magazine page, the editors letter, shows a block of things of stereotypically associated with men, for example, the weights and the “flower power” which emphasises this point that men should be stronger whereas woman it isn’t reinforced or portrayed in that way.
To understand the representation of genders we must understand Audience Theory which mentions how the media consumers will have a specific psychology and physically effect on them when “consuming” media. There is a similarity and difference between how gender is represented in the media in audience positioning, both characters are shown in an attractive and appealing manner, mainly Lara Croft as she is positioned in an unnatural way to emphasise her figure to entice potential consumers to purchase the game front cover Lara is on. The appeal that Lara is given is unnecessary as most popular games don’t need to rely on the ideology of “Sex sells” for example the very popular game Minecraft doesn’t have any form of sexual content but is still one of the most popular games from even the point of the time where I was young and child and wanted to purchase the game but despite this it’s not like the phrase sex sells is incorrect as a majority of the games sold in this case Tomb Raider Will be sold due to the sexual nature of the main character. Vin Diesel is positioned to be very macho and strong as he is shown to be an idealistic man and his we should be like him and if we use this magazine maybe you will able to learn how to be like him.
To continue the point of how men are represented to be strong we look at Print Language, what are the different types of techniques used in Media. I mainly want to focus on the front cover of men’s health as it’s the most impactful and shows the dominant ideology of how men should be strong as when we look at the sub headings blast body fat and short cuts to t-shirts arms create this idea of how you must be a certain weight that isn’t realistic but is made from a constructed reality where all men are strong as fit and all women are sensual and have unrealistic figures also this an be traced back to the editor’s notes where the image of flour power which once again emphasises the point of how we need to be strong as men and with the help of the magazine we can be. The impact that the magazine has is negative as it enforces this unrealistic perfect people and with these types of subheadings and images it prays on the self conscious consumers who are manipulated to believe they have to be this perfect human.
To conclude the way genders are represented are negative as we are in an old constructed ideology of how certain genders should be but I believe as we progress in time eventually the dominant ideologies of today will be shaped into a better one which is more accepting and diverse.
