The cover of Tomb raider and Mens health have many similarities and differences, especially when it comes to the representation of gender. Tomb raider has a dominant signifier that is a woman and Mens Health being a man. But is this reactionary or radical for these covers? And does it support or go against the dominant ideology of how these genders are presented.

The way Mens Health is presented is radical as it is what you would expect to be on the cover of a Mens Health magazine. This begins with the dominant signifier being a healthy, fit looking male which is what you would expect to be on the front cover of a Mens Health magazine. Another way in which Mens Health is radical is the colour blue being a main theme. Many of the drop caps, paragraphs and headings are different shades of blue. This is radical for a mens magazine as it is the stereotypical colour that society associates with men. 

Tomb raider is both reactionary and radical. The way Lara Croft is presented on the front cover is reactionary as you normally wouldn’t expect a female to be on the cover of a game that has a majority of male consumers. However, the dramatic scenes Lara Croft is shown in on the back cover would be radical for the genre of a typical action game. This could be the images of her fighting a dinosaur or the image of her using a rope to run across a wall which is what you would expect to see in an action game.

The way the man looks on the front cover sends a message to the consumers about gender. This message is that in order to be a healthier man you must have bigger muscles and a generally fitter appearance. When I’m reality the dominant signifiers arms have probably been photoshopped to appear bigger so it gives the consumer a false hope of thinking they would be able to look like that after buying and reading the magazine. There is a Lexical field of words that have connotations to wanting to be or look like the man on the front, such as: “blast, muscle, arms stronger, body fat, double your metabolism”. These words are used to associate to the health theme of the magazine. 

Both Mens Health and Tomb raider contribute to the negative stereotypes of gender. For Mens Health this is shown by them promoting the idea of having an ideal body type, to look bigger and stronger and that if you do so you will be a better man. In Tomb raider this is shown by Lara Crofts over sexualised body to please typical straight men who will play the game. This is a negative stereotype of woman bile cause it suggests that woman are objectified and should look a certain way that is unrealistic. 

Gender in tomb raider is reactionary as you wouldn’t expect a female to be the protagonist in an action genre. However this attracts the typical male audience as they are interested in females plus the action game.

The dominant signifier of Lara croft and her gender is sexualised. This is mostly shown in the way she is standing on the front cover where she is positioned sideways to expose all of her body that the ideal consumer would be attracted to. The fact that these parts of her body are emphasised sexualises her. I’m terms of gender the way Lara Croft is sexualised in this way supports the dominant ideology of women in video games that is wearing unnecessarily revealing clothes that again expose her body to the audience. This is the complete opposite to men in video games who always have a covered body for example gun belts and capes the cover their behind. There are myths over why this may be such as only boys play video games so if you’re going to show a woman you should make her unrealistically physical attractive so she is more appealing to the boys.