dominant signifier – fully clothed, focus on face
The central image is of a woman who is shown in an androgynous way meaning she is not seen with more masculine or feminine fashion traits. In other words a blur between male traits and female traits.
Unlike other magazines aimed at females, she is not overly sexualised (male gaze).
he headline which is written in bold gives a clear indication that the articles to follow with talk about empowerment of women.
Speaking out feature – A FGM campaigner is featured in one of the speaking out sections. She is a young Muslim woman who talks about FGM and the issues around it. This is an example of representation of culture and diversification in the magazine.
The capitalised “Sister” creates a group identity towards the target audience, a group- a sisterhood where readers come together and create.
Gerbners can also be used to show representation throughout the magazine, he argues that nothing has a representation until the media represents it to try and create a fixed meaning to which the audience can argue against; for example people being perceived as trouble makers from repeated stereotypes of them represented in the media- we can see how Oh Comely tries to oppose the reactionary representations that have been displayed in the media and recreate them as strong. An example is page 15 where someone from Somalia wearing a headscarf (which is represented in western media as “terrorists”) is surrounded by a syntagm of signs such as the iconic signs of colour that have high connotations to positivity and a semantic field of strength through words such as “unstoppable force” and personal pronouns to extenuate her achievements to redesign the stereotype into a counterstereotype- a person of power and positivity.
Industry-
Launched in 2010
published by the “proudly independent” Iceberg Press.
Iceberg Press is completely different to Hearst UK – the publisher of Men’s Health and subsidiary of global conglomerate Hearst.
It publishes just two magazines: Oh Comely and The Simple Things
Social Media Reach: 100,000 Readers Per Issue: 25,000 Average Age of reader: 27 Sold through independents, WHSmith and international outlets
‘a mindful magazine with a fresh perspective.’
Each issue was available to purchase for £5 in a few newsagents, independent retailers, cafes and museums. – £14 for six months (3 issues).
The publishers wanted to “celebrate the humble, the frugal and the plentiful; the magic in the mundane, and the unsung beauty of the unnoticed”. This is obviously in contrast to the quick and easy reads found in glossy lifestyle magazines
the magazine was impacted by the pandemic (possible excuse from iceberg in order to save/gain money) and the final issue was published in September 2021.
representation-
Oh Comely is part of a development in lifestyle and environmental movements of the early twenty first century which rebrand consumerism as an ethical movement. Its representation of femininity reflects an aspect of the feminist movement which celebrates authenticity and empowerment
comely-pleasant to look at; attractive (typically used of a woman).- a polite non sexualised way of saying something is nice, pretty….
The photos aren’t photoshopped in order to present certain meanings of beauty but is natural and shows the real side of people.- gives a sense of truth as well as empowerment and positive representation of women.
I believe that Oh Comely fits into the fourth wave of feminism since it clearly shows feminist ideologies and attempts to empower women.
Compared to the cover page of Men’s Health, we can see a clear different in gender representations between the two. In Oh Comely, the cover star is shown in an androgynous way in order to not reinforce any gender stereotypes. Men’s Health on the other hand shows a very built Vin Diesel as the cover page which already shouts out traditional men’s stereotypes.
The magazine includes a diverse range of religion, race and age:
Gerbners theory on mainstreaming suggests the excessive consumption of media products the more you will conform to the medias ideologies, therefore by promoting a range of diversity throughout Oh Comely’s magazine’s they’re recreating the dominant reading (via theory of preferred reading by Stewart hall) that has been mass presented throughout media as reactionary stereotypes to create a common enemy in the media (common enemy via Habermas’s five filters of mass media).
audience-
Niche product-
“celebrate the humble, the frugal and the plentiful; the magic in the mundane, and the unsung beauty of the unnoticed”. – the audience is humble as well as the magazine
Frugal- simple and plain and costing little.
In terms of the uses and gratifications theory, the magazine might appeal to the reader’s personal identity because the content reinforces their values and beliefs. Of course, the articles about fashion and music can help the audience to construct their identity as suggested by David Gauntlett.
Language-
The masthead is written in a sans serif font which seems to be handwritten which suggests that Oh Comely has already started to create personal relationships with the audience.
Oh Comely values the power of women and minority groups.
Oh comely does support Gauntlett and shows this through their choices of images and choices of content to include within the magazine.