Oh Comely points:
-Owned by a small company called “IceBerg Press” which is only a small amount of staff running a full magazine.
-The editor of “Oh! Comely” worked at Hearst as deputy editor of the “coast” magazine.
-Sykes recalls. “We didn’t like the fact that print dying was becoming a self fulfilling prophecy”
-The world of magazines has never been more vibrant and innovative, but you wouldn’t know it from the average newsstand today. From Iceberg Press website
-Feminist Magazine
-The front covers words “Power”, “Strong” and “Hard-Won” gives a powerful representation of woman, feminist critical thinking.
-The girl is wearing covering clothing and short hear, showing that she is not being sexualised and in fact is being displayed as her, not a body, as a human.
-Lack of huge amount of makeup, making it more like she is being displayed for her and her humanity, rather than her “beauty”
Devoted to the artists, bands and outsiders that it loves, Oh Comely is peaceful and disarming, a magazine that wants you to take your time with it. The first issue of Oh Comely was published in 2010 and co-edited by Des Tan and Liz Bennett, with Rosanna Durham and Dani Lurie as art and music editors. Collectively the four worked as Adeline Media. Oh Comely publishes craft, DIY, creative non-fiction, photography and illustration, as well as reader submissions. In 2014, The Independent identified Oh Comely, alongside Delayed Gratification and Apartment, as part of a change in magazine publishing led by younger editors launching print titles for a generation of readers raised on digital media. Iceberg Press announced their purchase of Oh Comely from Adeline Media in 2016.
Lisa Sykes- “We didn’t like the fact that print dying was becoming a self fulfilling prophecy and we felt strongly there were plenty of people who want to read magazines if you made them worth the money.
Oh Comely owned by iceberg press, Lisa being the editor.
The magazine is represented as highly unconventional with the lack of sexualisation and presentation of women of being dominant and speaking out.
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.
Semiotics – The dominant signifier in this image is very clear as we can see the female presented in the centre of the image in a medium shot suggesting that they are not sexualising her as she is wearing light make up and unrevealing clothes. This could suggest how the ideology of the world should function and women should be seen as powerful and be seen as leadership that would influence our behaviours and actions. The pose of the dominant signifier explains how the anchorage in this cover is the text based feature such as the header ‘oh comely’ which annotates the meaning of an attractive person.
Steve Neal – He argues that genre is labelled and create a narrative image for a media product, as genre is presented to show pleasure to their audience. Steve Neal says that genre is crafted to create an appeal for specific audience segments. As we can see in ‘oh comely’ there is an iconography that refers to mise en scene expectations as well as camera and editing styles that convey their audience to worlds that are escapist. Audience’s gain enjoyment from identifying moments that de4epart from those expectations. Neale argues, provide moments of audience pleasure or deliver products that have unique selling points such as on page 57 there is a quote by ‘Amali De Alwis’ that says “why aren’t there more women in tech? It shouldn’t just be a boy’s club”, that suggests representational effects where genre might be recognisable through the application of gender specific representations.
Levi-Strauss – He suggests that humans naturally explain the world in terms of oppositions is a structuralist argument. He proposes how humans encode and decode the world using universally shared principles. He also says that genres and forms are popular within the contemporary media landscape explain how oh comely is targeting specific individuals by creating genre based oppositions that could lead to more profit.
Todorov – He explains how narratives are significations even though the construction of that reality is symbolic – offering us a version of the world that is ordered by the ethical, moral or ideological viewpoints of text’s author. In ‘oh comely’ we can see many different ideological viewpoints of a varies of different women that have been portrayed to suggest the reality of narrative lies in the way that characters or the worlds inhabit are transformed at the end of a story.
Looking at the construction of being male and female. It is about civil rights and focused on issues of equality and discrimination.
Stuart Hall – Stereotypes are mostly found where there are huge social inequalities. They exclude and demonise groups in a manner that both reflects and reinforces social hierarchies. ‘Oh comely’ can be linked to this theorist as media representation focuses on power and they are trying to portray our views of the wider world where women can be given the opportunity to do many things rather than in the second wave feminism where civil rights where focused on issues on equality and discrimination.
Bell Hooks – His theory is to give a voice to invisible social groups where he wants to outline economic oppression that draws attention to the huge wealth gap that exists between privileged white groups and the rest of society as well as drawing attention to the privileges that economic power generates for those groups. This refers to ‘oh comely’ as they are seeking out audiences to construct positive as well as critical effects. They are creating social diversity and giving voice to the social groups that have been marginalised by white male power.
Judith Butler – Butler talks about how gender is not stable but is constructed through repeated actions that reinforce our identities. For example in ‘oh comely’ the act of wearing makeup is an illusion that we have a seamless and permanent male or female identity. Thinks leads on to the fact that behaviours work as learned micro performances and signal our identity to ourselves and to others.
Oh comely is an independent magazine published by Iceberg Press, a small London publisher which publishes only one other title. It is an independent media company, that suggests new technology that small companies can also use the internet to communicate and target audiences. Iceberg’s branding includes a commitment a print over other media forms.
Final issue was published Sep 2021
Minimalistic style helps readers to focus on the “stories”
Created by Adeline Media – Owned by Iceberg Press which consists of only 4 people
Strong feminist perspective – Can be seen throughout the entirety of the magazine
100k on social media
25k readers per issue
average age of reader – 27
The model on the front of oh comely is wearing non-revealing clothing which goes against Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze theory.
Words such as power, wisdom and strong are used which correspond with the model on the front of the magazine and also show the magazine’s message.
Absence of representation of men throughout the magazine show that women take the priority in this magazine
Iceberg Press is an independent media company that has a more niche audience – committed to print over other forms of media
Focused on women as artists, entrepreneurs, athletes and musicians and female empowerment
Stuart Hall reception theory: Dominated, Negotiated, Oppositional
pg. 54 Deanna Rogers is seen in a spotlight which connotes importance and that she is in the limelight as apposed to a man. The article
the averages age of 27 · 98% female readers ABC1 demographic
ABC1 – a consumer from one of the three higher social and economic groups, which consist of people who have more education and better-paid jobs than those in other groups:
Semiotics
Dominant Signifier – (iconic) fashion model
Masthead – the adjective “comely” means attractive and pleasing, but it also denotes sophistication and conformity, becoming a celebration of feminine beauty without reducing women to objects used to satisfy the male gaze.
Narrative
non-hegemonic model, anchored by power and poise
Challenging Social and Cultural Contexts
Many of the women featured within the magazine take a radical stance on the representation of women as they are not being sexualised and do not play into the male gaze.
It doesn’t use the male gaze and showcase the female body. Instead they use a direct gaze to feature women in a different model other than the sexualised images other companies use with the male gaze.
The focus is on women as artists, entrepreneurs, athletes and musicians and female empowerment is a major theme.
Theory’s and theorists:
Laura Mulvey – Male Gaze:
Stuart hall – Reception theory (Dominant, negotiated, opposition )
Bell hooks – Feminist theory
Van Zoonen – Feminism and patriarchal theory
Judith Butler – Gender Performativity
| In a digital world, print magazines have little appeal. To what extent do you agree with this statement? You should refer to the magazine Close Study Product Men’s Health to support you answer. [25 marks] |
| Media products often challenge the social and cultural contexts in which they are created. To what extent does an analysis of the Close Study Product Men’s Health support this view? [25 marks] |
Men’s Health takes a reactionary stance on the social and cultural contexts in which it’s created, rather than challenging it. This can be seen through Steve Neale’s genre theory where he, to paraphrase, says that genre is structured around a variety of elements that attract audiences based on their expectations. Men’s Health, a male lifestyle magazine, displays a paradigm of signs relating to the stereotypical idea of masculinity. For example, on the front page, the dominant signifier is the iconic sign of well-known actor, Vin Diesel. By presenting a muscular, heterosexual male in a powerful stance, the magazine implies that this is the standard for manliness and that all men should aspire to look like this. The dominant signifier also relates to David Gauntlett’s Identity Theory, in which there are four types of identity: collective, constructive, negotiated, and fluid. Men’s Health emits a collective identity where Vin Diesel is the expected standard for healthy men and a constructive identity where people create their identity around the magazine’s influence.
Lazarfeld’s Two-Step Flow Theory in which opinion leaders pass their interpretations of mass media to others. In this instance, Vin Diesel is the ‘opinion leader’ who people will actively choose to follow and listen to, and by being situated on the front cover of Men’s Health, he influences his ‘opinion followers’ to read the magazine.
In a digital world, print magazines have little appeal, this is shown through magazines such as Men’s Health having digital versions that people can read online. Furthermore, the front cover of Men’s Health magazine
I believe that Men’s Health does not challenge the social and cultural context in which it was created and is a reactionary magazine. I see this in the dominant signifier of Vin Diesel in the middle of the page, posed in a manner that shows off his muscles. Furthermore his body has been clearly altered, possibly in photoshop, which can be seen in the colour of his arms and how much darker they get as you go down his body. The clothes that he is wearing are also tight fitting which helps to show his muscles to the audience. When people read a Men’s Health magazine they would expect the “perfect man” to be on the front cover to show what the perfect man would look like. This is also similar to the score CSP which also has a dominant signifier of the “perfect man” as the main selling point, showing that little to no progress has been made in challenging the social and cultural beliefs that people have of men. Vin Diesel signifies what people would want to become when they read this magazine. All of the text on the front page is either black or different shades of blue, which are typically associated with masculinity and the male gender. Vin Diesel is shown again in the editor’s letter, with the text “Diesel’s slant is one to aspire to” which again tells audiences that they should be like him. George Gerbner’s Cultivation Theory states that people who consume media often are more susceptible to the messages in said media, so Men’s Health showing Vin Diesel multiple times throughout the magazine and stating that he is “one to aspire to” sends the message to audiences that Vin Diesel is the standard for all men. On page 101 there is an article about a 69 year old marathon runner which is radical