Representation – Selling Through Stereotypes

Media produces use stereotypes to sell a product, I’m going to show you how stereotypes effect your decision into buying a product.

Gender

In 1975, feminist critic Laura Mulvey said females are summarized “As erotic objects of desire for the characters within the story, and as erotic objects of desire for the spectator.” Females are very commonly used as sex appealing objects to the audience for a long time. These does appeal to both genders but when you have a female model such as Katy Perry semi naked on the front of a magazine cover it most probably catch the attention of males. But also this would catch the attention to females who are the secondary target audience. Females the age of the model or younger will be interested as they want to been seen attractive as well. But since 1975 men have been used in the same way. Men have been used in the same way woman have been used as you can see Justin Bieber is the main image of this magazine cover and he is topless which is supposed to attract women.

Youth

In 1904 Stanley Hall wrote that a theory known as the Storm & Stress Model. In this he suggested that the common mood for teenagers is being depressed, And that a lot of criminal activity happens from people between the ages of 12 and 24. He also suggested that the 'youth' need an extreme amount of excitement and that excitement usually contains 'alcohol, drugs and sex'. Bill Osgerby said that “We do not have to search too hard to find negative representations of youth in postwar Britain." Most of the youth will read more 'Rebellious' Magazine's if they deem themselves as rebellious. Unlike straight A students who would be represented in a different way. As you can see on this magazine cover the two statements apply as their is a close up of a youth, smoking and making inappropriate gestures. He is also wearing all black clothes and this brings out his 'Rebellious side'. This connotes the depression and how the youth always need excitement as the the story on this cover is 'David Cameron...Be Very Afraid'.

Race

On this topic Sarita Malik argues: “Many feel that Black and Asian audiences are still not sufficiently catered for and that insensitivity towards issues of race and ethnicity still exist. The reality of a lived multiculturalism is not represented in the British media." This is because the Music magazine industry does not cater fairly to all the races n the UK. When i was googling music magazine covers it was hard to find one which had someone who wasn't white on it. Top of the Pops, Kerrang and NME support Malik statement as these are all music magazine companies but yet don't cater fairly as most of there models are white. Even though this is true Malik statement might be slowly becoming outdated as Companies such as XXL and others are now including more models which are not white.

Sexuality

The next magazine I'm looking at is about sexuality. This cover "Chooses aspect of gay male behaviour (SELECTION), inflates it into the defining male characteristic of male homosexuality (MAGNIFICATION), then establish it as the most easily recognizable image (REDUCTION).” This is shown through his clothing choice. He is wearing all black clothing and black makeup which shows us he has a 'gothic' fashion sense which is normally related to homosexual males.

 National/Regional Identity

Theorist Andrew Higson writes; “Identity is generally understood to be the shared identity of naturalized inhabitants of a particular political-geographic space – this can be a particular nation or region. This is shown quite obviously in this magazine cover by Kerrang as the main use of the Union Jack flag. Also all over this magazine cover they use the main colours of the union jack (Red, Blue and White). This is also represented through some of the text as well such as 'cool britannia' which also portrays this theme.

 

Class

My last magazine cover is represented through the theories of class and social grades. It is argued that the middle class of the population has the best deal in terms of representation as the middle class have the biggest impact the the social media. This magazines cover is middle/higher class as the choice of clothing of the main image portrays a higher social class and looks in control. The content is layer out in a very formal way and this also makes the magazine cover more of a higher class.