Explore how gender is represented in examples from the media

 

For Vogue June 2020 magazine edition, the main cover star is the actress Judi Denich. She is included in one of Vogue’s website posts named “21 Most iconic Vogue Covers” because of her great visuals in age of 85, making her the oldest cover star in magazine’s history. 

The actress challenges the beauty stereotypes about age and face in modern fashion industry. Usually females are seen as beautiful until their 30s when they start to be mothers and wives. Often magazines and film media choose younger models and celebrities for their campaigns and adverts because they are seen as more attractive and can bring bigger audience. Here we see how Judi is in the main role, she is wearing minimalistic makeup which is unusual for older women. Editor’s choice to not photoshop her facial wrinkles emphasis how Vogue took a step up in normalising women’s age. Many females are afraid of getting old because society have the stigma to categorizes older women as not attractive and that aging is not a good thing. With this appearance, Denich breaks every stereotype and shows that women have to be confident in their looks no matter how old they are. The main targeted audience is females around mid-age and over. They can find a role model in Judi. This is a step up for women as a whole, usually in print media old women are not seen as good enough for a cover, while males can be models until their mature years. 

Flowers are often linked with youth and beauty, as well the pink colour is stereotypically feminine. The actress wearing pink flowered shirt represents youthfulness, probably in the way she feels herself, and at the same wise because flowers growth and then bloom. This can connotate how Judi is in her best years and how her carrier bloomed despise her age. 

Judy challenges but at the same time expresses stereotypes typically linked with women in her age. For example, the posture and the way she looks shows graciousness, calmness and elegance which is expected behaviour for them, as well the pink colour is linked mainly with women representations. 

In this Vogue edition the main cover star is Simone Biles, an American gymnast with combined total of 30 Olympic and World Championships medals. 

Fashion magazines usually prefer to put models and celebrities with more feminine body features, with this edition Vogue challenges stereotypes about the ideal cover star. Showing Simone’s muscular back and arms, they want to emphasis on the women power and how it’s normal to have muscles even if you are female. Biles can be a role model for all female readers who are struggling with their body image, she is posing with confidence which shows how women have to be proud of their bodies no matter how they look like and if they fit in generic stereotypes. 

The choice of the color yellow for the background emphasis positivity and freshness. Including Simone, the magazine refreshes the typical cover star image that everyone is expecting to see, as well this color brings a lot of joy which again helps readers to feel happier about themselves. The bright colors (the orange body suit and background) makes the cover to look really vibrant and exciting which can help for attracting people’s attention. As well these colors contrast well with Biles skin color and make her stand out even more. 

The title is behind Simone’s head which connotes empowerment and makes her face to be the main feature. Subtitles are minimalistic and colored in white which is another way to make the cover star stand even more, it shows how she is the main figure. Her posture resembles a boss position typically for men, hands on their hips, this challenges genders’ stereotypes and connotes how women and men are equal. This pose as well makes her back muscles to be shown which as I mentioned previously emphasis confidence in her body and states that women can be masculine as men. She is not ashamed of her body, because Simone has been working hard for this body and this hard work helped her to achieve all these medals and wins.  

In July’s Vogue magazine edition, the cover star is not a celebrity or popular person. It’s the midwife Rachel Millar, a nurse in Homerton Hospital, in East London. The last few months were especially hard for health care workers, being the people who are closest to Corona virus- COVID-19. With this cover the magazine wants to show how medical workers are important for society and they need to be shown. 

Back in the past, doctors were mainly represented from male gender, and midwives were not seen as important as them. Now days all the health care workers have the same respect from society, risking their own lives for population. The subtitle “The New Front Line” emphasis how medical workers are represented as solders, and that the battle is with the pandemic. The pink pass lace connotes how most of the midwives are still females, but at the same time she is wearing it on her neck, which shows confidence of her gender and work. 

Vogue challenges magazines’ stereotypes about the cover stars. This is one of the three editions featuring NI midwifes. They are ordinary people, which is unusual for a big brand print media to include on the cover. One of the reasons is not typical is the sailing numbers. Many readers are ready to buy a magazine for its cover, but with this edition Vogue wants to shows how respecting key workers is more important.

Lady Gaga- Alejandro /Music Video 

In Lady Gaga’s music video- Alejandro, we can see many examples of stereotypes that have been challenged. In this particular shot, the male representer is wearing fishnet tight with high heels. He is half naked, wearing a soldier type of hat. This whole image is controversial in many ways, the heels and tight are typically wore by women, with this clothing the video shows how men are seen as genderless and they are objectified sexually like women. It wants to create an image where muscular soldiers are used as sex toys from their dictator or main figure- Lady Gaga. 

Here we see how the singer and the queen/ dictator in this music video- Lady Gaga, watches from a higher position a group of half-naked men, probably her followers to march and dance. The posture and the way she is looking at them and smokes links with the typical idea of a boss image, Gaga plays the role of the man in the music video and other male representers are her marionettes. This links to Stuart Hall’s theory of representation. In the music and film industry, often men are shown as the main and strong gender and women are seen as secondary characters. They play the role of housewives or sex objects, here Lady Gaga challenges these stereotypes and shows the exact opposite. The crown also suggests that she is the queen and that she is in higher position than men.

Throughout the music video many provocative and explicate scenes are being shown. For example, here Lady Gaga is wearing a nude underwear with black lace socks, this outfit is really sexualised because her skin colour is light and from far away it looks like she is wearing nothing. Her platinum blonde hair mixes with her light almost white skin as well and make her red lipstick to stand out more. White colour often emphasis innocence and kindness while red is seen as a powerful and dangerous. These two colours contradicts with each other and resembles the two opposite ideas through out this video.

There are lot of religion elements in the music video, although most of the scenes and the narrative story are controversial. Here lady gaga is lying in the bed, wearing a nun red and white latex costume, she is holding a catholic rosary. This emphasis how she is praying even when she and her back dancers/ followers are doing sinister things. Gaga includes two opposite themes and believes in one video. The red is linked with blood and hell, which again shows how gaga includes the two opposites in one image. She is wearing a deep red lipstick, the makeup is forbidden for nuns, they follow the God’s rules and believes. In the music video we can see how gaga is dancing with provocative clothing, which again shows how she is showing an opposite image of nuns. 

Lady Gaga shows how she and her male back dancers are similar, she doesn’t show any gender discrimination or boundaries. Throughout the music video gaga is seen as equal even superior in comparison to men. In this scene, she and her two back dancers have the same hairstyle, which connotes how they are all equal, the only difference is that she is blonde and they are black haired. The outfits as well show a gender swap, we can see lady Gaga wearing a sleeveless black suit with long trousers, while the dancers are wearing tight black shorts and they are half naked.  It shows how gaga is changing the gender stereotypes, typically men are presented as the dominant figure, he can have any women he wants, while women are objectified and seen as mainly sex toys, in many music videos and print media women are associated with short and provocative clothes, which have the goal to please the men’s eyes. In this music video, the ones who are wearing sexualised clothes are the men and lady gaga is the dominant figure. They are trying to please her and follow her commands. 

Here we see how a man, probably her follower is in her bed together with gaga, he is kneeled and ties with robs around him- ankles, wrists. At the same time in the other part of the bed Lady Gaga is laying down in her nun costume and continues to pray. In this scene the idea of putting religion and sexual context in one place is shown like earlier in this music video. The ropes around the man’s body can emphasis how he is like a toy and lady gaga controls him, he doesn’t have an opinion because he is just her pursuivant.