Gender Representations

Men's magazines

When you type in 'Men's fashion magazines' here are the representations you are presented with. A common convention is a stern or serious facial expression creating a strong and stereotypical masculine representation usually in a medium or medium close up shot. The colour scheme is very muted sticking to various shades of grey and blue and the pop of colour is red used in the masthead.

Here are 'Men's lifestyle magazines'. The representations here are suggesting that a man's life should focus on "Men's Health" and 'Men's Fitness'. The use of a san-serif font is very popular. There are more aggressive language "Kill mode" and the words "abs", "six pack" and "arms" are repeated across the covers suggesting that body image is the main focus of men's 'lifestyle' magazine.

Neither of the men's magazine are very diverse, out of the 28 magazines shown here is only 2 body types represented and only 2 ethnic representations. Furthermore, there aren't many brands of fashion or lifestyle magazines for men therefore limiting the amount of representations there are which is quite exclusive to a small amount of people.Overall the representation of men from the magazines is very narrow and stereotypical, sporty, strong, straight men

'Women's fashion magazines' conventionally have the serious but seductive facial expression which creates a representation of women dressing to be desirable and attractive. The range of colours is a bit more varied than the men's magazines but they are still quite muted. The covers seem to be more minimalist than the men's with either less features around the border or the font is finer and usually in serif.

The ideas about looking good and living healthily is still presented here but in a different way; the words are much more positive and gentle "allure" creating similar representations to the fashion magazine about being attractive. The colours are obviously much brighter with pink being a popular choice. The covers are much more busy with features which is a similarity to the men's magazine however, they appear to be more gossip focused rather than fitness.

I feel that the women's magazine has a bit more diversity then the men's magazine in representing ethnicity but representations of body type is still very exclusive. Unlike the men's there are a few more brands of fashion and lifestyle magazines which means there is more representations. Overall the representation of women from the magazines is also very narrow and stereotypical, beautiful, attractive women.

LGBTQ+ magazines has been created into a genre on its own, a fashion and/or lifestyle magazine for LGBTQ+ community members doesn't seem to exist presenting a huge gap in the market. The magazines that are there have very supportive representations, the "DIVA" magazine has a women looking directly into camera with an all knowing smile which creates some wonderfully positive representations suggesting that being a part of their community is great and that they are there for each other in a society that may not except them. There is a few more colours used however a few of the magazines use less vibrant colours like the general men and women's magazines. "vogue" used a 2 shot which is not seen in neither the men's or women's magazines again creating new representations and breaking conventions. I feel that as LGBTQ+ magazines are a new creation they have a much more modern, healthy way of representing their magazines and overall have a positive representation.