Mens Health

The symbols in the cover magazine are similar to the Glamour magazine with the circular information in a bright red circle which connotes the eye catching shape of the circle. The colour scheme is bright and boyish with the blue colours. Even though you can't see it in the photo the price is 5 pounds which is extremely more expensive than the woman's magazine, this could be because Men's Health focuses on the higher demographic such as C1 - A which consists of wealthy and successful business men down to middle working class men that are also interested in the Men's Health magazine. This is portrayed in the bar at the bottom of the page 'Get 3,174 richer the Eco-selfish way'. Which implies that the stereotype of successful men is being aimed at by the magazine.

The photo on the front cover is a very sexist pose with the girl leaning against the guy which connotes her need for protection and lust. It is a promiscuous pose with the guy having a beastly body as well as the women being half naked. Her pose is very curvaceous and sexual with the way that she is moving her hands around themselves. The way that the man is facing the front connotes the way that he is holding the power and the women is needing him to be there for her safety. The mans body position is also showing his physique which is a lot of what the magazine focuses on, as well as the woman's bust and thigh being clearly on show. Over all the photo is very sexual and lustful which attracts the man either with wanting the woman for pleasure or wanting to be the man because of how he is portrayed.

The 'Bigger Biceps and Gym Free Abs' both connote one of the main themes of the magazine and their promise of what they can give is also attracting. In the 21st century men have become aware of their body's just as much as women and are now stereotypically competitive towards each other on who looks better but they are fighting for what a woman would want. (Which is also the same for women) The magazine is focusing on this target audience and giving them exactly what they want. Other themes of the magazine that are being shown on the front cover are sex, money and lifestyle, which are the main themes that stereotypically men in the demographic A -C1 are bothered about.

Audience Profile -

Because of the demographic the age range of the readers would range from 23 -40, with some younger readers to around 18, as well as the secondary audiences for example gay men or women. They would be very interested in health, fitness, sex and money as well as new technology and sport. Men would read the magazine to gather information that is new and up to date, as well as building their confidence and motivation.

Glamour Magazine

In the new issue (December 2010) of Glamour magazine Charlotte Church poses on the front with lots of article features around her, the first thing that takes the attention of the reader is the large yellow circle with the price on it. The sticker is yellow which contrasts with the other colour scheme of the rest of the cover, the price only being £2 connotes that the magazines audience isn't a very high demo graphical one because other highly renound magazines can usually cost £5. 'Weekly price' also connotes that they are actually competing with weekly magazines which tend to be more gossip magazines.

The demographic that Glamour aims at tends to be C1 - E. The other orange circle with a percentage for discount which also attracts attention of the readers, the designer is in small print whilst the 25% off is large which connotes the way that women are attracted by discount on anything. The 'OMG' is a slang word which also connotes the lower status of the readers but it adds a sense of fun to the magazine and a catchy subheading, as well as attracting readers to the feature because they want to know whats so good. One of the feature 'i was £10,000 a day hooker' shows the trouble and darker life of some women and contradicts the typically stereotype of a women in society. 'I almost married a murderer,' is one of the real life stories in the magazine and the title connotes a dark and horrible story but it attracts women because its an interesting and different thing for people to read.

The main photo of Charlotte Church is also a very feminine and sexy pose as well as showing off her curves which connotes her femininity as well as giving the message of being proud of your shape. The colour of her clothes is very warm and dark which connote the winter feel of the whole magazine, the sequin trousers are also very fashionable which hug to her legs, they show her curvaceous figure. This image of her is very sexy with natural make up and womanly curvy hair. It connotes a very feminine image of what the stereotype is like, as well as gives the reader a real image of a 'real' woman. Which in turn gives them a confidence boost to know some one like Charlotte Church is also natural like anyone else.

The 'dos and dont's' caption for the feature connotes that women can't decide things for themselves and need to be told whats right and whats wrong and instead need to be told by women how to do certain things. The colour scheme doesn't conform to the typical stereotype of women with reds, pinks or purples but it is bright and actually connotes a more warm and Christmas feel.

Audience Profile for Glamour Magazine -
The audience would consists of a high percentage of females as well as the odd secondary audience such as homosexual men or metro sexual men, the magazine also aims towards the 18-25yr old band because of its young clothing range and eccentric make up features such as 'Glitter, Gloss and Go for it'. The majority of ethnicity's that would read the magazine would highly be White British because alot of the other ethnicity's aren't shown in the features of the magazine. People that read the magazine would be of the psycho graphics of aspires, strugglers, and people who seek enlightenment, this is because its a way of finding out information as well as the escapism that comes with it. They would also be interested in a materialistic lifestyle, as well as fashion, men and beauty.

'love, sex and what i weighed.' This article consists of a number of women's experiences within what the article is about, which is what a person weighed whilst they were having sex and falling in love. Because the stories are all personal to people which make it more relatable for the audience. The three stories were all different to the different shapes of women's figures. This is helping to widen the audience of the article to appeal to all different women. Because its not conforming to the male culture the column does not follow the male gaze theory because its to do with something that men wouldn't find as interesting because its about weight within sex. Although there is a sub article on the male's views of this for example 'I was a male model - and I hated my body' which could appeal to the more metrosexual male instead of the masculine male. However the Althussers theory of misrecognising yourself can be seen in the article because women can see themselves as being at a different weight and convincing themselves that they are having the same issues and problems as they are such as the subheadings - 'I finally figured out that skinny can be sexy, too.'

The female audience is portrayed as being controlling and planned due to the typical lifestyle that people want women to have. 'Burn the rule book ladies.' is one of the features in the magazine that also connotes women rebelling about the common stereotypical view of women's life which is a common theme of women's feminist magazine. Men are also portrayed in a slightly harsh light with the 'Beam us up hottie' which connotes that men are to be admired as objects instead of taken seriously. This however is a way for women to make themselves feel better about themselves.

Collective Identity Follow On

Semiotics - the theory was created by Bathes and focuses on the importance of signs and symbols, it focuses on the connotations and denotations of what the symbol means. (Barthes and Sassure)

Many serious magazines such as film and television are all aimed at men and all magazines that are aimed at women tend to have something to do with lifestyle and fashion which have no importance to the real world. Society is rearing women to read this instead of wanting to read the 'important' magazines in life, because they are being bombarded with a lot of information. The Marxists theory would agree that this is keeping women in their place, because they are belittling women's ability to do the same things as men.

Glamour magazine - The name of the magazine connotes a large genre that is aimed at women, it involves beauty, fashion and lifestyle which is what the women are being 'told' to focus on which suggests that as a women we are being wanted to have this type of lifestyle instead of being successful. The name could also suggest models which is another type of stereotype that women have however it does create problems as the industry is very hard and can make a lot of people doubt themselves. The price circle does indicate a cheaper cost which could show the people that the magazine is targeting which is generally between 18-25 years old. The colour and shape give a bright and eye catching view. Keira Knightley is posing very sexual on the front cover which suggests that the photo is aiming at men who would want to buy it however they aren't actually aiming the whole magazine at that so the photo pose could be denoted in the controlling and successful women way, it gives a confident and sexual pose which is something that women would also want to relate to. The white dress gives a innocent connotation which also gives us a view on the way that women are wanting to be perceived by men. The colour scheme of the magazine are pale and pastel colour's which could also denote the way in which men belittle women. The headline of '1014 Looks to suit your figure' also shows that women are demanding variety and are all wanting to be different but ending up the same.

Audience Profile for Glamour Magazine -

Female,

18-25 years,

White British (not many other ethnicity's are shown),

C2 - E demographic,

Aspires, Strugglers, Enlightenment,

Interested in materialistic lifestyle,

Interest in fashion,

Want affordable fashion,

Want relationship advice (thinking of the men),

Winship (1987) - offers a feminist application of male gaze theory to women's magazine covers arguing that 'the gaze' between the cover model and women readers marks the complicity between women seeing themselves in the image which the masculine culture has defined. (Simply this means that the men are wanting us to look like the cover model of magazines i.e sexy, thin, good looking and now we are being brain washed in to believing that we are wanted to look like this as well.)

Althusser's (1971) - gives the Marxists idea of the notion of 'Interpellation' which is when people misrecognise themselves and develop the idea that they want to be like the person on the front of the magazines instead. From a Marxist view magazine covers distract us from the inequality in our society, instead of caring about what's important is show that they are more interested in the gossip/fashion/beauty.

By combining the two - Feminist Marxists! Women then begin to see themselves as wanting to be like the cover person, this can lead to anxiety for people who don't necessarily look like the cover people. We begin to compare ourselves with this which can lead to people not having any confidence and 'losing themselves.' Cover images are also tweaked with air brushes and shapes are changed in order to show the ideal women and this is what women aspire to be like. This in turn makes women anxious which can lead to women being put in their place and stopping them being interested in important topics instead of stereotypical topics.

History - Female magazines have been around for a long time to entertain a lot of the women when men have been doing larger jobs for them. Men have been stereotyped to be the hunter gatherer for a long time, and therefore male magazines have never put them down and women have always looks like the weaker gender.

Contemporary - Female magazines are still belittling women in the sense that they are pinning the ideal body image and personality in their magazines but they are also giving information on the topics that women are interested in. However male magazines also lower women as they are degrading women in the whole 'nuts' magazine genre as well as giving men information on topics that they are interested in

Future - because metro sexual is beginning to take over a lot of the industry, men's magazines are becoming larger with a wider variety of sensitive and more 'arty' demand in the industry. In the future there will be more demand on the metro sexual magazine which in turn will change the stereotypical views than male and female magazines have as they will have to develop more of a wide audience so that they can keep their status in the media industry.

WE ARE ONLY INTERESTED IN TOPICS THAT WE HAVE BEEN STEREOTYPICALLY TAUGHT BY THE MEDIA TO BE INTERESTED IN.