The Gentlewoman: Language and Representation blog tasks

Gentlewoman front cover 

1) What do the typefaces used on the front cover suggest to an audience?

Sans serif typography with all lower case latter's. It's very bright which could mean that the audience is younger.

2) How does he cover subvert conventional magazine cover design?

There is no writing around the picture. Masthead is very simple.

3) Write an analysis of the central image.

Its a close up of Scarlet Johannsson. She is heavily coated in make up. The make up is quite odd looking compered to what a typical woman would were. It's very constructed. She is making direct eye contact. The picture is surrounded by a black rectangle. There is very minimal text around the picture.

4) What representations of gender and celebrity can be found on this front cover?

Conventional femininity due to the heavy use of make up.

5) What gender and representation theories can we apply to this cover of the Gentlewoman? 

Judith Butler's gender as performance as well as van Zoonen's theory that gender is constructed and that its meaning varies dependent on cultural and historical context.

Feature: Modern Punches

1) How does the feature on Ramla Ali use narrative to engage the audience? Apply narrative theories here.

Boxing is typically seen as a male sport. We can use both Butlers as well as van Zoonen's theories that Ramla subverts the norm and challenges it due to her being a woman.

2) What representations can you find in this feature - both interview and image?

This interview challenges conventional gender norms, primarily focusses on how women are portrayed while highlighting Ali's tenacity and strength in her commitment to boxing.

3) What representation theories can we apply to the Modern Punches feature? 

Butlers and van Zoonen's.

Feature: Isabella Tree interview

1) Why is this feature unconventional for a women's lifestyle and fashion magazine? Comment on the use media language in these pages. 

It's unconventional due to the lack of images of her but the abundance of images of trees.

2) How does the Isabella Tree feature reflect the social and cultural contexts of contemporary Britain? Think about AQA's discussion of lifestyle, environmental issues and ethical movements.

Climate change and people in general caring more for the nature reflects the changes in society.

3) What representations of nature can be found in this feature?

There are various plants, animals and trees.

Feature: Stella McCartney and vegan fashion

1) How does this feature reflect contemporary social and cultural contexts?

It reflects a subtle change in fashion and ethics of people. 

2) Comment on the typography and page design in this feature.

It creates a modernistic astetic.

3) What representations can be found in the image accompanying this feature? 

The picture is minimalistic, it empathises social class and has and arty feeling.

Representations

Read this Business of Fashion interview with The Gentlewoman editor Penny Martin. If you don't want to sign up to the website (free) then you can access the text of the article on Google Drive here (you'll need your Greenford Google login). Answer the following questions: 

1) What type of magazine did Penny Martin, Gert Jonkers and Jop van Bennekom want to create? 

They wanted to crate a magazine that will produce long-form journalism

and a personality-centred magazine that has equally eloquent imagery and

graphic design.

2) What representations of modern women did they try to construct for the magazine?

"A bit more outspoken: maybe we're a bit livelier, even a bit sexier."

3) What examples of cover stars reflect the diversity in the magazine's content? 

Cover stars have ranged from 88-year-old actor Angela Lansbury, shot in a peach

silk blouse and Terry Richardson's black frame glasses, to popstar Beyoncé,

looking calm, strong and composed in Dior with a face free of make-up.

4) What is Penny Martin's view on feminism and whether the magazine is feminist?

"When people ask me about politics or feminism, I say that it isn't a magazine about those things, it's a magazine informed by those things — among others. Is it a feminist magazine? Well, it's made by feminist people, so what do you think?! But I don't want to make those values and principles fashionable, because I don't want to undermine them by turning them into an aesthetic and I don't want them to pass into the realm of the unfashionable. Let's just assume that we all agree there should be equal pay and childcare and get on with it, eh?"

5) Look at the end of the article. How does the Gentlewoman help readers construct or reflect their identity by engaging with events and spaces beyond the magazine? 

"Other things" includes the recently formed Gentlewoman Club which extends

the magazine's brand into physical events where readers can interact and chat

with editors.