Compare and contrast the ways in which viewpoints and ideologies are encoded in Woman and Adbusters.
Compare and contrast the ways in which viewpoints and ideologies are encoded in Woman and Adbusters.
Both magazines, Woman and Adbusters, have their own personal viewpoints and ideologies that have been carefully encoded into each part of the magazine by the producer. Woman, focusing heavily on the stereotypical ideas about women (because of the socio-historical context of when the magazine was produced (the 1960s)) and Adbusters portraying very modern ideas about gender and other subjects such as saving the planet. Adbusters always includes their slightly subversive, anti-capitalist, ideas in every article.
To begin with, Adbusters includes their atypical views about gender in their double page spread raising awareness about issues with water contamination in third world countries next to a fake, culture jamming advert about a tap. The producers of Adbusters have accurately encoded these ideas into the double page spread because their atypical ideologies about gender have been encoded in the mid shot of a person sitting in a bath. Their views of gender are atypical because the fact that the image has been framed in such a way that you can only see the persons arms, legs and part of their face means that you can not actually tell what gender they are. This is an effective way of encoding their ideologies because of the fact that as Lisbet Van Zoonen states in her theory about feminism; Women's bodies in media products are used as a spectacle for male audiences which reinforces patriarchal hegemony. This means that most adverts following the generic codes and conventions of magazines would have had a woman in the bath being exploited in a sexual way and being objectified for the benefit of the male audience. However, due to the fact that Adbusters is a controversial and left wing magazine they have made their ideologies clear by making sure the person remains non gender specific.
Additionally, Woman magazine has also introduced their own ideologies about gender in their magazine. Due to the fact that the magazine was produced in the 1960s the general views of women at this time apply to the magazine. For example, women in the magazine are generally shown as inferior to men and are just there to look nice for their husband which relates to the conventional and stereotypical views of women at this time. These ideologies have been encoded by the producer for the front cover of the magazine because the front cover includes a main image of a woman looking happily into the camera, directly addressing the audience. The woman is clearly wearing a lot of make-up and is wearing a dress which relates to the stereotype of the time that woman should appeal to men. This is because the make-up would be what men want to see on a woman and, therefore, women should wear it. this again links to Lisbet Van Zoonen's theory that women are used as a spectacle for men in media products. Additionally, another stereotype of women that the magazine producers have encoded in the front cover would be that women are there to be domestic and to cook and do washing. This ideology is represented on the front cover because the main image of the woman looks as if she is wearing clothes that are practical for cooking because of the fact that the dress has no sleeves to get caught on the cooker and there are also advertisements stating "Seven star improvements for your kitchen". Furthermore, patriarchal hegemony (meaning that men are dominant in society) is an ideology of Woman magazines producers because of the fact that they have included an article by Alfred Hitchcock and added a cover line to the magazines front cover advertising this. This reinforced patriarchal hegemony because Hitchcock talks about British women having a "special magic" meaning that he views women more like objects because he is describing his taste in women similar to how you would describe favourite object.
Again, Adbusters have encoded left wing/anti-capitalist ideologies as well as subversive and challenging ideologies in an article titled "Save the planet kill yourself." This is because the name itself is subversive as not many conventional magazines would have a title telling you to "Kill yourself". Additionally, the challenging ideologies have been encoded into the text by the producers because the whole article is talking about how we are destroying the planet with everything that we do and that we need to change this. This means that Adbusters very left wing viewpoints are that one of the only ways to truly save the planet is to kill ourselves because of the amount of damage that, we as a species, inflict on our planet.
Woman magazines ideologies and viewpoints of patriarchal hegemony are present in the Breeze advert for soap in their magazine. This is because patriarchal hegemony is male dominance in society and the advert is aimed at women for a primary target audience but because the woman is clothed only in the soap bubbles surrounding her the secondary audience is men. This shows patriarchal hegemony because even though the whole magazine is aimed at women there are still adverts that appeal to men due to their sexual nature. The reasoning for this may be because men were also seen as the workers of the family at this time who went out and earned money for the family meaning that it is likely that the men of the family would be the ones to actually buy the magazine. Additionally, Bell Hooks' feminist theory states that peoples gender determine how they are viewed in media. This is true for the Breeze advert because the fact that the model is a woman means that they have presented her in a very sexual way which may have been different if they were selling a soap aimed at men. This is also a definition of Lisbet Van Zoonen's theory because the woman's body is being presented as a spectacle for the male audiences.
To conclude, I would say that both Adbusters and Woman magazine encode ideologies about gender in their magazines but Adbusters focuses on a much more modern and anti-mainstream view of gender because of the fact that they have not used female models in an objectifying way and they to not enforce patriarchal hegemony in their magazine. This is a direct contrast to Woman magazines views on gender because they have resorted to very stereotypical, conventional views of gender that were common at the time because of the way that they have portrayed women sexually. Additionally, Woman magazine has enforced what women like because the contents page of Woman magazine is very stereotypical of women's interests such as: cooking, knitting, and cleaning. The ideologies have all been enforced and encoded by the use of anchorage because the use of text helps to enforce a meaning of a particular image. For example, the Breeze advert has a very patronising caption saying how women should always look and feel beautiful with there soap. This helps to enforce the ideologies because it is again portraying stereotypical views of what women like.
Both magazines, Woman and Adbusters, have their own personal viewpoints and ideologies that have been carefully encoded into each part of the magazine by the producer. Woman, focusing heavily on the stereotypical ideas about women (because of the socio-historical context of when the magazine was produced (the 1960s)) and Adbusters portraying very modern ideas about gender and other subjects such as saving the planet. Adbusters always includes their slightly subversive, anti-capitalist, ideas in every article.
To begin with, Adbusters includes their atypical views about gender in their double page spread raising awareness about issues with water contamination in third world countries next to a fake, culture jamming advert about a tap. The producers of Adbusters have accurately encoded these ideas into the double page spread because their atypical ideologies about gender have been encoded in the mid shot of a person sitting in a bath. Their views of gender are atypical because the fact that the image has been framed in such a way that you can only see the persons arms, legs and part of their face means that you can not actually tell what gender they are. This is an effective way of encoding their ideologies because of the fact that as Lisbet Van Zoonen states in her theory about feminism; Women's bodies in media products are used as a spectacle for male audiences which reinforces patriarchal hegemony. This means that most adverts following the generic codes and conventions of magazines would have had a woman in the bath being exploited in a sexual way and being objectified for the benefit of the male audience. However, due to the fact that Adbusters is a controversial and left wing magazine they have made their ideologies clear by making sure the person remains non gender specific.
Additionally, Woman magazine has also introduced their own ideologies about gender in their magazine. Due to the fact that the magazine was produced in the 1960s the general views of women at this time apply to the magazine. For example, women in the magazine are generally shown as inferior to men and are just there to look nice for their husband which relates to the conventional and stereotypical views of women at this time. These ideologies have been encoded by the producer for the front cover of the magazine because the front cover includes a main image of a woman looking happily into the camera, directly addressing the audience. The woman is clearly wearing a lot of make-up and is wearing a dress which relates to the stereotype of the time that woman should appeal to men. This is because the make-up would be what men want to see on a woman and, therefore, women should wear it. this again links to Lisbet Van Zoonen's theory that women are used as a spectacle for men in media products. Additionally, another stereotype of women that the magazine producers have encoded in the front cover would be that women are there to be domestic and to cook and do washing. This ideology is represented on the front cover because the main image of the woman looks as if she is wearing clothes that are practical for cooking because of the fact that the dress has no sleeves to get caught on the cooker and there are also advertisements stating "Seven star improvements for your kitchen". Furthermore, patriarchal hegemony (meaning that men are dominant in society) is an ideology of Woman magazines producers because of the fact that they have included an article by Alfred Hitchcock and added a cover line to the magazines front cover advertising this. This reinforced patriarchal hegemony because Hitchcock talks about British women having a "special magic" meaning that he views women more like objects because he is describing his taste in women similar to how you would describe favourite object.
Again, Adbusters have encoded left wing/anti-capitalist ideologies as well as subversive and challenging ideologies in an article titled "Save the planet kill yourself." This is because the name itself is subversive as not many conventional magazines would have a title telling you to "Kill yourself". Additionally, the challenging ideologies have been encoded into the text by the producers because the whole article is talking about how we are destroying the planet with everything that we do and that we need to change this. This means that Adbusters very left wing viewpoints are that one of the only ways to truly save the planet is to kill ourselves because of the amount of damage that, we as a species, inflict on our planet.
Woman magazines ideologies and viewpoints of patriarchal hegemony are present in the Breeze advert for soap in their magazine. This is because patriarchal hegemony is male dominance in society and the advert is aimed at women for a primary target audience but because the woman is clothed only in the soap bubbles surrounding her the secondary audience is men. This shows patriarchal hegemony because even though the whole magazine is aimed at women there are still adverts that appeal to men due to their sexual nature. The reasoning for this may be because men were also seen as the workers of the family at this time who went out and earned money for the family meaning that it is likely that the men of the family would be the ones to actually buy the magazine. Additionally, Bell Hooks' feminist theory states that peoples gender determine how they are viewed in media. This is true for the Breeze advert because the fact that the model is a woman means that they have presented her in a very sexual way which may have been different if they were selling a soap aimed at men. This is also a definition of Lisbet Van Zoonen's theory because the woman's body is being presented as a spectacle for the male audiences.
To conclude, I would say that both Adbusters and Woman magazine encode ideologies about gender in their magazines but Adbusters focuses on a much more modern and anti-mainstream view of gender because of the fact that they have not used female models in an objectifying way and they to not enforce patriarchal hegemony in their magazine. This is a direct contrast to Woman magazines views on gender because they have resorted to very stereotypical, conventional views of gender that were common at the time because of the way that they have portrayed women sexually. Additionally, Woman magazine has enforced what women like because the contents page of Woman magazine is very stereotypical of women's interests such as: cooking, knitting, and cleaning. The ideologies have all been enforced and encoded by the use of anchorage because the use of text helps to enforce a meaning of a particular image. For example, the Breeze advert has a very patronising caption saying how women should always look and feel beautiful with there soap. This helps to enforce the ideologies because it is again portraying stereotypical views of what women like.
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