Vogue

Question 1

who owns vogue

and who owns them

Answer 1

Conde Nast

Conde Nast is owned by Advance Publications

( this is an example of horizontal and vertical integration - Hesmondhalgh)

Question 2

Vogue’s brand identity/values

Answer 2

• Heritage (first published 1916)
• Bold
• High End
• Patriotic
• Influential

Question 3

Target, secondary and tertiary audience

Answer 3

• upper affluent middle aged women
• working class young women (aspirers)
• affluent homosexual men

Question 4

FRONT COVER ANALYSIS

Answer 4

• Turquoise headscarf -> unnatural colour signifies unattainable beauty, royalty and exoticism
• Makeup - Alluring eyelashes and liner (Enigmatic mode of address)
• Typography- sans serif, tradition and affluence colour indicates exoticism

Sophia Loren ( Star Power), exotic beauty

Question 5

Sophia Loren

Answer 5

• facial expression increases desirability by evoking status anxiety
• Non American/English

Question 6

CONTENTS PAGE ANALYSIS

Answer 6

• focus in exclusive places “Spain” “Abu Dhabi”, international travel is just becoming accessible
• female journalists, professional roles
• Cultural capital reflects “op art” and high culture of 1960s

“Arabian nights” “Travel: Sun out of season”

Question 7

PICNIC FEATURE ANALYSIS - EGYPT

Answer 7

• ethnicity rep mediated through white gaze, constructs a non white group as ‘other’
• Arab men tokenistic marginalised in edges of frame
• Racial hierarchy established through binary oppositions of rich white couple and stereotyped Arab men in lower paid service jobs
• Written codes eroticise Egypt as an object of fascination
  “Eastern blue” “woo me” “Simmering seductive silk”
• woman frolicking in “dreamy golden silk kaftan” - cultural appropriation
• juxtaposition between models and natives
  Objectification of all women

Question 8

“The Ideal Woman” Jennifer Holt - EXTRA ARTICLE

Stereotypes discussed

Answer 8

1. “A woman’s place is in the home with her family”
2. “women do not make important decisions”
3. “women as dependent on and in need of a man’s protection and acceptance”
4. “men regard women primarily as sexual objects and thus of a lower status”

Question 9

MONEY ARTICLE ANALYSIS

Answer 9

“women who want to invest […] without their husbands knowing about it”
“I knew they [the readers] were intelligent”

Sheila Black- female journalist (progressive)
- relates herself with the TA, colloquial quotidian introductory language

Question 10

PICNIC FEATURE ANALYSIS - BRITAIN

Answer 10

• Classic British Picnic, recognisable image for aspirers - but still out of their reach as it mimics a high class snobbery referencing art
• Appeals to the intellectual
• Reinforces maternal view of women - one woman taking care of children other pouring a man tea

Question 11

HEATWAVE ARTICLE ANALYSIS

Answer 11

• model, objectified acting as a mannequin demonstrating clothes
• direct address signifying ownership of her own body and sexuality

feminist reading would critique the commodification of women’s bodies and passivity of representations constructed

bell hooks: all women socialised through media into sexist thinking believing that value = appearance ( in the eyes of men )

“Come and get me from this awful place” - culture lag, women portrayed as passive

Question 12

REVLON ADVERT ANALYSIS

Answer 12

“art of eye making” - focus on making eyes look bigger to appear youthful
bell hooks: all women socialised through media into sexist thinking believing that value = appearance ( in the eyes of men )
direct address of illustration - constructs an internalised male gaze on reader as there is a need to win male approval

“Eye makers a la carte”
“beguiling” “alluring”

Question 13

CUTEXT ADVERT ANALYSIS

Answer 13

“Bare essentials” - sexual implications, reinforces the internalised male gaze + objectification of women and their bodies (Laura Mulvey + Van Zoonen)
- “Are you women enough” - exploits female insecurities, reinforces rituals of beautification (allows for profit for the companies) Gerbner’s cultivation theory

“birthday suit” “just barely decent” - sexual freedom of the hippie culture (1960s context)

-Alluring and seductive direct address

Clearly influenced by the social changes of the 1960s, more permissive society (sexual revolution) and hippie subculture

Question 14

IMPERIAL LEATHER ADVERT ANALYSIS

Answer 14

• intertextual reference to the virgin Mary - connotes purity, modest and faith
• gesture codes of the head pointing towards to the baby connotes the ides that the woman’s primary duty is the maternal duty

Reinforces dominant discourse and traditional ideologies of femininity through an idealused representation of the maternal role

“soft as a child’s” - reinforces ideals about feminine beauty