An analysis of the cover and contents page of the set edition of Woman magazine

 How does the front cover to the August 1964 edition of Woman encode audience appeal?

• The aesthetic of the model is pleasant. Her makeup and teeth construct hyperreal version of femininity which is more approachable than a ‘real’ woman 
• A direct mode of address positions the middle aged female audience in a friendly position
• The model conforms to hegemonic female norms, which will appeal to a conservative audience
• The purple background once more reinforces typical expectations of femininity 
• The masthead reads Woman. The title lacks all subtlety, and is anchored through the elegant, serif and cursive. Again this presents a simple, straightforward representation of women
• A relatable mode address is constructed through the MES of the conservative dress, the understated hair and makeup, and the unintimidating smile 
• The magazine is cheap, appealing to a working class audience. Additionally, the value for money is emphasised by the range of contents, including 7 star improvements, a sell line offering value to the audience 
• The lexis of ‘your kitchen’ positions the target audience not only within the private sphere, in the kitchen, but also insinuates that this is exciting and desirable 
• The magazine suggests that the audience has problems with their lives, which can only be fixed by wearing makeup, buying kitchen things, and buying new underwear
• The magazine presents a consumerist ideology. The lexis of the slogan suggests the magazine and the lifestyle within is essential. 

A semiotic deconstruction of the front cover of the August 1964 edition of Woman magazine

Codes and conventions – changes over time? 

The magazine is cheap. 7d is approx 80p in today’s money, and would be accessible to a working class audience week after week

Layout and design

The model is engaged in a direct mode of address with the female target audience, establishing a normal, relatable, and comfortable mode of address. The model resembles a friend and an equal

Font size, type, colour 

The purple background is stereotypically feminine, and has connotations of cleanliness and a middle of the road fashion choice

Images/photographs - shot type, angle, focus

The model’s facial expression is happy, which suggests that the articles contained with in this magazine will make women happy. This deeply sexist mode of address was completely normalised n 1964. While the model is clearly happy, her smile is somewhat wary. She is showing her teeth, which suggests an emptiness, anchored through the completely blank background and the simple straightforward masthead. Additionally, her smile lacks confidence, which will allow the magazine to engage with an aspirational and less confident audience.The model in Woman is not only less confident, she also functions as an aspirational and relatable role model for the target audience. She presents a lower middle class aspiration for the target audience.

Mise-en-scene – colour, lighting, location, costume/dress, hair/make-up 

The model is clearly put together, and is wearing subtle yet still obvious makeup. This arrangement of makeup connotes a sort of effortless beauty. However, the model is wearing mascara, foundation, blush, eyeline, lipstick. This makeup would be applied by a specialised makeup artist, which reinforces the dominant ideological perspective that women must wear makeup, especially if they are in the public sphere. This is a perfect example of Van Zoonen’s notion of the woman as spectacle, there to be looked at by the female target audience. The model’s costume is stylish but not too stylish, and would not intimidate the target audience. The subtlety of the makeup constructs unrealistic representations of women, for a working class target audience. It reinforces an ideal representation that women wear makeup, an aspirational beauty. The expectation for women to wear makeup comes from patriarchal hegemonic forces. Even today, to not wear makeup can be seen as a political statement that can draw criticism. 

Graphics, logos 

The title of the magazine is simply ‘Woman’, reducing women purely to their gender. It reinforces the ideology, in conjunction with the sexist and straightforward cover lines, that to be a woman is to perform for men.  

Language – headline, sub-headings, captions – mode of address

The coverline “are you an A-level beauty” asks an engaging and provoking question to the target. The target audience for this magazine are working class women, housewives who are first into patriarchal gender norms. The target audience are broad, but generally fit into a 30-50 yo demographic. However the lexis A-level has connotations of a 16-18 year old demographic. It not only reinforces the idea that A-levels would be the highest level of education for the target audience, suggesting the audience have not attended university, there is also the implication that the ideal beauty norm is that of a 16 -18 year old girl, and that ‘beauty’ itself can be distilled to a qualification. It reflects the dominant ideology in society of the time.

Anchorage of images and text

The lexis continually reinforces the ideology that women are spectacle for men. Egs: Alfred Hitchcock gives his opinion on female beauty, a clear example of patriarchal hegemonic expectations. The star improvements for your kitchen implies that cooking is done for men. The A-level beauty conver line suggests that women should be exceptional, and that their life could be improved through achieving these beauty standards

Elements of narrative

The lexis ' British women have a special kind of magic’ establishes a postcolonial discourse. It suggests that British women, as in white women, are superior. This coverline also explicitly sexualises British women, taking pride in British culture (patriotism), reinforcing a patriotic mode of address. 

General analysis points

• The cover line ‘seven star improvements for your kitchen’ presents a relatable mode of address for the 1964 target audience. It specifically targets a female audience, working class, with aspirations surrounding home life. 
• The lexis ‘your kitchen’ constructs a stereotypical mode of address, reminding the target audience that they should be interested in kitchens. It constructs a sexist ideology, and reinforces contemporary hegemonic values.
• The masthead, and particularly the font is stereotypically feminine. It is serif, which has connotations of informality. The font itself looks handmade, and the creamy off-white colour brings out the model’s eyes and teeth, reinforcing her hegemonically attractive nature. It also constructs a hierarchy where white is the best and most important colour.
• The pinky purple background is stereotypically feminine, which constructs a sexist and gender essentialist ideology. 
• The slogan “world’s greatest weekly for women’ suggests that the magazine is the absolute best magazine they could read. This hyperbolic language serves the function opf shaming and excluding women who choose not to read woman. 
• The magazine is called ‘Woman’, a basic, simple and straightforward name for a magazine. It presents a condescending and blunt mode of address, completely at odds with competitors like Vogue. Additionally, the selection of ‘woman’ as opposed to ‘lady’ presents a more generic and straightforward approach. 
• The cover line “Are you an A-level Beauty” adopts a direct mode of address that requests that the target audience question if they themselves conform to beauty standards. The Beauty standards of the 1960s. An A-level is an academic qualification for young people. Beyond A-level there are degrees, masters, professorships… The implication of asking the audience this firstly suggests that they may not be. Additionally. The lexis ‘A-level beauty’ also infers that the ideal woman resembles a 16-18 year old. This is not an attainable beauty standard for most 30-50 year olds. 
• The unnamed cover model serves the function of an ‘ideal’ representation of beauty in 1964. She has been extensively airbrushed, removing spots, wrinkles, blemishes and even the veins in the whites of her eyes. Airbrushing was and is routine in women’s lifestyle magazines, which reinforces dominant ideological hegemonic beauty standards for women.
• The model presents a hypereal representation of women: more perfect than reality, it is still exactly what the target audience expects. 
• The model is completely unknown, and is constructed as being down to earth and relatable. Firstly shew has brown hair. She is not overtly sexualised, and she does not appear to be particularly confident. Her smile is staged and forced, and she seems somewhat uncomfortable and timid. She presents a relatable and friendly mode of address for the middle aged british working class audience 
• The cover line "British women have a special kind of magic” positions the audience with the same demographic as one another, and allows the audience to feel special. It also presents a dehumanising and fetishistic representation of British women, reducing them to a singular characteristic. This quality is defined by a man, reinforcing patriarchal hegemonic values.
• The model’s makeup is plain, and straightforward. The fact that she is wearing makeup reinforces hegemonic beauty standards. 

FACTS

1. published weekly by IPC, 1937 to present.
2. Set edition: 23-29 August 1964
3. Price: 7d (7 old pennies, approx 80p in 2018 money)
4. Women’s magazines became very popular in the post-war period and, in the 1960s, sales of women’s magazines reached 12 million copies per week. Woman’s sales alone were around 3 million copies per week in 1960.

Exploring ideology and expectations within the contents section

• A strong emphasis on home life and the private sphere
• The folios or sections of the magazine include fashion, home and cookery, suggesting that the expectation is that women are supposed to stay at home 
• Even the fashion stories reflect private home life: underwear and school clothes
• An expectation that women should pursue wholesome and traditional pursuits. Knitting, sewing… a simple, straightforward lifestyle
• An emphasis on innocence, girlishness, and infantilisation. Sexuality here is limited to being the ‘loveliest’
• A limitation on what is important to the female target audience. In the accompanying article, it is suggested that ‘finance often isn’t a widow’s main worry’ 
• The lexis of knitting and sewing permeates an ideology of patriarchal sexism. Even knitting cannot solely be for the female target audience, but most be accomplished for a man 
• Women are defined as vectors for male desires and expectations
• “A doctor's wife… the little club that she built has grown’, even difficult and complex subjects such as widowhood and bereavement are dealt with infantilising language 
• The caption ‘Present Kennedy's widow’ here reduces a complex and interesting woman to the status as the wife of an important man 
• Many of the interviews are men, reinforcing the ideology that men’s voices are more important. And there is even an ‘extra special… on men!’ feature, that further cultivates the perspective that everything a woman should do is for men 
• The magazine presents a stark heteronormative world. The only sexuality is heterosexuality. Illegal in 1964!
• Even the glamourous Jackie Kennedy's home life is discussed!
• The entire magazine constructs a hyperreal construct of women, a rep[presentation that seems more real than what is being represented. 

An analysis of the Alfred Hitchcock interview

Summary - what is the focus of this interview? What is this interview about?

The interview focuses on Alfred Hitchcock, a noted film director and celebrated auteur. Hitchcock. Examples of Hitchcock's famous films include Psycho, Vertigo, The Birds, Rear Window and so on.  The article, however, focuses on his process of casting hegemonically attractive leading women. Instead of hearing about Hitchcock's film making techniques, we instead hear about an old man playing dolls with sexually attractive women, a clear example of objectification 
The interview takes the form of a longform monologue by the noted film director and auteur Alfred Hitchcock. Examples of Hitchcock’s cinema include Vertigo, Frenzy, To Catch A Thief, Rear Window, Psycho, The Birds. However, rather than discuss films, the article is mainly about how British women sexually appeal to the director. It also discusses his casting process, which seems to involve actively objectifying his actors.

Context - What historical allegations have been made against Hitchcock?

Hitchcock sexually assaulted Tippi Hedren, star of The Birds and Marnie. Tippi also asserted that Hitchcock abused her on set, forcing her to endure shoots with live birds for days on end, in revenge for not sleeping with him. He also ensured Hedren was blacklisted in Hollywood, something only a powerful man could achieve. He signed her up for a contract, then refused to give her work. He used his power and influence to force young actors to have sex with him. All this was committed under the shelter of an apparently happy marriage. 

Other examples of high profile sexual manipulators in positions of significant power include Jimmy Saville, Jeffrey Epstein, Donald Trump, Roman Polanski, P Diddy, [REDACTED], Dan Snyder, John Laester, Joss Whedon, Stephen Hawking, Andrew Windsor, Harvey Weinstein, Ghislaine Maxwell… These men (and woman) used their immense power, money, influence in order to silence victims. This is clearly an extreme form of patriarchal hegemony. The patriarchy creates a system where men are able to abuse their power with relative impunity.

An analysis of the shower scene in Psycho - how does this technically audacious sequence inculcate certain attitudes toward women? How does media language construct this?

• Women are constructed as inferior, and vulnerable towards men. A binary opposition is therefore being constructed with men as superior, and women as inferior. Here superiority is constructed through the act of murder.
• The woman, Janet Leigh, is presented as a shock value for the audience. The main character, the big star, the beautiful woman, is presented purely as a spectacle for the audience, and their death is made more shocking as a result. 
• Leigh is naked throughout the entire scene. Here her body constructs a site of spectacle for the assumed male gaze. Additionally her nudity encodes exploitation and vulnerability, reinforcing a reality where women are submissive and vulnerable 
• The shower scene in PSYCHO is regarded as one of the most iconic in cinema history, and through it’s structure..
• Marion Crane is constructed as weak, defenceless and vulnerable.
• The nudity of the protagonist constructs her vulnerability. Yet it also constructs her as a sexual object. Here sexualisation and the violent death of a woman are presented as a thrilling spectacle, reinforcing Van Zoonen’s observation of women as spectacle.
• Stereotypically, women are presented as vulnerable. Throughout the film, Marion is built up as a character, before this is stripped away, literally and symbolically. 
• The sequence constructs violence against hegemonically destructive women as being a thrilling spectacle
• This violence and technical audacity is not considered in the article at all

Quotes and analysis - what quotes strike you as being problematic (hooks)? How do these problematic quotes construct women?

• “They’re like snow capped volcanoes” - The lexis - they both objectified others and women. Here women are compared to volcanoes. He suggests British women are modest and gentle on the outside, but are lustful and sexually promiscuous on the inside. He infers that the women he desires are sexually avoidable to him. 
• “My kind of star has a special magic” - a kind of magic that can only be discovered and shaped by Hitchcock. Without his casting and his keen eye, these women would amount to nothing. Yet this also reinforces the ideology that to be powerful is to be hegemonically attractive. This magic includes being blonde, being submissive, and being willing to work with his demands. 
• "Perhaps it's because I'm such a happily married man I can look at women objectively"  - deciding for himself he is able to differentiate between these women using his patriarchal hegemonic values. Hitchcock’s wife here functions as a tool, a shield to provide him respectability
• "Naturally I chose an English girl for a wife..." - Here the word girl has an infantilising function. It presents his adult, older wife as being a naïve child. Additionally, the lexis chose is dehumanising and reduces his wife’s autonomy to a mere choice he made
• "Personally, I find this far more intriguing than the Latin brand of sex appeal that puts everything in the shop window" - Hitchcock spends time differentiating European in to very specific and stereotypical categories. The shop window analogy constructs an explicit sense of entitlement and extreme sexualisation
• "The time I've spent grooming actresses has never been wasted" - Grooming has especially negative connotations. Here, women are at best compared to horses, which must be brushed to be made beautiful. This is a prime example of dehumanisation, objectification, and is extremely problematic. Here Hitchcock constructs a narrative where he controls, shapes and makes them do what he wants. This constructs Hitchcock as being superior to his female stars, reinforcing patriarchal hegemonic values. 
• “What British women need is a little less respect and a little more … admiration” - Hitchcock here excuses sexualisation and problematic sexual behaviour, suggesting that we should be sexualising women more!
• "naturally I chose an English girl for a wife..." “I quickly snapped her up” - suggests a level of surprising objectification, almost like selecting a pair of shoes. The lexis ‘girl’ is infantilising… 
• "The time I've spent grooming actresses has never been wasted" - The lexis grooming has clear implications of manipulation. Now the term has clear implications of sexual assault and manipulation, especially of children and the vulnerable. Here the term grooming is used on the context of physical grooming, which still has negative, physical connotations, denying these women agency. It suggests that Hitchcock is the sole source of success for these women, a clear example of patriarchal hegemony. 
• “They’re like snow capped volcanoes” - listed as the pull quote, this suggests that the ideology of this quotation is particularly important for the producer. Ideology refers to ideas and beliefs, and they always a site of manipulation. It anchors the idea that this ideology should be accepted. Here ‘they’ refers to British women, and instantly others British women as being different from Hitchcock. By othering British women to the British female target audience, it explicitly informs the audience that they are different, isolating the target audience. The simile suggests that British women are calm and beautiful on the outside, yet inside are hot, eruptive, lustful and sexually available. This suggests that the combination of modesty and sexual availability was particularly appealing to men in the 1960s "Personally, I find this far more intriguing than the Latin brand of sex appeal that puts everything in the shop window".
• "Britain, of course, is a male dominated society" - presented as an absolute hegemonic norm

Reconstructing reality - how do the messages and values presented in this article construct dominant patriarchal hegemonic worldviews for the target audience… AND WHY?

• The article consistently reinforces a hegemonic patriarchal worldview, where women exist solely to be looked at, and even the selection of beauty is left up to an expert, privileged man (Hitchcock). More confusing from a modern perspective is why contemporary audiences may wish to read this article, which is the main cover story and the key attraction of this issue. 
• Contemporary audiences may wish to read the writings of an intelligent, sophisticated and powerful man. The selection of photos, presented in a film strip presents Hitchcock as a stereotypically sophisticated middle aged white man. His lexis is broadly formal, authoritative, which partly comes through his age , and his writing is confident and casual, and sophisticated. It reinforces the worldview that men are in a position of intellectual superiority over women. In fact, the interview carefully sexualised women using sophisticated lexis in a manner that the contemporary target audience may not understand, further othering and also sexualising them.
• Additionally, the normalisation of sexual subjugation was common at the time, meaning contemporary audiences would accept this sexualisation as a hegemonic norm. 
• Some women would find this offensive and misogynistic. However, these views were less commonplace and less normalised, and there would be less of these women. These women may keep their unpopular views to themselves. Forcing people to be silent for fear of embarrassing or ostracising themselves is a clear mechanism of hegemony
• By presenting a sexist, hegemonic worldview, the magazine actively isolates and upsets the audience, constructing a toxic relationship between the magazine and the audience, ensuring that they must buy it week after week. This is reinforced through the constant depressing and upsetting messages though out the magazine (“are you an A-level beauty - makeup to work miracle”)
• The article demonstrates a clear patriarchal hegemonic worldview, which is normalised through the repetition of this value. This ideology has been cultivated over many years, and it ultimately excuses the sexist behaviour demonstrated by Hitchcock. 
• The magazine simply displays the hegemonic norms of the. Som,e women would find this article sexist and problematic. However, most women would simply accept the hegemonic, normal representation of women and men. 
• It ensures financial security. While the article may seem sexist by a modern standard, it simply reflects hegemonic values nof the time. By presenting a simple and straightforward ideology, the magazine minimises risk and maximises profit by target by targeting a mainstream, mass audience.
• Some feminists, who oppose the values of the magazine may still read the magazine, to discover what patriarchal oppression is being enforced on them. However, this still means that people outraged by the magazine are still reading it. 

Exploring feminist contexts in the UK in the 1960s

How has the perception of women and women’s rights evolved over the last century?

• In the early 20th century, women obtained the right to vote. The women’s suffrage movement fought for the vote using direct action. 
• Other institutions that were challenged included marriage, an idea challenged by the woman’s liberation movement. This conservative ideology limited women’s opportunities. Marriage was seen as women being subordinate. Issues such a marital rape reinforces the prejudices against women
• Attitudes towards education also changed rapidly, with some women attending university 
• However, advertising in the 1960s were typically sexist. “That’s what wives are for”, suggests that there is no equality between the sexes
• Bra burnings were common in the 60s and 70s to challenge patriarchal hegemonic standards of beauty. 
• Women were not taken seriously, and even the women’s liberation movement was joked about in mainstream media and advertising
• The pay gap between men and women used to be significant. Now it is less significant.
• The emergence of feminism in the early 20th century led to first wave feminism, for example in the UK, the suffragettes performing direct action to achieve vote equality. 
• In the 60s and 70s, the Women’s liberation movement demanded equality with men in terms of pay, employment opportunities and also bodily autonomy. 
• Bra burnings were common, as bras were seen as an uncomfortable symbol of sexualisation
• As time has shifted, attitudes towards marriage and premarital sex have changed. 
• Transportation: going out for leisure during the day. Independence!
• Increasingly women were working and attending university
• Around the time in which this edition of Woman was released, sexism in advertising

Approaches to feminism

1st wave - the suffrage movements. Votes for women

2nd wave - the women’s liberation movement. Equal rights, equal pay. Critical of the institution of marriage. 

Liesbet Van Zoonen

• Representations of men and women are constructed through media language. This central argument is shared by Stuart Hall and Roland Barthes. 
• Men and women are constructed in completely different ways in media products 
• Women are presented as spectacle: objects to look at by the audience. A voyeuristic mode of address is constructed.
• The male gaze: media is constructed for the perceived gaze of heterosexual men

bell hooks

• We should all be feminist, as it is a human right and a political ideology. We should advocate for equality for all genders. 
• Intersectional feminism: we must take into account wealth, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality. Certain groups in society are more discriminated against than others
• Feminism is for everybody. The patriarchy is damaging for everybody, including men. For example, expectations of men lead to conforming to damaging masculine stereotypes. 
• Feminism is an active process, and we must always challenge the patriarchy
• Problematising is process of actively looking for problems in a media product

Extra… Special on Men! How does this special feature construct and appeal to its target audience? What choices have been made as to how women are represented? And how can contemporary audiences pick and mix ideologies to construct their own identity?

• The article provides audiences with inside information on the lives of men. Yet even here, it reinforces the same patriarchal and negative values. This provides audiences with the straightforward sexist message that they should not be heard or seen.
• The ‘give aways for guys’ is a selection of present ideas for husbands, including function items like road tax licences and ties, but also a light-hearted suggestion of ‘egging him on’ by buying the man cooking equipment. This challenges the patriarchal assumption that women should be the sole cookers, but in the gentlest possible way. 
• The article makes an assumption that the audience are working, or otherwise have some source of expendable income . This allows the audience the fantasy of spending money frivolously, yet the article still reinforces the patriarchal hegemonic value that money should be spent on men .
• The main image depicts a woman crushing the head on a man, a clear example of women brewing in a position of dominance. However, the image is clearly ironic in mode. It is presented as a joke, which suggests that this situation is clearly unrealistic. While the image provides an escapist fantasy, it still reinforces patriarchal hegemonic norms. 
• The image is fetishistic in it’s depiction. The model is barefoot, and depicts a smiling woman dominating a willing man. His legs are up in a symbolically feminine poise, and both models are very hegemonically. The image presents a niche fetish of sexual domination to a mainstream audience, in a way that bypasses regulations of the time.  
• The centre graphic challenges a patriarchal society.
• Audience construction refers to how an audience is built and told what to think by a producer. 
• The article targets a female audience, like the rest of the magazine. It takes the form of a gossipy selection of desires of men, with the intention of helping the audience to understand men. This makes a huge hegemonic, heteronormative, and anatomative assumption. 
• The main image of the woman standing on the man’s head has many, many polysemic interpretations. 
• Firstly, it others and mocks women, presenting the idea of female dominance over men as a funny, quaint and silly ideology. The man’s pose here reinforces and anchors this interpretation. This is clearly not a conventional domination, and in fact his facial expression seems to suggest that it may be funny at worst, annoying at best. 
• The image constructs a hyperreal counterpoint to the hegemonic domination of women elsewhere in the magazine. By presenting the idea of a woman in charge as funny, it actually reinforces patriarchal hegemonic
• However contemporary audiences may simply negotiate this image as being an exciting depiction of female dominance. Additionally the image contains exciting fetishistic qualities. The image of a sexually attractive barefooted woman dominating a sexually attractive man may provide audiences with the fulfilment of a pleasurable fantasy and escapism 
• However, the woman is still highly hegemonically attractive, reinforcing the myth/ideology that only attractive women could get away with such insubordination 
• At the bottom right is a cheeky cartoon that suggests, through the example of colour-blindness, that women are genetically superior to men. This controversial idea is dealt with in a funny and subversive way, yet still provides the target audience with the pleasure of feeling validation over superiority 
• A professional opinion is provided that suggests there is no proof that men are smarter than women, challenging the patriarchal perspective that men are more intelligent than women.

An analysis of the A Present For Your Kitchen double page spread

The kitchen suggestions in this article very much reflect the style of the 1960s, and therefore very much reflects the time in which it was released. For a contemporary audience, these kitchens would be bland, stereotypical and hegemonically acceptable. It lacks any features such as conversation pits or fashionable architecture like floating worktops that would be associated with richer audiences, which allows the magazine to present an attainable fantasy to a working class target audience.

There is a focus on affordability. The most expensive kitchen being suggested is the equivalent of £570, which is not especially expensive for lower middle class audiences. The lowest price is approx £30 in today’s money, which would be attainable for many audiences. By focusing on affordability,. Not only does the magazine reach a wider target audience, it also constructs an audience who either are not wealthy, or are cautious spenders.

The photo of the housewife with a child in the top left corner constructs many polysemic interpretations. Firstly it constructs a hegemonic norm where women are meant to be at home looking after their house and children, a stereotypical housewife role. The mother in this image is smiling as she shells peas, which constructs a reality that women actively enjoy domestic chores. This image of a happy housewife reinforces a patriarchal hegemonic norm.

However, the image can also be read as progressive. The housewife is shelling peas with her son, and sharing a fun, lovely time with him while passing on an essential skill. Contemporary audiences may be able to pick good parenting skills that challenge hegemonic gender norms, encouraging their sons to engage in housework.

“It slots so any girl can assemble it quickly”, and “get the man in your life to glue the unit together, and then paint it”. These statements assume sexist assumptions about the abilities of men and women. The lexis of “girls” is belittling and infantalising. It suggests that the audience are essentially children with very few physical skills. This further reinforces the ideology first established on the front cover, “ are you an A-level beauty”, which suggests that in order to be desirable, women should be young. It suggests that not only should women look young, but they should act young. The act of gluing is beyond the ability of a woman, and instead should get the man in their life to do this. This assumption of incompetence is misogynistic, patriarchal in the assumption of the presence of a man, belittling, and yet clearly reflecting contemporary hegemonic norms.

Immediately to the right of this is a black and white image of a young woman engaged in general housework. She appears to be absolutely delighted, constructing a hyperreal simulacrum of women adoring housework. She resembles the woman in the 1950s american tide advert, presenting a ridiculous and hyperbolic mode of address. Her dress is fashionable, attractive and interesting. It functions as a proairetic code, suggesting that she is going to the beach, the club, or to meet friends. Instead she is wearing this dress to construct this task as exciting as desirable, a false reality.

Additionally, the image has been constructed to place the model in an illogical position, at the side of the sink. Not only does this draw attention to the sink, but it also draws attention to the model. The model is presented as spectacle for an alleged male gaze, and functions as an aspirational mode of address. Additionally, by positioning the beautiful woman next to the fashionable sink, a symbolic code is constructed where advertised alongside the product, objectified, sexualised and commodified. A message is constructed that a glamorous and beautiful lifestyle can be purchased like a kitchen. It reinforces the reality that we live in a capitalist society, where we can buy happiness through buying products.

The deconstruction of this article allows us to discover the ideologies which were mainstream and widely accepted at the time. The lexis of ‘a present’, further anchored through the lexis ‘your’ constructs a reality where the kitchen is the personal possession of the woman who own it. It cultivates an ideology where women belong in, thrive in and enjoy being in kitchens. This dominant sexist ideology will appeal to the contemporary target audience, who accept this dormant hegemonic value. Even within this magazine, sexist ideologies are cultivated through interviewing a self-proclaimed sexist, the contents page that reinforces a world where women only exist to appeal to men. The word ‘present’ symbolically encodes a declaration of love for an inanimate object. This further constructs an ideology

In fact the tone of the double page spread resembles much mainstream advertising from America in the 1950s,and would be seen as old fashioned by feminist audiences rebelling against societal norms!

A range of kitchen options at different prices are offered to the target audience which allows audiences to pick and mix their own choices. However, the most expensive kitchen is the equivalent of £550. This upper price may be affordable to many upper working class audiences, helping the magazine to target a demographic effectively

The aesthetic constructed by this article is plain, boring, hegemonic, normal. This reflects the comfortable standards of living of the 1960s. This style would allow the simple, straightforward housewife constructed by this article to not be judged by friends and family.

An image in the top left presents a vaguely challenging representation of gender. Picturing a woman and her son shelling peas, the MES of the woman’s smiling face constructs this as a fun experience, reinforcing a potentially sexist ideology that women enjoy domestic drudgery. Yet in this narrative, the mother shares this experience with her son, teaching him how to cook. The pair listen to the radio together, enjoying themselves, and sharing a moment together. This image allows the contemporary audience relate to the depiction of family values being shared, and will therefore be inspired to twitch their sons cooking

However, the article reverts to sexist norms. The lexis “it slots together so any girl can assemble it…” implies and belittles the abilities of the contemporary audience, making a point that they are not capable enough for complex actions. Additionally, the lexis ‘girl’ is particularly belittling, effectively infantilising the target audience. This indicates exactly how strongly internalised these hegemonic gendered norms are. “Get the man in your life to glue it together and then you can paint it” here makes the assumption that only men can complete complex tasks, it also reinforces the heteronormative assumption that the audience have or are trying to find a husband.

The image at the bottom of the spread constructs a reality where women are delighted to wash. Her costume is glamorous, fashionable, attractive and completely at odds with the situation. This combination of language assembles a straightforward meaning that washing up is comparable to a holiday, an exciting escapist experience, which reinforces the hegemonic reality where women enjoy washing up. It conflates femininity with household chores, and it establishes a reality where the audience will be beautiful ,glamorous and excited when completing domestic chores. The image itself is highly improbable, with the model standing the side of the sink, constructing her as a spectacle for a perceived male audience. It therefore constructs an aspirational mode of address, and reinforces a reality where to be feminine is to be a beautiful housewife.

How could this article challenge capitalistic values?

• The article could emphasise the quality and importance of the cheapest product
• The article could advocate getting these materials for free, therefore challenging consumerism
• The headline could be rewritten to focus on autonomy, personality, and personal qualities. It could consider DIY tips, and the headline could be ‘ways to enjoy your kitchen’