Why do media products exist in the first place?
Constructing audiences - where a producer effectively 'builds' an audience, by communicating to them exactly who they are and what they are interested in. This allows the producer to communicate an ideology, and guarantees a regular audience
What is the difference between Attitude and Attitude Online?
Attitude Online is a gay men's lifestyle online magazine. It is the online spin-off of the British gay men's lifestyle magazine Attitude. It is essential to point out that we are studying the 'online' sector of Attitude!
Why don't media products typically target gay people as a primary audience??
- Firstly, from a hegemonic perspective, homosexuality is still 'othered' in media and society. Therefore, representations of gay people may not be considered to be hegemonically acceptable by the population at large. Prejudice against gay people still very much exist, and, unfortunately, advertisers are aware of this
Othering: the idea that audiences split the world in to 'us' and 'them'. This helps us (!!!) to make sense of the world
- When gay people are targeted by a media product, they are rarely the primary audience. Gay people make up approximately 2.7-10% of the population
What representations of gay men are constructed in Attitude?
1 - Gay men are represented as camp, and enjoying camp culture
Camp - an exaggerated, over the top and deliberately trashy aesthetic. This style may be associated with gay male culture because of its themes of being extroverted, confident and 'out'
An article featuring YouTube personality Jojo Siwa is an excellent example of Attitude constructing a camp, over the top and 'out' audience. The article uses overwhelming colourful and trashy mise-en-scene, and represents queer relationships in a positive and uplifting manner
2 - Gay men are represented as proud, strong and fierce
There are many articles that represent gay men as out and proud, including this article promoting a gay pride event in Benidorm. A mid shot of two attractive, muscular men arm in arm, holding a rainbow flag clearly anchors the image with many symbolic connotations of pride, openness, love, sex and freedom for gay men. It is worth noting, however, that this article is produced in partnership with a Spanish tourist board, and the images are provided by them too. Therefore, we must understand that this undeniably positive message serves an explicit capitalist purpose: to encourage gay men to visit Spain.
3 - Gay men are represented as vulnerable and oppressed
Many articles feature representation of issues such as homophobia, bullying, suicide. These are unfortunately issues that the gay male target audience have had to face to some degree.
4 - Gay men are represented as hypersexualised and hypermasculine
Hypermasculinity: an exaggerated representation of stereotypical masculinity
In gay subculture, hypermasculine representations are often 'gay coded' to indicate to audiences that a product is targeting gay audiences. Before gay erotica could be legally sold, many bodybuilding and so called 'muscle' magazines secretly targeted a gay audience, while pretending to appeal to heterosexual men as aspirational images. It's very possible that this exaggerated representation stuck, and we still see them today.
The article 5 STUNNING PHOTOS OF THE MALE FORM UNDERWATER BY WILLIAM VERCETTI is a classic example of erotica aimed at a gay male audience. There is a big emphasis on the model's buttocks, which is fairly rare in mainstream sexualised representations of gay men. This is an excellent example 'gay coding', where men are presented as being appealing to gay audiences regardless of their sexuality.
Articles such as this reinforce very strict gay male beauty standard. Potentially this can cultivate and reinforce insecurity in a the gay male audience reading this online magazine
The 'pink pound'
This is advertiser speak for the assumption that LGBT audiences are likely to have more expendable income that non gay audiences. Gay couples are less likely to have children, and are stereotypically more interested in nightlife, events and holiday, which makes gay people appealing to advertisers.
Why does Attitude online use such stereotypical representations of gay men? Surely this reinforces prejudice?
Remember: representations are used by media producers to present ideological perspectives, but also construct. So Attitude Online presents stereotypical representations not to insult or denigrate, but to celebrate gay culture.
But, more importantly, Attitude Online uses stereotypes as a means of constructing audiences to maximise profit
Ultimately, Attitude Online presents a positive but stereotypical, straightforward and reductive representation of gay men for it's target audience. This is to maximise their revenue by appealing to a more straightforward, working class and less literate target audience than the magazine portion of the Adbusters brand. This is an example of media diversification, and allows Attitude to maximise power and profit.