Oh Comely Language and Representation: blog tasks
Language: close-textual analysis
Work through the following tasks to complete your close-textual analysis of the Oh Comely CSP pages:
Front cover
1) What do the typefaces used on the front cover suggest to an audience?
The primary typeface used for the title is a non-serif scripted font that appears to imitate handwriting, offering the magazine a private and direct feel for the public, and is rarely discovered on magazine covers.
2) The words under the title introduce the content and topics addressed. What do these suggest about the potential audience of Oh Comely?
The content and topics discussed suggest that this magazine is aimed at those of a creative nature who are interested in social issues and different views on such issues.
3) How do the cover lines use narrative to create enigma? What do the cover lines suggest about the magazine's content and audience?
The cover lines use alliteration, which is a conventional feature of magazines, but the use of adjectives is to create enigma codes of the content of the magazine, instead of explaining what exactly is in the magazine, this highlights the focus of the articles instead of ' Power and Poise ' as a juxtaposition may allude to the article ' Speaking Out. '
4) Write an analysis of the central image.
The central image features female, as seen through her hair and makeup, outfit and posture, with a blur between femininity and masculinity and a confident and empowered attitude that is not typically seen in women's magazines
5) What representation of gender can be found on this front cover?
Gender could be seen as a performance.
Feature: Speaking Out
1) What does the headline and standfirst suggest about Oh Comely's feminist perspective?
The title indicates that the females featured ' speak out ' about essential feminist problems or identity problems that might have been socially relevant
2) What do the interviewees in this feature suggest about the values and ideologies that underpin this magazine?
The interviewees in this feature are all females of color, and many of the characteristics deal with particular gender female problems and provide voices to those from minority groups, thus enabling the feature to be addressed to the middle class, educated, socially conscious public.
3) How conventional is the page design in this feature? Why?
The layout of the page is unconventional, with lots of white space, indicating a full focus on each interviewee, not overloading the page with conflicting material that may attract attention away from the significant topics being discussed.
4) Pick out specific aspects of this feature that subvert the stereotypical representation of women in the media. Are they different to what we may find in conventional women's lifestyle magazines such as Glamour or Cosmopolitan? Why is the absence of men a key feature of Oh Comely?
The pictures used for each interviewee subvert the standard representation of females in other lifestyle magazines, with each woman posing smiling for the camera, yet having a grounded, frank aspect, introducing them to the crowd as well as removing the element of the male gaze Mulvey, not working to current females in any other manner than how they wish to be represented.
5) How does the photography offer a fresh or unusual perspective on women?
As mentioned above, photography enables females to be presented as they are, without airbrushing or particular touch-ups, demonstrating a much more realistic and natural women's representation.
Feature: More than gender
1) How does this feature offer a fresh perspective on gender and identity?
This characteristic portrays a transgender individual as they start talking about gender fluidity and sex oscillation within their identity.
2) What is the significance of the writer and photographer? How does this fit with the Oh Comelybrand?
The writer is the sister of the individual who has moved, and the photographer is the son of the individual who has relocated.
3) What style of photography is used in this feature?
The pictures used are candid pictures that enforce the article's family aspect.
4) What representations of the transgender lifestyle can be found in this feature?
Once again, the candid, natural photography demonstrates a private and related perspective of this tale in relation to its audience.
5) Why is the biographical information at the end of the article significant? (Clue: the writer is also an editor of a niche, creative magazine called Entitle).
The biographical information at the end adds personal approach elements together with opening readers to similar content from the same editor.
Representation and identity
Work through the following questions on representation and Oh Comely:
1) How do representations in Oh Comely challenge stereotypes?
Representation in Oh Comely challenges stereotypes as they subvert the anticipated beauty norms for cover models by using an androgynous model and use candid style pictures throughout the magazine, such as in the talk-out post, featuring individuals smiling and looking straight into the camera that is typically not seen in magazines.
2) What representations of race, ethnicity and nationality can be found in the 'Speaking Out' feature?
All the females featured are females of colour, a Somali, a Muslim woman talking about FGM, a British Jamaican-Scottish poet, an American Body Positive Blogger, an Immigrant activist, and a British coder.
3) What representation of women and femininity can be found in Oh Comely?
It can be found that women and femininity are created as non-linear, and that there is no binary definition of femininity.
4) Why might Oh Comely deliberately under-represent men? (The absence of men in the magazine appears to be a largely deliberate move by the editors).
The magazine is aimed at females, and as a feminist magazine, the lack of males in the magazine enables their target audience to have targeted material that would have a more direct impact on the problems being discussed than on males.
5) Does Oh Comely fit into the possible fourth wave of feminism? Or is it evidence of post-feminism - that feminism is no longer needed?
The characteristic ' more than gender ' introduces the whole aspect of gender as a spectrum, challenging the idea that gender is a binary notion (Strauss), and indicates that gender opinions are built socially.
7) Judith Butler argues gender is a performance. How does Oh Comely challenge traditional gender roles? You should refer to both the cover and the selected CSP features.
The feature ' More than gender ' specifically reinforces Judith Butler's concept of gender being a performance, and although the talk-out function somewhat reinforces the aspect of femininity on its own, although the article itself concentrating on women's empowerment could be viewed as gender being a performance, as seen by the British coder, removing gender as an element of her job sector.
8) Angela McRobbie explored the empowering nature of women's lifestyle magazines in the 1990s. Oh Comely seeks female empowerment in a different way. What differences can you find between Oh Comely and more traditional women's lifestyle magazines such as Cosmopolitan or Glamour?
Oh comely removes the concept of the masculine gaze, or presenting the woman as something to be wanted visually, concentrating more on the tales of females themselves rather than on how a magazine like cosmo would present females.
9) David Gauntlett argues that identity is becoming more fluid, media representations change over time and that there are generational differences. Does Oh Comely support this viewpoint?
Oh Comely supports Gauntlett's hypothesis, it reflects gender fluidity through the many gender representations throughout the print, but there is a limited variation in age representations, and because of the millennial audience, this might suggest that it's just time to create the tolerance required to make this magazine a success.
10) It has been argued that Oh Comely is a far more open text (Stuart Hall - encoding and decoding/reception theory) with more room for negotiation in interpretation. Do you agree with this view? Why?
I agree with this view, since Oh Comely has a variety of content and many readers have also submitted content, the idea of ' readers as writers ' and vice versa, not just a clear indication of Tolson's changing dynamic theory, suggests that interpretation negotiation is the preferred reading, in relation to Hall's theory.
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