4. Representation

In recent times, magazines such as Cosmopolitan and Pride have striven to make the media more inclusive to minority groups. Given that my target audience is"culturally sophisticated", I believe that including liberal and forward thinking ideas and elements both on and in my magazine would be crucial to appealing to my TA.

In the issue of Cosmopolitan on the left, the focal image is of Tess Holiday, a famous plus-size model who promotes more forward thinking and accepting ideas about non-conventional types of beauty i.e. plus-size models. In mainstream media overweight women are generally presented as unattractive and undesirable, however the use of costume and high-key lighting counters these beliefs and show that you don't need to be skinny to be attractive and feminine. On the cover Tess is seen in MLS framing blowing a kiss at the reader, with her other hand on her hip. The confidence connoted from this gesture encourages anyone who is not 'conventionally beautiful' that they do not need to fit within stereotypical boundaries to be attractive, just as Tess does. Similar ideas would be appropriate to consider for my own project as my TA is 'culturally sophisticated' so ideas and concepts like this will likely appeal to them. Theorist Richard Dyer states that 'stereotypes legitimise inequality'. This means that in order to challenge this inequality it will be important to not portray models as hyper-stereotypical figures and show sides to them that perhaps wouldn't be showed in mainstream media.


On the cover of the issue of Pride we see a MS of Zazie Beets, actress in shows such as Atlanta and Deadpool, who also has a skin condition called vitiligo which affects the area under and around her left eye. Vitiligo is not something which traditional mainstream media would have featured on a fashion/beauty front cover as it may have been perceived as 'imperfect' so the fact that new wave publications such as pride are featuring Zazie indicates an increase in demand for models and topics which do not conform to the 'norms'. Media theorist Gerbner theorises that repeated exposure to patterns of representation can eventually shape the way people perceive the world. As my target audience is young and 'culturally sophisticated', forward-thinking concepts which break and contrast the 'repeated exposure' from mainstream media is something that may appeal to them so making my magazine's brand values as inclusive and progressive as possible is something I am definitely aiming to do.