Friday, June 22, 2018

Magazines: Oh Comely - Representation

Oh Comely magazine raises some important questions regarding representation and identity.

Whether it's gender and feminism or race and ethnicity, there is a lot to deconstruct in the CSP pages AQA has selected from Issue 35 of Oh Comely magazine. We need to apply the representation and feminist theories we have learned this year to the magazine CSPs, exploring the way Oh Comely seeks to differentiate itself from other women's lifestyle magazines. 


Oh Comely: Representation blog tasks

Work through the following questions on representation and Oh Comely:

1) How do representations in Oh Comely challenge stereotypes? 

2) What representations of race, ethnicity and nationality can be found in the 'Speaking Out' feature?

3) What representation of women and femininity can be found in Oh Comely?

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).

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?

6) How does the 'More than gender' feature challenge Levi-Strauss's structuralist theory of binary opposition?

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. 

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

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?

10) It has been argued that Oh Comely is a far more open text (Stuart Hall - encoding and decoding) with more room for negotiation in interpretation. Do you agree with this view? Why?

These questions will give you a range of theories and opinions on representation and Oh Comely - complete for homework (due next Friday).

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