Magazines: Oh Comely - Language and Representation

We need to analyse selected pages from Oh Comely to explore how it is constructed and the way issues of representation and identity are presented.

Oh Comely deliberately offers an alternative version of the women's lifestyle magazine genre and we need to explore how page design, content and conventions are used or subverted to create this effect. We also need to consider the different representations that can be found in these features.

You need to really get to know Issue 35 of Oh Comely - the selected CSP issue. Selected pages of the magazine are currently available to view online through the website Issuu here and you can download the Oh Comely selected CSP pages as a PDF here - you'll need to log in to your Greenford Google account to download them.

Oh Comely Language and Representation: blog tasks

There are no articles to read this week - instead you need to carry out a close-textual analysis of the CSP pages and answer a range of questions on representations in the magazine. This will be challenging so allow time to complete it and email your teacher if you are unsure on any of the questions.

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?

2) The words under the title introduce the content and topics addressed. What do these suggest about the potential audience of Oh Comely?

3) How do the cover lines use narrative to create enigma? What do the cover lines suggest about the magazine's content and audience?

4) Write an analysis of the central image.

5) What representation of gender can be found on this front cover?


Feature: Speaking Out

1) What does the headline and standfirst suggest about Oh Comely's feminist perspective?

2) What do the interviewees in this feature suggest about the values and ideologies that underpin this magazine?

3) How conventional is the page design in this feature? Why?

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?

5) How does the photography offer a fresh or unusual perspective on women?


Feature: More than gender

1) How does this feature offer a fresh perspective on gender and identity?

2) What is the significance of the writer and photographer? How does this fit with the Oh Comely brand?

3) What style of photography is used in this feature?

4) What representations of the transgender lifestyle can be found in this feature?

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).


Representation and identity

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) Liesbet van Zoonen has suggested women's bodies are objectified and artificially constructed to present women as passive and restricted to secondary roles. How does Oh Comely challenge this stereotypical representation of women in the media? 

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/reception theory) with more room for negotiation in interpretation. Do you agree with this view? Why?

Due: next Monday