Magazines: GQ - Language and Representation

1) What are the different magazine genres highlighted on page 2 and how do they link to our magazine CSPs?

Fashion and Cars, they link to the CSP in such as way as they both include the element of style in both genres of magazines.

2) Look at the section on GQ on page 2. How do they suggest that GQ targets its audience?

They target men through fashion and image but at the same time appeal to the intelligence factor of their audience.

3) What does the factsheet say about GQ cover stars?

They will have their main subject related to something that is currently happening in the current world and time and then link them to what they are doing and their purpose towards it by using taglines.

4) Pick out five of the key conventions of magazine front covers and explain what they communicate to an audience.

Numbers - Gives audiences a quick view/read  

Main Coverline - Offers different content to what is shown as the main image

Masthead - Allows the audience to identify the magazine

Covelines - Lets audiences read more about what is in the magazine

Pull Quotes - Humors audiences or to give more knowledge about the magazine

5) What is a magazine’s ‘house style’? How would you describe GQ’s house style? 

A magazine house style is the signature look of the magazine. GQ's style would be very clean and professional looking with different metallic colours such as gold and silver.

Extension tasks: Look at the final pages of the magazine factsheet that focus on creating magazine pages for coursework. What can you take from this to help future coursework projects? 

It gives a very nice blueprint or plan on how the make a fashion magazine while covering all of it's features and what they do and what effect they have on the audience.

Language: CSP analysis

1) Write a summary of our annotations on the media language choices on the cover of GQ - e.g. colour scheme, typography, language, photographic codes etc. 
Typography - Sans serif for modern style, serif to show authority and tradition. Language inside of the magazine is informal, contains swearing and some other colloquial terms, photographic codes such as camera angles and how they portray Jonathan to be more superior as the camera is slightly angled up and how in some shots he is looking away as if he doesn't care or to seem more natural.

2) Identify three specific aspects/conventions/important points (e.g. cover lines, colour scheme, use of text, image etc.) from each page/feature of the CSP that you could refer to in a future exam. Explain why that particular aspect of the CSP is important - think about connotations, representations, audience pleasures, reception theory etc.

Front cover: Robert Pattinson image - Art & Fashion issue

The rhetorical question makes the audience think and wants to find out the answer to it inside the magazine. Direct mode of address will make the viewer a more personal connection to the magazine. The main subject image will catch the audience's eyes as it is a very unusual costume choice.

Inside pages: Jonathan Bailey feature and fashion shoot

Direct mode of address will give a more personal connection to the audience as when we read into the magazine we find out that Jonathan is "Queer" which may have more impact on certain viewers. Typography When naming brands to normal text, the named brands are written in sans serif font and the rest of the magazine is shown to be written in serif font, this can connote that the brands are of modern fashion and how the text is trying to get authority over the audience by making arguments and point for them to follow. The main image will give viewers a more visualised experience instead of paying for expensive clothing.

3) Apply narrative theories to GQ - Todorov's equilibrium, Propp's character types, Barthes' action or enigma codes, Levi-Strauss's binary opposition. How can we use narrative to understand the way the cover and features have been constructed?
Some may apply Propp's character theory of how Jonathan is a hero as he had a hard time in the past and come out and now how he has openly come out and now he is brave and openly identifies as "queer". We can also apply Todorov's equilibrium theory as the disequilibrium being how he struggled in his past times and the new equilibrium to be when he comes out and is now much happier.

4) Analyse the cover and inside pages of GQ. Does this offer an example of Steve Neale's genre theory concerning 'repetition and difference'?

This does support his view of repetition of fashion as the main genre is fashion, but the difference may be that they are going into the personal side of people's lives such as Jonathan's and going into detail of how he felt.

Representations: applying theory

We have already covered many relevant theories in our work on Advertising and Marketing (for example, David Gauntlett's writing on Media, Gender and Identity). We now need to apply these theories and ideas to GQ and specifically the CSP pages allocated by AQA.

1) How can Gauntlett's ideas on masculinity, gender and identity be applied to the GQ CSP pages we have analysed?
We can read that Jonathan comes out as "queer" in which can apply to gender and identity and how he had eventually come up to this point. This can also support Gauntlett's theory of masculinity not being in crisis as Jonathan him self has found out who he was. 

2) How could van Zoonen's work on feminist and gender theory be applied to GQ? Does the magazine challenge or reinforce these ideas?
If we use the sex role stereotype then we can say how Jonathan being queer is what constructs the gender stereotypes and how people can struggle to come out at first, but also challenges the stereotype of men being more "masculine". 

3) Does bell hooks's work on 'corrosive masculinity' apply to GQ? 

If we use corrosive masculinity then we can see that it may apply to this GQ magazine in particular with Jonathan's backstory and how he struggled to act as someone he wasn't, this is also an example of the toxic masculinity of "unconditional physical toughness"

4) How does the Jonathan Bailey feature represent masculinity and sexuality? 
Seeing as he is queer we can see that he represents sexuality in a more diverse way as he is a man who has come out which is not as common in men as they have the need to stay quiet and may make him seem more masculine as he has actually come out in public and addressed the matter.

Representations: wider reading - GQ and the new masculinity

Read this CNN feature on how GQ is redefining masculinity and answer the following questions:

1) Which GQ issue is discussed at the start of the article and what was notable about it? 

In the beginning, they question if GQ "is still a men's magazine?", despite it being targeted towards men, in which the person thinks that the magazine is not fit towards men's standards.

2) How did Will Welch view GQ when he took over as Editor-in-Chief and what did he want to offer readers? 

He says he had a need to "redefine the magazine and what it could be" and how we wanted the magazine to help with "personal evolution".

3) How has publisher Conde Nast responded to changes in the magazine industry and how did this impact GQ?

They said that they had "no problem with nerding about clothes" and they seemed to get on pretty well as they were looking for a way to change their GQ magazines for a bit.

4) What did the GQ New Masculinity edition feature? 

It featured Pharrell Williams in a giant "Moncler coat" which they say it looks like a lily flower waiting to bloom with the text overlay "The New masculinity issue"

5) What did journalist Liz Plank say about toxic masculinity?

She said that it wasn't a problem only in America but everywhere and how the actual masculinity is learned.

6) How did Welch respond to suggestions GQ was responsible for toxic masculinity?

He said "It's not like GQ was harmful until I took over." in which he was quick to dissmiss when asked if GQ had helped perpetuate toxic masculinity.

Finally, read this short GQ feature on masculinity and answer the following questions:

1) What does the article suggest masculinity involved at the start of the 20th century?

They say that it was the expectation of boys and men and their strength, independence, courage, confidence and assertiveness.

2) What social change occurred from the 1930s?

The UK has lost its "industrialisation heavy weight status" and this had become a status that was attached to this title of manual labour.

3) What is suggested about masculinity today?

They say that "masculinity is an outdated word" for "a new world that is attempting to dispel gender equality"

4) Why does it suggest these changes are important? 

That is improves the mental health of men as they will be told things such as they are "not masculine enough" or to "be a man" by removing this standard or requirement they aim to make the mental health of men better by not setting a certain standard.