Media Representations

GQ is a men's fashion and style magazine which provides entertainment, sport and culture news, reviews and comment. The gender roles are portrayed in completely opposite lights here. First of all, both magazines feature either a woman or a male model on the front cover. The man (Tinie Tempah) is dressed in a full body suit looking smart and handsome. On the hand hand. Lana Del Ray has been photographed completely naked wearing nothing but a bracelet and a necklace. Tinie will attract the male audience as he is a male himself, but Lana will most likely attract them so much more from the way her body has been presented on this magazine. Women are stripped naked to please the men that will be buying this magazine. Why couldn't she wear clothes and be photographed looking elegant like Tinie was? The Male Gaze Theory is evident here as women have been presented as sexual objects for male entertainment (Mulvey, 1991). Jonathan Schroeder (1998) also quoted "to gaze implies more than to look at - it signifies a psychological relationship of power, in which the gazer is superior to the object of the gaze". GQ couldn't have put these theories into better practise if they tried, when it comes to the way women are represented in their magazines in comparison to men. 

Poldark years difference

(1975) Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory - the male is holding the woman's chin up directing her attention towards him. He is intensely staring at her face whilst she appears vulnerable with wide eyes, uncomfortable, and crossing her arms over her chest to initially 'protect' herself. 

(2015) The female gaze theory by Miriam Hanson can be applied to this photograph because the man is positioned in the centre of the frame which focuses the viewers attention on his physique. His ripped body is exposed with his charming smile and curly hair, all attributes that could potentially cause a female to indulge over his appearance. 

Body image - This is the way we think and feel about the size, shape, weight and overall appearance of our bodies.

Body dimorphic disorder - it's a mental disorder characterised by an obsessive preoccupation that some aspect of ones own appearance is severely flawed and warrants exceptional measures to hide of fix it. 

When people think about problems with body image they think about young women. Historically, woman have been subjected to greater objectification in the media - girls are constantly fed the message  that the only way they can succeed is by being attractive. 

According to eating disorders charity BEAT, 1.6 million people in the UK are affected by an eating disorder, of which around 11% are male. 

The rising amount of males suffering from eating disorders and abusing steroids is link to media representation of men. 

Contemporary Media Issues

The 9/11 was a moment in History that resulted in a disequilibrium taking place for the representations of Muslims. Following this devastating tragedy, the FBI reported a 1,700 percent increase of hate crimes against Muslim Americans between 2000 to 2001 (Anderson, 2002). During the process of adjusting to the aftermath of 9/11, Muslim Americans faced an upsurge in negative stereotypes expressed by the larger society (American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, 2003) and Muslim immigrants, more than any other immigrant group, were met with negative attitudes. Since then, increased racial and religious animosity has left Arabs, Middle Eastenders, Muslims, and those who bear stereotyped physical resemblance to members of these groups, fearful of potential hatred and hostility from those of other cultures. It has been established that discrimination toward Muslim Americans was present before the attacks on September 11, which may relate to Islam being frequently portrayed by the media as intrinsically intolerant and violent (Giger & Davidhizar, 2002). Consistent with the accessibility principle, it is possible the higher amounts of media coverage immediately after the attacks presented vast amounts of negative images related to Muslims and Arabs in general, thus leading to greater but temporary prejudices towards this group (CAIR, 2001).

In this BBC clip (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06g55y0) of testing whether or not Britain is racist, I think it is clear that segments of it do relate to islamophobia. In the section where a Muslim woman walks down the street with her head scarf on, she recieves help from the public in shops and doesn't get abusive comments thrown her way from members of the public. In the section where she then puts on a Burka, the streets suddenly become a very intimidating and frightening area for Muslims who wear burkas. She gets told to go back to her "own country" and gets a lot of funny looks from the people she passes. Islamophobia is evident in the reactions of the public as they discriminate this woman for the way she dresses.