To what extent do the different representations of
Rihanna and Adele in RollingStone offer contrasting views of women
I will be analysing two issues from “Rolling Stones”
including the front covers and main articles, one on Rihanna ‘RollingStone
2011’ (1) and the other on Adele ‘Rollingstone 2012’ (2) I will be studying how
they both contrast with one another giving different views of women in the
media by using different images and topics to fit the genre of the music
artist. I will be applying the male gaze theory to show the representation of
women artists and the image they present to their fans and readers, also if the
images and words are really aimed at the women readers or just constructed to
catch the male eye. Another theory I will be using to analyse this topic is the
uses and gratifications theory by studying who the magazine is aimed at, what
they take from the magazine and how the audience responds to the text in
different ways. The hypodermic model is used by The online daily mirror (4)
injecting their personal views into the passive readers who do not read
Rollingstone influencing them to read the same message with the same negative
attitude.
Starting
with the Rihanna issue (1) the main image on the front cover shows her standing
in a seductive position with small ripped shorts and a crop top, her bright red
hair covers the Rollingstone title showing the magazine is well known, her hair
stands out using the red as a connotation to the Rollingstone title. The bold
font reading “Rihanna strikes back” “pop’s Queen of Pain on Sexting, Bad Boys
& Her Attraction to the Dark Side” This main title to the magazine appeals
more towards the male audience talking about how Rihanna likes to be treated in
the bedroom and how she is attracted to Bad Boys, this is a unique selling
point for the magazine attracting the readers to the exclusive article. Using
the uses and Gratification theory I found the main active audience was mostly
males taking a hegemonic reading and personal relationship with Rihanna, by
going into depth with what she likes and making the audience feel like they
have had a personal conversation with a friend. The main image on the front
cover has been constructed for a male point of view making this the Laura Mulvey
male gaze theory and forcing the women readers to see in the males point of
view. She has been constructed to connote to-be-looked-at-ness rather than a
fashion icon to women, my research for the fans view has backed up the passive
audience is women and the active audience is males, here is a quote from a male
reader “So sexy Caribbean queen!!!!!” (7) When researching this certain article
i found that a lot of women readers were very aggressive and angry about her
one women from the same website as the male said “Pss i don’t really like her
because she starts like a nice girls in the world of famous people and now she
even dress like a bitch” (7) this type of impact is called catharsis, it makes
people react when violent or sexual content has been shown in the media. The Online
Daily Mail wrote an online article about the Rollingstone front cover “What a
cheek! Rihanna wears racy spray-on hot pants for RollingStone cover” (4) they
filled in the Daily Mail passive readers with the hypodermic model by giving
them their opinion which their readers trust and will agree with. One male
reader still commented (5) “she looks good. it’s good to have the option to
flaunt it now while your young before it all goes south.” A women commented
“She is known for her ample curves and the outrageous outfits, shouldn’t she be
known for her talent, her singing or her music rather than her body and i think
you’ll find, calling a tarty outfit ‘outrageous’ does not make it empowering”.
The sexual content of the image caused an aggressive argument, getting people
wound up about it and telling their friends who then join the discussion by
looking at the article and joining in with the comments, this is the Two step
flow theory. This strong main image is just a taste of how RollingStone show
the constructed life and representation of Rihanna, on page 41 Rihanna has a
very strong sexual visual with her lying on a fur blanket wearing just a
knitted top and small hot pants her hair has small ringlets but big and messy,
and a branch hanging out of her mouth, this image has been very sexualised
making her bum cheek and mouth the only thing in focus, this makes the audience
look at these first, she is being displayed as a sex symbol for the male gaze;
this could be seen as the Cultivation
theory as the passive audience (women) are that used to seeing the repeated
message of women portrayed in this way in the media it doesn’t shock them
anymore, the picture gives away what the article is going to be about, just by
looking at the image you can see that it is going to contain very sexual
references on the next page. The bold masthead stating “Queen of Pain” gives
you a much clearer image of what the article will be discussing, the subheading
in smaller writing quotes “Spanking, Sexting, Spaghetti: One Hot Week With
Pop’s Most Complicated Sex Symbol” the editor has used alliteration with the
three s to make the caption sound sexy; this caption shows that this article has
been wrote for the male audience, by even calling Rihanna ‘sex symbol’ shows
the representation for women in today media is all about the way they look for
the male audience and not about being an idol with their talented voices for
young girls. According to
‘bodyimagesite.com’ (18) kids have started to notice an emphasis on
attractiveness in women and girls in the media, 57% of girls have said that
female characters in the media are “better looking” than the women and girls
they know in real life. On page 42 and 43 of the magazine (1) Rihanna has been
constructed and told to pose in another sexual stance, she is dressed in a rope
bikini with tattoos on show, hip sticking out with her pulling on her hair
while she closes her eyes pulling a sex-face, the scene behind her looks like a
jungle, or rain forest, they have set the scene to make her look adventurous
and like a lion with her huge red hair, this represents her masthead ‘queen’
looking like the queen of the jungle.
