The gentlewoman

• the gentlewoman

  • definitive style title for the modern woman
  • intelligence, opinionated and entertaining
  • high quality writing
  • fashion photography celebrating modern of style and purpose
  • innovative editorial and design
  • critical acclaim and accolades
  • accomplished, powerful and glamorous women through long form profiles, chatty Q+As and photography
  • diversified into: the gentlewoman club, digital subscriptions, library of back issues, product collaborations
• The gentlewoman cover page- Scarlett Johansson: bell hooks= feminism excludes black female experince. Subverts conventions in layout. Sans serif font- contemporary style, no capitals- rebellious, not conforming. Orange= power, bold, vibrant, subverts conventions and gender stereotypes. Bold, experimental makeup, dramatic, theatrical. Looks like a portrait in an art gallery. Halls representation theory= constructionist- meanings constructed via choices e.g. makeup, angle.
• The gentlewoman cover page- Scarlett Johansson: the mole on her face isn’t photoshopped, its authentic beauty. close up camera shot, direct address, low angle, shows power and dominance. not conventionally attractive.
• the gentlewoman page 2- Ramla Ali interview: MKO: more knowledgeable others. lots of white space- negative space, minimal and clean layout. “modern punches“- headline, subverting codes and conventions- less prominence. art gallery aesthetic. stand first. elevating status of the magazine. “portraits Anton Gottlob”- high/low art culture, art, raising profile of photography. chatty Q+A. “but how did you feel about punching someone? were you comfortable with it?”- patronising, women don’t typically punch people, they wouldn’t ask that question to a man.
• the gentlewoman page 2- Ramla Ali interview: “but you know how people say you need to wake up with a purpose“-purpose. bell hooks- no black culture.
• the gentlewomen page 3- Ramla Ali: bell hooks- colour coding= lighter skin, more accepted. masculine- fighting patriarchy. long shot. direct address. small and insignificant. prop= stool, not tall or strong enough, stepping up to a mans level? van zoonen- invitational gaze- looking at reader- playing at being a boxer. butler gender performance- playing at being a boxer. Nike tracksuit subverts gender stereotype. natural hairstyle, natural beauty, celebrating beauty.
• the gentlewomen page 4- Isabella Tree: minimal and clean, white space. “castle estate“- luxury, high end. “rewilding project“- sustainability- privileged people. “56”- isabella trees age, featuring older women. “our“- collector pronoun. “manicured gardens“- upper class. beautiful nature, the beauty of nature- the picture of tree. warm colours, long shot. you can see her shoes- POV. her name is bold
• the gentlewomen page 5- Isabella tree: “Repton-designed park“- assumed knowledge of Repton- landscape garden designer, formal gardens. informative, cultural. natures longevity. warm colours, rainbow, nostalgia. beauty of nature, power of nature. sustainability. humans ruining nature. wild nature- rewilding, authentic. mysterious- not about her, focus on nature not her, props helper. unique style of clothing.
• the gentlewomen page 6- Isabella tree: in focus at the top. focus on little things, focus on the tiny details. thorns= danger. berries. out of focus at bottom. poisonous berries. trapped by bush. beauty of nature.
• the gentlewomen page 7- Isabella tree: “bramble“- normally brambles are cut down as weeds but here they do an important role, they have purpose. warm colours. back to nature. unglamorous. pigs. maternal= baby pig. information at the bottom- MKO (more knowledgeable other).
• the gentlewomen page 8- Stella McCartney: “house“- fashion house. “Stella McCartney“- dad= paul McCartney, Beatles. she’s a NEPO baby, mum= Linda McCartney, huge veggie and animal rights activist. vegan and sustainable fashion. “it“- fashion trends- zeitgeist. “blazing“- she’s on fire, doing well! “fashion frontier“- western iconography- capturing and re cultivating a land. “fake leather“- emphasises significance- enjambment. sustainabiliy- social conscience. “watershed“- big deal. “visionary“- interesting layout- stand first sandwiches the headline. “needn't know“- formal tone.
• the gentlewomen page 9- Stella McCartney: halls representation theory- choice of MES. the door subverts generic conventions. lots of negative space. black costume- formal, masculine stylish, its “blazing“. informal- personal yet all on purpose! mise-en-scene= fire door, broken, creates authenticity. practical, authenticity.
• Liesbet van zoonen:

  • 1996
  • suggested “competition, individualism, ruthlessness“ were supposed to be masculine values, but Rama’s physical and mental strength challenges that traditional ideology (the gentlewoman)
  • the image of Ramla standing tall and flexing her muscles in victory conveys her self determination and power effectively to the audience (the gentlewoman)
  • maybe the blue tracksuit plays with the colour codes of masculinity (the gentlewoman)
• Judith butler:

  • 1990
  • argued gender is a social construct that is constantly being reinforced through our behaviour and interactions with others
  • gender is performative in the sense that its maintained through this “stylised repetition of acts”
  • Ramla is fully aware she is resisting the dominant ideology and she is eager to write her own script: “I just want to be perfect- is that too much to ask?“ (the gentlewoman)
  • Imbalance of power between men and women is still evident in the world of boxing (the gentlewoman)
• stereotype

  • Ramla refers to the negative stereotype of the thuggish boxer, preferring to tell people she’s an “athlete rather than a boxer just to be spared the judgement“ (the gentlewoman)
• genre

  • interview is straight forward Q+A session (Ramla, the gentlewoman)
  • Ramla’s voice is unmediated through a narrator
  • Ramlas own words
  • this is an important choice for a magazine which aims to deliver “warm and personal…conversations with fascinating women of the moment“ (the gentlewoman)
• Values and ideologies

  • the gentlewoman constructs representations of femininity which aren’t always evident in mainstream products aimed at women
  • Stella McCartneys interview- she says she has “an allergy for anything too cute and pretty“ and “anything that is too hard and brash and masculine“
  • this is another rejection of traditional gender modes
  • both Stella McCartney and the magazine are subtly encoding the transparency and integrity demanded by their consumers
• • although the gentlewoman positions itself as modern and progressive, its values are still firmly focused on a culture of consumerism
• audience

  • 76% of the gentlewoman readers are ABC1- employed in junior to higher managerial or professional positions
  • substantial average income of £87,255- more than £50,000 compared to the average annual salary in the uk
  • publishers draw attention to the significant spending power of its readers who can afford to “enjoy the highest quality fashion, social pursuits and creative happenings”
  • appealing to high end fashion houses
• language

  • the gentlewoman uses a deliberately alternative design to other magazines aimed at a similiar audience and this is evident from the front cover and throughout the magazine
• narrative and genre

  • the gentlewoman-front cover creates a narrative about character and lifestyle in order to attract an audience
  • uses a minimal aesthetic for its cover design
  • values design as part of its identity, conforming to and subverting mainstream magazine covers
  • structuralism, Levi Strauss
  • narratology, Todorov
  • genre, Neale
• representations

  • the gentlewomen- gender and issues around environmentalism and national identity
  • constructs an alternative representation of femininity in contrast with other women’s magazines
  • focus is on women as artists, entrepreneurs, athletes and innovators- female empowerment is a major theme
  • representation of social groups
  • constructs a lifestyle through its focus on culture and the environment
  • representation, hall
  • feminist, bell hooks and van zoonen
  • gender performativity, butler
• audiences

  • the gentlewoman- mode of address analysed through visual and written codes
  • niche target audience of young(ish) women (median age 32) with very high disposable incomes, not addressed by other magazines
  • reception, hall
• social and cultural context

  • the gentlewoman- part of a development in lifestyle and environmental movements of the early twenty first century which rebrand consumerism as an ethical movement
  • representation of femininity reflects an aspect of the feminist movement which celebrates authenticity and empowerment
  • can be seen as part of a movement responding to the idea of ‘internet fatigue‘
• kuleshov effect: the human mind attempts to make ’sense‘ of what it sees. in the case of film, we create relationships between images or sequences of images.

  a picture of a man staring into the ‘mid distance’ without seeing what he is ’looking at’ seeks resolution. by sequencing it with a bowl of soup we ‘connote’ that the man is looking at the soup and we thus ‘understand‘ his facial expression as ‘hunger‘. sequence it with a woman and we ’connote‘ ’desire‘, a coffin and we connote ‘despair‘.
• kuleshov effect: in the 1920s, the Russian film director Lev Kuleshov edited together a short film in which a shot of the expressionless face of an actor was alternated with various other shots (a plate of soup, a girl, a little girls coffin). the film was shown to an audience who believed that the expression on the actors face was different each time he appeared, depending on whether he was ”looking at“ the plate of soup, the girl, or the coffin, showing an expression of hunger, desire or grief respectively.
• kuleshov effect:actually the footage of the actor was the same shot repeated over and over again. despite this, the audience are said to have “raved about the acting… heavy pensiveness of his mood over the forgotten soup, were touched and moved by the deep sorrow with which he looked on the dead child and noted the lust with which he observed the woman“
• penny marain article:

  • succinct, distinctive communication
  • technology should be the tool and not the mast
  • too much content on websites- no curation
  • editor in chief of the gentlewoman
  • “i think the gentlewoman’s magazine is the only woman’s magazine that matters“
  • women are active rather than passive
  • the gentlewoman remains as a cluster for the acolytes of good taste
• media framing of femininity

  • male gaze invites: female sex appeal is traditionally inferred through direct appeals to viewers using fourth wall breaks. Often appeals are softened by head tilts or other submissive gestures to create a female passively
  • females are restricted to secondary/passive roles: women are constantly led or controlled by a stronger male presence in media texts. Victim/damsel in distress stereotype render females as passive presences
• media framing of femininity

  • women are framed differently: the powerless ness of media femininity is constructed through cinematic tilt downs, low eyeline compositions or soft focus framing, while consume and makeup conventions further sexualise female media inclusion
  • narrow beauty ideals are reinforced: western beauty ideals further restrict female participation in the media to a limited number of roles. women tend to be excluded beyond a certain age or if they don’t conform to the tightly controlled conventions governing physical beauty
• media framing: masculinity

  • the active gaze: van zoonen argues that male subjects rarely construct invitational poses. the male gaze, if directed at the viewer at all, is framed by harder body language, offering confrontation or strength rather than passively
  • strength not weakness: van zoonen also draws attention to the way that masculine ideals in media imagery are associated with bodily strength
• media framing: masculinity

  • the male body is often celebrated through sports imagery: sport photography produces representations of masculinity that connote strength and power, emphasising movement and skill to reinforce a sense of male dominance over the reader
  • male eroticisation is romanticised: male objectification for female audiences exist, van zoonen tells us, but is rarely expressed in mainstream forms. When such imagery is produced, moreover, the subversive threat of male eroticisation is often limited by contextualising the imagery within a romantic as opposed to a sexual setting.
• men, in womens lifestyle magazines, for instance, are described in terms of their potential as relationship partners rather than as objects of sexual consumption
• the gentlewoman readers

  • the gentlewoman is enjoyed by confident, independent and stylish women and men from a strikingly broad range of age groups. Characterised by their desire for cultural entertainment in their media, readers of the magazine enjoy the highest quality fashion, social pursuits and creative happenings
  • median age- 32years
  • 22%: 18-27years
  • 61%: 28-46years
  • 11%: 47-55years
  • 6%: 56+years
  • female readers- 85%
  • male readers- 15%
  • ABC1- 76%
  • AB- 47%
  • Average income- £87,255
  • uk- 51%
  • Europe- 23%
  • USA- 18%
  • rest of world- 8%
• every new issue of the gentlewoman is released with a powerful promotional programme across the uk and other key cities in Europe and the US as well as unique social media campaigns, curated to the educational standard
• Hall's reception theory


  One way to analyse the impact of a text on an audience
• Hall's reception theory is not the only theory that deals with audience interpretations and reactions, and it may be more applicable to some texts more than others
• Hall's reception theory relies on the idea that there are only three ways to interpret a text

  • Preferred
  • Negotiated
  • Oppositional
• Appealing to its target audience of “modern women of style and purpose“ since its launch in 2010. With a distinctive editorial voice engaging interviews, long form profiles of inspirational women, and candid fashion photography, the magazine claims to be “consistently one of the best performing publications on newsstands today“
• the dominant signifier is a close up of the cover star, Scarlett johansson. her face fills the frame and her eyes, half open and dreamy, gaze back at the viewer with a soft confidence