vogue

 vogue issue-

analyse the key changes in society in the 1960s 

gender-

Feminism began to become a more influentual idelogy as more jobs became avaliable to young women in the sixties. This allowed women to move away from home, work and become more independent. During the 60s, the contraceptive pill also became legalised (1967) and gave them the opportunity to focus away from motherhood and marriage is what men believed women were desitined to provide. At the end of the 60s, women began to fight for equal pay against their male workers as originallly they was getting far less than what men was getting. An example of this is in 1968 at the Ford factory in Dagenham. This is where over 850 women went on strike in order to try and gain equal pay, and In 1970, 2 years later, the equal pay act of 1970 emerged. This also resulted in women becoming more independent and involved in politics.

music:

In 1960's, one of the biggest changing aspects was music. In 1950s, rock and roll began having an effect on Britian , however it wasn't until the early sicties and the emergence of groups such as 'the beatles' where music truely began its revulotinary changes. There was songs produced by the beatles containing lyrics encouraging rebellion, which began to make young people aswell as women stand up for their beliefs and induviduality, meaning music had a big inpact on peoples lives.

fashion-

Fashion in the 60's became much more popular and one of the biggest social changes of this decade. In the early years of the decade, fashion continued along the lines of those in the sixties. For example, there was shirts and suits alongside coodinating asessories. The use of colour became more popular aswell as patterns. By the end of the 60s, the use of geometric shapes and vibrant colours began appearing and the type of clothes made women in particulary feel more feminine. For example, the use of mini skirts and nice colourful dresses. The most famous fashion icon of this century was infact Audery hepburn who actually designed the costumes she wore in her films, which also influenced women on what to wear and how to express themselves more. Just as womenswear became more casual and colourful throughout the 60's, so did menswear. The mens clothes use to be taikor made, plain with a sombre apperance, however now the mens clothes contain colour and patterns. This allowed induviduality to be explored.

lesuire activites-

Due to the increase in employment in factories, this allowed people to gain more money and spend more on lesuire activities. Colour televison, which was produced just the decade before, alongside radios, allowed people to spend their time (and money) listening to music and watching tv. Most teenagers owned radios and this allowed them to also explore induviduvality through the choice of songs.

analyse the following sections of the Vogue key text magazine for technical codes and how they represent and appeal to their historical target  audience , including reference to any of the changes explained above.

front cover

The model on the front cover of the magazine is Sophia Loren, who was best known for her looks and being a role model for women. The close up of her on the front cover of this magazine, makes her seem like this empowering figure. The clothes she is wearing is exotic, making her seem rich and wealthy. The exotic nature of her image may reflect Stuart Halls ideas about the use of Middle Eastern stereotypes, representing ethnic minorities and all women. The layout is simplistic yet detailed. The main image is at eye-level, drawing the audience into the image. 

feature article (money, questions and asnwers)

Featuring a working female, in expert of finance, would have been unusual in the 1960s. Shelia black talks about women in her article, being finacially independent and encouraging them to invest money. An article about women making investments and having financial power challanges the historical context of women often being financially controlled by their husbands. By giving women the chance to be able to work and gain acsess to more jobs in the 60s, allowed more women to work and gain money and be independent. The use of having this article would've been contertypical of these type of magazines, especially in thsi time period. The choice to represent women as having finacial power might reflect the class and wealth of the vogue readers (AB socioecognomic group.)  The inclusion of an article that gives basic definitions of finacial terms might suggest that women don't understand economics and investments. This may represent the new changes in the 60s of women gaining less independence from their husband and fathers. The copy suggests that women still are reliant on their husbands for funding and money ,however there is signs of change.

advert (revlon)

In the Revlon advert women are called words such as 'alluring' and 'beguiling' connoting that a womens role is to attract others visually. It is suggesting that the way that people look at you and see you apperance wise is very important. The passivity of the women in many articles, fails to reflect the growing power of some women in the 60s, for example femnists. This could be due to the fact feminism was a new idea and seen as something quite scandalous and alterntaive however Vogue was mainstream and perhaps they didn't want to lose readers. It may also be reflective of the fact richer women were under less finanical pressure to go out and work, so therefore their lives revolved around lesuire and family life and making themselves feel better about themselves. The use of images of young women especially as mothers, reflects the historical context that women in the 60s were typically expected to marry young and start families. The image on the advert shows a woman putting on makeup. The facial expressions can be represented as maybe sexual, where her eyes are shut and maybe women are seen more for their looks and sex than anything else. The woman in the image is demonstrating the makeup and as of the 1960s, it might not be as important however it is important to look good. The use of language such as 'softly' and 'glow' reinforce this idea and the stereotypes of women being weak and delicate. The phrases such as 'what a way to glow!' also reinforces this idea of women are meant to look beautiful.

Gauntletts theory:

This Vogue magazine supports the Gauntletts claim that the past media represenations offered simple, straightfoward messages about the ideal types of male and female identies. Women in the 60s were expected to look attractive and please men. The vogue front cover connotes this where an attractive model is seen as subjective for the audience and somehow is also independent. The representations of vogue has remained consistent, where women are still being viewed in a sexualised and beautiful way.