Adbusters & Woman Magazine Exam

Compare and contrast the ways in which viewpoints and ideologies are encoded in Woman and Adbusters.

In this essay I will be comparing and contrasting ways in which the viewpoints and ideologies are encoded in the stimuli 'Woman' and 'Adbusters'.  Woman Magazine's first issue was released in 1939 however, I will be talking about one of the issues published in 1964, Adbusters was started in 1989 and I will be studying the issue released in 2010.  

Woman Magazine is a Capitalist magazine which was started purely for profit.  It is advertiser friendly also, an example of this is on one of the pages discussing kitchen refurbishment as the article even tells you where to buy the products used, therefore making it a consumerist magazine too.  This magazine conforms to hegemonic norms as best seen in its tame attitude towards topics compared to adbusters who (in this issue) are seen as promoting suicide.  The magazine is very stereotypical with how it shows its women, formal, covered up, white and always heterosexual.  The magazine also sets expectations of what women should be like through its adverts and models.  This is fist seen on the issues front cover which depicts a white, smily, woman covered up in a floral dress, this is what the magazine wants its readers to look like and be like, this is because of it being a male ran magazine and them wanting to subliminally manipulate women into conforming into what thy feel is a perfect women through their magazine.  The magazine also gives women an unrealistic sense of inspiration with it best being seen in the 'Breeze' soap advert, this advert is showing a woman, only using her arms to cover up and crossing her legs to not show everything, the woman is sitting on the bath looking wet and soapy and is blowing bubbles off her hand, her make up is perfect and smokey and her hair is up and unrealistic in the fact that it is perfectly messy without it seeming unattractive but then to not look like it is perfect.  This model would abide by Laura Mulvey's theory about the 'male gaze' however, due to her being in a magazine specifically designed for females, it would appear she is there to be something the female readers will aspire to look like and that it can only be achieved when using 'Breeze Soap'.  Looking back on woman magazine in todays mindset, it is seen as highly sexist, however, in 1964 it may have been seen as slightly sexist but not to the point where it was an issue, an example of this is with the Alfred Hitchcock interview where he basically says, 'every woman is down to sleep with you, some ethnicities more than others, and if they say no, they are lying'  this today would have been taken very seriously but back then women would read it and maybe even think, due to them maybe not being 'easy' they will abide by Hitchcock's so called theory.  This is all encoded in Woman's ideologies and it is done a lot more subtly than Adbusters.  

Adbusters is a magazine created purely for NO profit.  They are anti capitalist and consumerist while being controversial also with what they have inside each issue.  They touch on sensitive topics, such as suicide, as it makes them appear modern, and edgy but, Adbusters however, mocks its readers, maybe without them even knowing, Adbusters is mostly all against commodity fetishism but charges roughly £13/£15 an issue, and I do not think people buy it for the read, I feel they are bought so people have the status of buying Adbusters, making it almost hypercritical in a way, it points fun at those stupid enough to fetishise over commodity even though that is who most of its readers are, unlike Woman who entice their readers with unachievable looks and body types and tips only to please men or you appearance...to men.  Adbusters is a complicated company as they change their logo every issue making it subversive and, they are strictly no adverts, however one of their most controversial pages in this issue features the Christian Louboutin logo.  Adbusters is also a massive fan of having you question whether your existence is needed as the world is doomed and the end is neigh anyway, as seen on the page which simply says 'save the planet; Kill yourself'.  Adbusters is also Polysemic meaning it has many meanings so therefore meaning they could say to kill yourself but mean completely the opposite making it a confusing read so therefore having heavily encoded ideologies, or maybe they are saying exactly what they think, it is unclear.  Adbusters are very keen on making you feel guilty for choosing to do what you want.  In the Christian Louboutin Advert, it is all about making you realise that paying £900/£1000 for a single pair of shoes while there are children in Africa are wearing plastic bottles for shoes.  Now Adbusters want you to feel guilty and make you realise your poor life choices, however I disagree with this.  If you work hard enough and are happy to spend that much on shows than you should be allowed to do so without having the heat of your choices being looked down upon by those who would have spent it differently.  

To Conclude, Adbusters ideologies are hugely different compared to Woman Magazine.  Woman magazine subtly leads the TA into looking and dressing a certain way and trying to be the best woman for your man that you can, without actually saying it out loud.  Adbusters however says exactly what it wants too without any care of the repercussions it has on the reader as it all adds to its edgy and controversial look.