The big issue is a magazine that prides itself on its representations of various marginalised social groups, including Trans people (or transvestites as Perry refers to himself)
This is the image that accompanies the Article 'A Letter to my younger self' by Grayson Perry. This article discussed Perry's crossdressing habits, and his complex relationship with masculinity as defined by his childhood. this image is of Perry himself, crossdressing, with the copy 'the daily mail would be happy to know they facilitated my sexual fetish'
the copy reinforces Gauntlett's idea that our identity is constructed using tools provided by the media: in this case a 1.50 daily mail wig- he was literally given a tool to construct his identity by the daily mail. The image also enforces the idea that modern media gives us more tools to be able to construct our identity from then they did 20+ years ago. 20+ years ago (even today in some places/magazines) the point of a transvestite in a magazine would have been that they were mocked, reviled. Today, Grayson Perry is a successful artist and transvestite, and he is in this magazine to talk about his experiences with masculinity and how his lived experiences defined his ideologies.
The article itself describes how Perry developed his ideologies over the years, based on his childhood and lived experiences. 'its nice to be nice' the copy reads. this not only reflects Perry's own ideological outlook, but given that he is on the Big Issue Magazine, it likely reflects the ideologies of the audience- this provides them with a role model, who shares experiences and ideologies with the audience.
this article also reinforces the idea that The Big Issue, as a Liberal/Leftist media product is less likely to convey singular messages about the ideal type of identities, and more likely to offer complex readings of the different genders and allowing their audience to 'pick and mix' from their offered content to construct their own representation.
The Big issue represents social groups other than trans people: they also represent older men, as seen in their 'my pitch' article on page 58.
Donato Barbieri was a homeless man yes, but his experiences were impacted by many things, including the reason he was homeless, his gender and his age and his ability. the copy 'The Big Issue gave an old man like me a sense of purpose again' this copy presents Donato as a role model to the audience, especially those who are older- he represents defying society's conventions of the 'ideal male identity' he is part of the diverse range of icons in which the audience can use to construct their identity, especially those who share circumstances similar to his own.
the 'facts about me' sidebar reinforces the positioning of Donato as a role model to the magazine’s audience- he has hobbies and interests that would stereotypically be assigned to someone of his age, though these are not presented in a way that constructs a negative stereotype of older men.
Though Gauntlett's theory is useful in determining how an audience would use this media text to construct their identity, the theory fails to recognise the specific aspects of race, gender class etc that define identity to a person- this is where Bell Hooks and Paul Gilroy would be better suited. Van Zoonen would also be useful to deconstruct the observation of women and men within this article, and Butler would be useful in determining the performance of gender and the impact that has on one’s identity. Though that is not to say that Gauntlett is completely inaccurate to this media text- his ideas tell us about how and audience would perceive certain articles and images in order to construct their own identities and how the magazine itself positions certain article subjects (Perry, Donato etc) as role models to their audience and how the magazine is clearly modern in that it represents complex convoluted messages about ideal identities
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