As The Big Issue itself is all about the reduction of homelessness, it is very clear that homeless people are seen, not as inferiors but equals. Not scum, or dirty addicts, normal people who just need a little bit of help getting back on their feet. The mode of the address within this issue is particularly important here, whereas other media texts might talk ‘about’ homeless people, The Big Issue is a magazine which actually allows them to have their own voices heard. The use of anecdotes ad images of actual people who have come out of the dark hole that they were once in, shows the readers that picking up and sparing a few coins found in the back pocket or the bottom of the handbag of people walking the streets really impact people’s lives.
Liesbet Van Zoonen believes the media portray images of stereotypical women and this behaviour reinforces societal views. The media does this because they believe it reflects dominant social values (what people believe in) and male producers are influenced by this. She believes that mainstream media products represent women as sexual objects, things to be looked at not valued. However, this magazine challenges her ideas as it challenges the mainstream media as it does not sexualise women. The Big Issue prides itself on the fact that it provides an alternative take on mainstream representations. The Big Issue has much more progressive and fair representations of women than in most texts presented to the public such as The Sun, or ‘Lad Mags’.
Gender is one of the many issues The Big Issue tackles, so whereas it might challenge some of the ideas of Liesbet Van Zoonen, that does not mean she is wrong. Van Zoonen talks about the existence of patriarchal values driving certain parts of society. For example, on page 33 of the set text there is a main image of a black women who looks like she is giving a speech. This suggests that women are powerful, strong, and capable of what men are able to do.
within the whole magazine, the creator has represented everyone as equal, without putting anyone on a pedestal. in my opinion i think this is very important whilst tackling issues such as homelessness as The Big Issue tries to reduce the impact stereotyping has on people. the lack of patriarchy within this magazine suggests that it wants to tackle bigger issues rather than the inequality between genders which is normally portrayed within mainstream media.
Good points, I agree with the fact this magazine has a different representation of women than usual. I like your analysis of the image to reinforce this point.
i agree that it is a positive thing for the magazine to attempt to break away from stereotypes and to give the under or misrepresented a chance to be seen in a different light. i also like the part about the woman giving a speech is powerful and reinforces van zoonens ideas, i probably wouldn't have come up with that so i thought that was interesting.
Great read. There may be some areas of the magazine where stereotypes are reinforced. For example, for the knitting advert we see a woman knitting. Knitting is stereotypically a hobby that more females than males pick up.