Liesbet Van Zoonen's theory on the representation of gender that is constructed throughout the magazine can be seen in The Big Issue as even though the magazine's main focus is homelessness, it doesn't shy away from the issues that also surround gender in todays society.
An example of this in The Big Issue us the homeless people they choose to represent in the 'Moving on' section where the magazine shows appreciation to its past workers. The reason this is an example is because of the people it chooses to represent in the section as it is mostly men who take up the 3 pages dedicated in this section. This is a clear example of the magazine telling us through images constructed that the magazine is mostly dominated by men, and that even though women do take up a good chunk of the homeless population as well, it is still considered a mans world. This is also seen via the position of the pictures in the double page spread of the 'Moving on' pages, because even though one of the 3 women in this section is easily the biggest in terms of image size, she is surrounded by men all around her. What further raises the value for this is the fact that outside of the 'Moving on section in the magazine, there are no more representations of homeless women throughout the magazine; the only other representations are of Donato and of the Rise Bakery Gentleman. This further emphasises that the homeless population is mostly dominated by men as a statistic from Bournemouth University suggests that Males make up 75% of the homeless population compared to just 25% for Females.
Another reason Van Zoonen's theory of Gender construction applies to The Big Issue is on the front page where they list off numerous celebrities. The reason for this is because of the number of Male celebrities there are compared to Female celebrities. One reason why this stands out is the fact that the first person who appears on the list of names is Andy Murray and the second is Theresa May. This is significant when looking at the construction of the magazine as Theresa May was probably the most well known person in the U.K. at the time of the magazines release as she was the Prime Minister of the country at the time. Andy Murray on the other hand is a Tennis Player who a fair amount of people know, but not everyone knows Tennis whilst most people know the leader of their own country. So, the selection of Andy Murray before Theresa May is odd, and is another valued point when discussing how Gender is constructed in the Big Issue.
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