Article: https://attitude.co.uk/article/malaysias-prime-minister-says-they-cannot-accept-homosexuality/19157/
'MALAYSIA'S PRIME MINISTER SAYS THEY CANNOT ACCEPT HOMOSEXUALITY'
The representation of Mahathir Mohamad, the Malaysian Prime Minister, as constructed by himself seems to be rather patriotic, signified by positioning himself infront of a screen with a waving Malaysian flag behind it. This connotes that as a politician, he serves his job with great passion and interest for his country, and is happy to represent them. Considering he represents himself as patriotic, it perhaps wouldn't be a stretch to assume that he is self-assured he is doing a good enough job to be a proud Malaysian citizen.
His seemingly genuine, toothy smile supports his happines to do his job, and his age, evident through his greying hair and wrinkled skin may perhaps allude to his experience, and perhaps the longevity of his power in politics. This gives way for some initial thoughts on solicitude as he is an elder, however the photo is combated with the title of the article, which completely changes the context of the photo which people may start to view as a signifier of his traditionalistic views due to his clear old age. This has proven fairly unconventional for Attitude as anyone who denies their ideologies (abusers, homophobics, etc) usually have their articles plastered with unflattering/negative photos of them, such as mugshots. This may have been done to promote the LGBT community readers to do more to stand up for their rights as no damaging backlash was his punishment due to his immoral, pathetic excuses that his country haven't advanced the same way as the Western world. As one of Attitude's dominant ideologies is to stand up for what you believe in, and to be yourself, this certainly seems like one of their ways to rally up support against homophobic people.
The clothes he is wearing are a representation constructed by Mahathir himself, as he strays away from the conventional business suits politicans wear, which may be a mistaken Semantic Code that Attitude throw at the audience to convey the ideologies he is 'breaking the norm' and trying to be unconventional, but this is dashed once the title is revealed. This adheres to the Intentional Theory as organisation of the news item can be very important, and so Attitude have felt it necessary to perhaps surprise readers with this. This also alludes to their ethos of 'not everything is what you see on the surface', as a lot of people take LGBT community members at face value, profiling and categorising them before they actually know them.
The title in combination with his old age adheres to familiar stereotypes that not only are older people far too out of touch with modern society, but are ignorant, disregard others and have no filter. This can be supported by the title with includes the 'they' pronoun, demonstrating how he has proclaimed authority over his country and feels confident enough to speak on their behalf, which looks negative on him as it appears as though Attitude has represented him as inconsiderate to others in other ways to being homophobic; he is portrayed as power-driven and inherently 'orthodox'.
Attitude has presented Mahathir as isolated, as the articles states "Under Malaysian law, sex between two men is “against the order of nature” and offenders can be jailed for 20 years under the Section 377 Act which was recently dismantled in India", showing that other countries outside of the Western world are changing their ways to in-keep with modern times and ideologies, yet the 93 year old has driven his country backwards as he is ditching any chance of progress. Whilst some may view this as pitying, other's may see it as vengeance. However, Attitude want to punish more harshly and want an LGBT uprising.
This portrays old age in the media as stubborn with a selfish lack of compassion. However, this stubbornness is attacked by Kuala Lumpur-based PELANGI campaign who said: “How many more hate crimes you want to be committed under your government?", alluding to their transphobic and racial controversies. This suddenly makes his photograph look snobbish and pretencious, and instills the ideologies in audiences that perhaps at the ripe old age of 93, he is certainly unfit for office if he continually derives a negative representation for his country. This alludes to the Preferred Reading by Stuary Hall's theory that audience may adopt as they too may agree that the only way to stand up is to protest, and actively speak out about what's happening in the world, and that whilst politics are a large part of our community they must be modernised and capable of adaptivity.
Attitude plays on the ideology that you must have a shared conceptual road map on the fact that the LGBT community, particularly homosexual people, are a criticised minority group, as so that these events are viewed as serious and not randomised. This coincides with the aforementioned stereotype that older people are less tolerant to change and will be less willing to accept the LGBT community members, as they are frequently represented as religious and henceforth, homophobic.
The reason why this article is so universally-accessible is because of how old age is often a negative trope in most media products that have an older character; though they may sometimes have the often pearl of wisdom, more generally old people are presented as a nuisance that needs constant attention, or who aggrandises others for being who they are or the actions they make. They can usually be a source of humour as their nonsensical ramblings and grumpy disposition can be received by audiences as rather pitiful. This repetition throughout the media allows us to access what Stuart Hall referred to as the 'shared conceptual road map' as we understand that the depiction of older people will be in one of these categories.
This is a stereotype reinforced via Hegemony as it reads as though it's common sense for an old political figure to have such archetypal views. However, there is room for a Pluralism outlook as he is not strictly represented as a stereotypical politician; he wears bright clothing in the photo, seeming to genuinely smile. Additionally, his homophobic views can be argued to be 'pluralistic' as he isn't the stereotypically represented abrasive and aggrandising man, he's simply stating his country cannot except these ideologies due to their lack of a 'shared conceptual road map' with the Western world. The ordering process into Malaysia's stance is enforced as to be the beginning of a narrative as, again, Pluralism allows an insight into the world and how India has accepted homosexuality into their values. this provides hope, even though the man doing the representing doesn't seem hopeful to change.
This stereotype has been used to reinforce the negative ideology that if you're in possession of homophobic ideologies, then you're isolated and there is no willing community behind you to back you up. This alludes to the article perhaps being what Richard Dyer would call a 'reference to the world' and the mainstream ideologies that if you can't accept diversity, you're in the minority that will be alienated as the tides are turning.
This means that an audience may take a Preferred Reading as the article states that there have been past controversies which I alluded to before, and so if they are a Prosumer, they may look into this however if they don't, this allows them to accept the ideologies that old people are commonly too traditionalistic to be accepting of the LGBT community, and it also allows them to accept that this is not tolerated by Attitude magazine, who seems to expect and very subtly promote an uprising to make their punishment more severe, and even more public than what is usually given.
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