The Big Issue - Representation Van Zoonen

In the magazine, there’s an article called ‘Letter to my younger self’ written by Grayson Perry. The article talks about what Grayson would change about his past and how he would make life easier for his youthful self.At the age of 16, he knew that he was a transvestite as he would occasionally dress in his stepmother’s clothes and walk up and down high street. This article highlights the Big Issue’s main ideologies of giving people voices and shining attention on not only the homeless, but many other struggles of social groups in the world. Grayson’s article talks in great detail about internal conflict with masculinity as well as crushing factors facing him in life. Van Zoonen’s Feminism theory states how gender is constructed through discourse and that its meaning varies according to cultural and historical context. Grayson’s dispute with his own virility reflects society’s conflicting views on transvestites during the 1970s and how Grayson felt the need to ‘try and cure’ himself by participating in what was viewed as manly, such as joining the military. The 70s was a time undergoing sexual revolution; men, women, and many others were able to express their gender and sexual identity more openly. Although, society still hadn’t progressed to accept transvestites or many who exhibited themselves. This article reinforces this era’s traditional views with how Grayson’s idea of manliness during the time was restricted to only participating in conventional ‘manly’ acts, and so erasing his identity. Grayson states how his male role models weren’t the best, ’as his dad was ‘an emotional coward’ and his stepfather ‘was a violent ignoramus’. Further application of Van Zoonen highlights insecurities of Grayson as he justifies his lack of ‘manliness’ due to poor male role models. Although Grayson’s beliefs contribute to the depiction of what makes a man, it emphasizes how let down he was all his life by his ‘male role models’ but still managed to prevail through life. This shows how traditional gender roles can be broken as it doesn’t matter if one is more feminine or masculine as long as they feel secure in their own body and society. The Big Issue printing this article represents how the magazine wants the reader to understand the life experiences of different people. It allows people to be able to see social groups as actual people rather than statistics by giving people’s actual point of view. The mode of address feels personal as Grayson isn’t shy of using informal language and even profanity. This type of address to the audience allows them to feel like they themselves have gone through this situation and so can empathize with them but also feel a part of this community.