Reflective Practice

An illustrative zine exploring common stereotypes in relation to both men and women as part of a gender equality awareness campaign targeted towards students within Leeds. The zine will focus on common stereotypes associated with both men and women featured within advertising and society as a whole. Inspiration has been taken from similar campaigns such as This Girl Can and Like a Girl by looking at how they engage their audience and target a range of ages in order to create a successful campaign. The most important issue surrounding the zine is making sure it relates to both men and women as each are effected by stereotypes in the same way as discussed by Walters (1998) who analyses the effect of the medias portrayal of ‘ideals’ on men and women. In addition another important aspect when creating the zine is modernising these stereotypes so men and women realise they don't have to live up to common stereotypes as ‘society still clings to some of the values of the 1950s’ (Sheehan, K. 2004, 91). Furthermore the modern aesthetic and satirical tone of the illustrations will appeal to a younger student audience, whilst being distributed within student unions for free will allow the zine to be readily available and easily accessible to students allowing for maximum impact. The illustrations will aim to highlight the unrealistic and out-of-date nature of most stereotypes in order to take a light hearted approach to the issue in order to resonate with as many students as possible. The additional inclusion of stickers within the zine further engages the audience as they are able to put their own opinion regarding stereotypes into society by placing them onto certain adverts or poster featuring certain stereotypes. 

‘Society still clings to some of the values of the 1950s’ (Sheehan, K. 2004, 91) has inspired the production of the zine as it aims to reverse common stereotypes based on the developments within society since the 1950s as over 50% of the workforce today are women as discussed by Sheehan (2004). Despite this progression many adverts still portray women as home keepers and men as breadwinners as supported by a the Bartsch et al. (2000) study conducted in 1998 which looked at 750 tv adverts which indicated women where twice as more likely to appear in adverts featuring domestic goods than men. Furthermore this research highlights the irrelevance of many stereotypes that society buys into as they have not evolved as society has in relation to the roles men and women play. This lack of evolution within the medias portrayal of ideals has been seen to heavily impact how both men and women see themselves which is supported by Walters (1998) who discusses a study published in Mens Health which states only 4% of men thought they where physically attractive, which paired with the statistic discussed by Grogan (2016) that ‘over twenty-million cosmetic procedures were performed worldwide in 2014, 87% on women’ highlights the extent of the effect the media has on both men and women. This has formed the basis of the zine as by showing how common stereotypes apply to modern life based on the roles men and women play in society today the zine highlights the unrealistic nature of those stereotypes and expectations.

In relation to previous research and analysis of stereotypes, Protein Worlds advert as seen in figure 1 highlights the pressure the media puts on many young women. This pressure is addressed within the zine which references certain physical expectations as seen in figure 2 such as being tall and slim  like the model portrayed in Protein Worlds advert in a satirical manner to demonstrate that you don't need to look a certain way to be accepted. This is implied within figure 1 due to the slogan ‘are you beach body ready’ and the implications created when paired with the model. Consequently such stereotypes have formed the basis for the illustrations within the zine by visually representing certain stereotypes through the use of opposites. Furthermore figure 1 has influenced the use of colour as the striking use of yellow within figure one reinforces the abrasive nature of the advert showing the importance of colour. This has influenced the reversal of pink and blue in figure 2 to represent opposite genders to further highlight stereotypes as the generic colours associated with gender have no scientific backing and have been developed by society. 

Overall the zine successfully targets students in Leeds due to the distribution method as suggested during feedback in order to make the zine easily accessible. In addition the modern aesthetic and satirical tone within the illustrations appeals to a younger audience as it approaches a serious topic such as gender equality and breaking stereotypes in a light hearted way. Furthermore the inclusion of the stickers as suggested during feedback, creates a stronger presence of the campaign within Leeds as the students lead the campaign and decide where it is seen. This is based on there beliefs regarding stereotypes within advertising around Leeds as they decide where they put the stickers. Additionally the zine itself works successfully as it places stereotypes based on beliefs from the 1950s as discussed by Sheehan (2004) into modern society showing how ideals portrayed in the media today don’t accuratly represent society and the roles men and women have developed. This is further highlighted by the simple use of illustrations and limited use of text as visualising the stereotypes creates a more powerful and understandable message. This is possible due to the use of opposites within the illustrations which successfully highlight the out-of-date assumptions made by society and portrayed by the media.  

To conclude the zine works successfully to engage students and relates to both men and women which where the two main problems outlined at the beginning due to the use tone  and style of illustrations used within the zine. In addition the successes of the zine is largely due to feedback gained during production and the inspiration gained from existing campaigns such as This Girl Can and Like A Girl. 

Figure 1

Figure 2