Online media mock exam

To what extent do Zoella and Attitude reflect the social and historical context of the time when they were made? [30]


In this essay, i am going to explore to what extent zoella represents historical and social contexts of her time by analysing her blog, zoella.co.uk and some of her youtube videos such as "the zoella apartment tour". I will be doing the same with Attitude online, looking at different articles from the magazine to see how the magazine reflects social and historical contexts of its time.

Attitude magazine reflects the social and historical context of the time it was made to some extent. This is because it subverts heteronormativity. The online magazine is targeted towards the LGBT community, more specifically homosexual males as it includes sexualised images of stereotypically attractive men with little clothing and articles to do with gay icons such as lady gaga and Kylie monogue as well as a whole section selling theatre tickets. The producer choose to include these in the magazine as it an target a wider male homosexual audience, based on stereotypes that gay men love lada gaga and theatre. In attitude, heteronormativity is non-existent as the magazine is very homonormative, this reflects the ideology that in todays society, homosexuality is normalised or becoming more normalised than it used to be in the past as attitude magazine has a large focus on normativity in attitude, much like heteronormativity, includes the male gaze and sexualisation. In a heteronormative magazine it is highly likely that female's are sexualised for the male gaze. This still applies in attitude as men are being sexualised for other men's sexual gratification. An example of this is the article on Nick Jonas. from the mise-en-scene of his outfit, we can tell he is being sexualised as he is only wearing boxers. there are many images of heterosexual and homosexual celebrities wearing little clothing in Attitude, all of which have abs and are muscular. This creates the ideology that gay men are only attracted to men with abs and six packs as there is no other body type shown on the magazine. This ideology is similar to one in a heteronormative magazine where often underweight female models are shown for sexual gratification. this shows that although Attitude magazine has subverted heterosexual norms and reflected the historical contexts that the world is changing and people are more open to homosexuality and the LGBT community, there's still one group of people being sexualised all with similar body types which cultivates the ideology that if you don't have a body like Nick Jonas or any other stereotypically attractive male model, then you aren't attractive to a homosexual male. 

Zoella reflects social contexts of her time to some extent. This is shown in her valentines day blog post, where there are images of her lounging around in her bedroom with her dog, reading a book. The mise-en-scene of her pyjamas suggest to audiences that she is not sexualised as she is alone on valentines day wearing comfortable and non-revealing pyjamas. This also suggests the ideology that zoella is childlike. This ideology is further supported by the mise-en-scene of her bedroom which includes fairy lights and pink bedsheets. the colour pink is symbolic of girliness and innocence, implying that she is also girly. This blog post subverts historical and social norms as many female vloggers around her age are sexualised (such as Tanya Burr, whose blog posts include many pictures of her in revealing clothing) apart from Zoella who reflects childhood and innocence. This also implies that she has a very specific target audience of young girls aged 10 to 13 as she is aspirational to younger girls and not sexualised for heterosexual males.

Zoella reflects social contexts of her time in her "the zoella apartment tour" vlog on YouTube. This vlog heteronormativity represented by zoella and her persona online. An example of this shown through gender performativity. Zoella's persona online has hobbies that include make up, clothing and beauty products. These hobbies are stereotypical for females to have. if Judith Butler's theory of gender performativity is encoded in zoella's persona, we can tell what her gender is based on the everyday rituals she performs such as putting on make up, talking about make up and beauty products in all her vlogs. another way in which zoella represents heteronormativity is by her boyfriend, Alfie, who appears in this vlog. The mise-en-scene of his tank top implies to the audience that he works out as he appears to be stereotypically attractive which cultivates the ideology that her boyfriend is masculine. 


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