For this task I am analysing the front and back cover of Cosmo On Campus, which features two great examples of 'The Gaze' or 'The Look' as Rosalind Coward puts it in her post-feminist essay on the subject.
"In this Culture, the look is largely controlled by men. Privileged in general in this society, men also control the visual media. The film and television industries are dominated by men, as is the advertising industry." pg33.
So firstly and most importantly Cosmo On Campus (Cosmopolitan) is owned by the Hearst Corporation, which controls a massive media empire spanning television, news, magazines, newspapers and several websites. A company run exclusively by men, the only women with any say in the corporation happen to be the grandchildren of William Hearst, as they were left shares in his will. The lead editor of Cosmo on Campus however is a woman, as are most of her peers, so it appears that Cosmo is written almost entirely by women, who cover topics with an editorial style which is controlled by men. As Coward puts it Cosmo is a "Masculine investigation of women", or a masculine idea of how women should look and act. This is an undeniable truth when you see an article labelled 'Look Hot From £1' on the front cover, or the inevitable 'top 10 great sex positions' on the inside.
"The ability to scrutinise is premised on power... Women's inability to return such a critical and agressive look is a sign of subordination" pg33.
In the image of the magazine cover above we see two people meeting our gaze. Firstly, on the front cover is the female. She is smiling at the viewer in full makeup with airbrushed skin, in other words a mans vision of the perfect woman, but more importantly, not a reality. Her pose is important too, she is hiding her hands, a sign of non-agression, it is trusting and permissive, it leaves the whole front of her body unguarded and she stands at ease. She is submissive to the viewer, allowing them to 'Gaze'.
"Those women on the billboards, though; they look back. Those fantasy women stare off the walls with a look of urgent availability."
In contrast, on the back cover, the male character meets your gaze with a much more agressive gaze right back. His skin is probably airbrushed too, but only to accentuate muscle tone, a signal of power and agression. The male character is also covered in tattoos, which furthers the agressive image and where the female hid her hands behind her back the male curls his into fists and displays them prominently, almost raising them for a fight.
So in summary we have a submissive female, portrayed as a male fantasy, weak and innocent. On the reverse a powerful dominant male looking back at you critically.
At this point I began to wonder why a female and a male would be portrayed in this way when the magazine is aimed at women aged 18-25 (students). Both images are a fantasy, based on a masculine doctrine, where the male is a "sort of cross between a rutting stag and David Bailey" and the female is kept as submissive, distant and separate to the male, not because she is particularly aesthetically pleasing but because it it important for the male dominance of society that companies like Hearst rely on to show women in this way. "The aesthetic appeal of women disguises a preference for looking at women's bodies, for keeping women separate, at a distance, and the ability to do this. ...This is a form of voyeurism ... and [voyeurs] are always in control."
So by portraying women as submissive and the male as dominant the female reader feels like she must chase the males fantasy desire to achieve the look that the front cover portrays, or else the rear cover man will judge you. This derogatory image of women, which seems counter to the interest of the magazine actually forces the female to search for the answer to these questions in magazines like Cosmo and Elle (which is also owned by Hearst). So by portraying women as submissive to men in all aspects of the mass media, the corporate machine that Hearst is part of can continue selling products.
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