Textual Analysis

Cosmopolitan Magazine Cover

The fashion and lifestyle magazine 'Cosmopolitan' is famous for moving away from traditional stereotypes and challenging hegemonic ideals focused upon women. When considering the process of mediation, there is three stages: Selection, Organisation and Focus. This all together creates some sort of representation and in this case a representation of women is formed.
Firstly when considering the selection, the model and the coverlines chosen are the two main aspects. Here the model chosen is the actress Nina Dobrev, famous for her lead role in The Vampire Diaries therefore appealing to a wider audience. She is young, attractive and is wearing flawless looking makeup reinforcing the convention of 'picture perfect' models in these magazines. She is also wearing a revealing outfit which draws the reader's eyes to her body image, perhaps highlighting what an audience should aspire to achieve. Furthermore the coverlines selected reinforce the magazines overall ideology of women being independent but also demonstrate its highly sexualised content. The coverlines selected have a clear focus on fashion, trends, beauty, sex and celebrity creating the predominant representation of women being concerned with their appearance. For example the coverline '263 Hot Looks & Sexy Hair Secrets' signifies that women have an obsession with looking good and 'secrets' suggests that they like to stand out from the crowd and be unique in their appearance. The number of '263' also indicates how the magazine offer a wide range of styles to appeal to a wider range of women, highlighting the large variety of choices a woman can make when wanting to look good. 

The construction of the magazine cover can be analysed through the framing of the main image and the overall layout of the magazine. When looking at the main image of this cover, the model is shot in a long shot allowing the audience to see the whole of the model's appearance and body language which demonstrates her body confidence. She is also looking directly at the camera encouraging the audience to feel more inclined to read on, representing women as easily approachable. Furthermore, the layout of the magazine uses coverlines in a range of sizes, essentially filling the page suggesting that women are outgoing people with busy lives. The background colour of the magazine is hot pink connoting femininity which is a hegemonic ideology reinforced to us from birth therefore the magazine doesn't necessarily move away from this stereotype. 

The overall focus of the magazine is clearly associated with appearance and fashion however some aspects of the magazine are contradictory in the sense that they don't necessarily move away from common stereotypes for example women being objects of sexual desire. An example of this would be the coverline '21 Mind Blowing Sex Moves You've Never Tried Before.' This indicates that women perceive their own bodies and lives from the perspective of another's gaze.