Woman - Alfred Hitchcock Article.

Woman - Alfred Hitchcock Article

• The content of the article talks about 'the mystery of British women' and how Hitchcock believes that the ideology of women to look a certain way, for example the lexis used, 'represented ideally the cool, tantalizing British - or Nordic - type of beauty I look for in my actress'. And also the ideology of women having to be married and to be a good wife, 'prowess as a cook never wavered and I'm convinced that one of the first signs of indifference in a wife is when her cooking suffers'. He believes that he has made women successful, making it appear that women are nothing without men.
• The interview reflects the representation of women in 1964 as being dependent of men, being housewives and taking care of children and their husbands. In the magazine we see women being objectified like in the article about Alfred Hitchcock, 'Perhaps it's because I'm a such a happily married man that I can look at women quite objectively, without letting emotion clutter up the view'. However nowadays women can be seen as being successful and independent in lots of modern media, although there are still objectification of women (Zoonen's Feminist theory). 
• The article confirms patriarchal hegemonic ideologies of women from the way Hitchcock refers to the women in the article, in the previous points mentioned.

Reinforcing hegemonic norms – constructing representations of femininity

• The messages about female identity that are encoded in to Woman magazine is the ideology of women having to look after their looks. This links to men acting and women appearing and also the patriarchy hegemony of society at the time.
• The target audience of this magazine is 25-45, working class/middle class heterosexual housewives. The impact this magazine can have on them feeling aspirational, they feel like they need to look a certain way and family look a certain way, they feel like they also need to please their husband.
• The functions the Woman magazine has is to read or see something that is happening relating to the target audience's interests, for entertainment and also to see what products or things they need or need to do.
• The potential advantages for reinforcing hegemony notions of gender in a primarily female reader base are profit, women will see the advertisements or products mentioned that the magazine deems as necessary and they will buy it. And also reproduces the ideology and women believing that they need to look a certain way and be a housewife.

How is the representation of women constructed in the Alfred Hitchcock interview?

In the Alfred Hitchcock interview featured in the Woman's magazine, the representation of women that is constructed is the patriarchal hegemony of society in the 60's and the ideologies of women having to look and act a certain way, while staying under control of men; this links to Hall's representation theory by using stereotypes of women in the sixties. For example, the lexis used within the interview when Hitchcock mentions his wife, he describes the ideology and stereotype of women usually being the cook, 'prowess as a cook never wavered and I'm convinced that one of the first signs of indifference in a wife is when her cooking suffers', this links to women being housewives especially in the early sixties. The representation of women constructed as appearing, in Berger's book he mentions that men act and women appear, 'represented ideally the cool, tantalizing British - or Nordic - type of beauty I look for in my actress', the lexis 'look for' makes it sound like they are only viewed as good actors for only their looks, another example of women being represented as objects is, 'Perhaps it's because I'm a such a happily married man that I can look at women quite objectively, without letting emotion clutter up the view', the objectification of women links to Zoonen's feminist theory of women in the media, they are usually seen as weak and vulnerable and also sexualised. The imagery used in the spread, such as the mid-shot image of the actress 'Grace Kelly', represents the ideology of women having to look a certain way this may make the readers believe that they should look and act in that way; the anchorage of this image and context of the article. The use of Bathes' semiotic code theory, the hermenuetic code is pull quote from Hitchcock, 'They're like snowcapped volcanoes' and the referential code is Alfred Hitchcock, a famous director, and also Strauss' structuralism theory included in the article, the binary opposition used is the article is talking about women because it isn't talking about men. Overall, the article represents women as having to appear and act like a housewife while maintaining her looks in a patriarchal society in the 60's.