Page 113 - Introduction to Electronic Commerce and Social Commerce

102 • Sport, Media and Society

Health & Fitness is similarly shown wearing a bikini, but this time it is orange, and
while her arms are also raised above her head, her back is straight and she is looking
directly at the reader. The resulting connotations are more wholesome than sexual.
The model on the cover of Women’s Health has more clothes on than the others, but
Hargreaves (1994) has argued that certain items of clothing can exaggerate the areas
they conceal, making bodies look more sexualised than if they were naked. The model
is leaning against a rock, wearing a dark sweater. However, the sweater extends no
farther than her waist, and her bottom half is clothed only in white bikini briefs.
The image on the cover of Women’s Health is in black and white. This is in the
conventionalised style of Men’s Health cover models. Masculinity theorists such as
Beynon (2002) have pointed to some of the strategies used by Men’s Health to make
the cover images of seminaked male bodies less challenging to heterosexual, male
consumers. Beynon (2002: 126) suggested that ‘masculine-on-masculine looking is
permitted’ by the emphasis in these images on musculature (particularly the biceps
and abdominals) and the outdoor setting that connotes wholesome ruggedness and

provides a justification for the lack of clothing. The black and white coding is also
interesting in this regard. While black and white may connote a classic, iconic image
(and therefore one that deserves to be admired), the black and white is equally ef-
fective in detracting from the fleshiness of the body on show. In this way, the colour

scheme intersects with the hard outlines provided by the muscle tone and the con-

fident gaze of the model (looking, it seems, straight into the eyes of the magazine
reader) to present an image of invulnerability that negates the connotations of femi-
ninity associated with the display of the body.

Cover Lines and Layout

The magazines’ cover lines give a preview of the contents, so they need to make
prospective readers want what is inside the magazine. One way for health and fi t-
ness magazines to do this is to play upon the insecurities or weak points of their
consumers. They create a need, then, offer a solution. Following the Western cultural
convention for reading left to right, the most important cover lines are positioned in
the top left-hand corner (McLoughlin 2000). In this spot, all of the magazines ex-
cept Runner’s World placed text referencing ways of losing excess body fat in bold,
capital letters:

Ultra Fit: top 3 fat fighting workouts
Zest: blast fat sculpt curves
Men’s Health (UK): get back in shape!
Men’s Health (US): lose your gut
Health & Fitness: slim without the gym
Women’s Health: flat abs no crunches!