Monday, 7 April 2014

Case Study - Gender - Daily Mail

Jennifer Love Hewitt - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2596464/Jennifer-Love-Hewitt-reveals-daughter-helped-stop-worrying-losing-pregnancy-pounds-wows-launch-maternity-line.html

Females are always under pressure from the media to look flawless - flawless skin, flawless hair, and the perfect weight. Daily Mail supports this in their article about Jennifer Love Hewitt. She recently had a baby, and the newspaper has written a whole article about her baby weight. The first line of the article is "In show business, the pressure to be thin is omnipresent". So the article starts off as admitting that celebrities do feel the pressure to look perfect all the time, but the next line then states "But Jennifer Love Hewitt, who gave birth in November, is taking her time when it comes to shredding the pregnancy pounds". This comment still implies that she is trying to lose the weight, but just not as fast as other celebrities usually do. Daily Mail is still supporting the stereotype of women in the media by writing the article in the first place. The first comment they made was an attempt to understand the pressure that celebrities have to endure, but the Daily Mail then goes on to write a whole article based on Jennifer Love Hewitt's baby weight. They are contradicting themselves because they continue to support that stereotype of the pressure on women in the media. 
The caption on this image is "Before: The beautiful brunette pictured in October 2012". The word "before" is telling the readers that the picture was taken before she had the baby and gained weight. This comparison between before pregnancy and after pregnancy implements the idea that she looked better before she gained the baby weight - they didn't have to use an old photo of her, but they did it to try and show the readers that she used to look better than she does now. The caption further reads "beautiful brunette". This is the first time she has been called something relevant to her appearance in a caption for an image of her. Again, this is pushing the idea that skinny is the ideal, most beautiful way to look, and continues to support the stereotype of women in the media having to be perfect."Beautiful brunette" also objectifies Jennifer Love Hewitt because it's drawing attention and just focusing on her looks. They've taken her hair colour and used it to label her. In other current pictures in the article, she was simply called "the 35-year-old actress" but now she's been given a description based on her appearance, making that seem that's all that matters.