This article is my Analysis On March 2012 FHM cover Featuring Bella Padilla sorrounded by 3 black women.
Ever since we learned the art of language and communication , we also learned the ability to interpret signs and symbols through our sensory organs as we adapted to our physical environment.
Signs and symbols plays a vital part in our society for it provides identity, aesthetic and social cohesion. As time passed, symbolic forms becomes useful not just in language but also in images. It is also powerful in representing anything which can build or destroy ones identity or an individual, group, community or even an ideology. Dennis Dunleavy says “ A symbol is something that represent or stand for something else”. Therefore signs and symbols must be analyze and understand for it might suggest or convey a very important idea, belief and ideology. While Carl Jung says “ Symbols represent the unknown and something difficult to define”. In other words, when symbols are interpreted, it’s meaning becomes part of our consciousness .
As technology developed, different institutions, companies and organizations uses signs and symbols in order to create a brand to their products with their intention to gain followers, audience and customers. Furthermore, signs and symbols becomes important in the workplace specifically in creative works such ( logos, monument, visual signs, artwork, etc) and even in mass media. One of the mass media element who uses signs and symbols through text and images is the magazine.
Magazine as a mass medium has the ability to influence readers and it can reach a large number of people. One of the most popular consumer magazine in our country is the For Him Magazine (FHM) who’s target audience basically are men. Study says that it has an estimated total of 653,000 readers across the country. In the readers perspective, the cover page is the first thing that they noticed in deciding what magazine to buy. It also provides a glimpse of what stories, articles and other things that reader can see beyond the cover page. That is why magazine publishing company make sure that the cover page of their magazine is eye-catchy and that also why that FHM uses prominent and beautiful models and highlighted their most attractive body parts in the cover page . Studies also says that FHM do not just sell their magazine but also power, fun and playful fantasies which was clearly seen in the portrayal of their models - women wearing revealing clothes with almost perfect bodies and faces. With this, they expressed an idea of body representation and uses image and text reflecting women as a sex object with erotic and inviting scents. One of the most controversial cover of FHM was last March 2012 featuring Bella Padilla wearing pink bikini surrounded by three black women wearing black bikinis. The existence of three black women with Bella at their center connotes “racism” supported by the text at the bottom part of the cover page “ Bella Padilla stepping out of the shadow”. This simple text communicates clearly an idea of racism which created a negative impact among the readers. The signs presented at the cover page of the magazine portrays an ideology that beautiful women are those with fair and white skins. This offends cultural minorities and identities which are the black people .This also generates feelings of insecurities and discrimination and signifies weakness and disempowerment among the black people. While Bella Padilla’s body was highlighted making her the center of attraction, the three black women’s body were overlapped with the cover texts making them not so important model in the cover page and excluding them from the ideology that FHM promotes which are ideal body image, ideal sexuality and ideal body color. Moreover, the portrayal of the main model’s (Bella Padilla) almost perfect body wants to convey an imaginary perfection and sets the standard of what a beautiful woman should look like. We know how powerful the media in influencing the society with the use of images and language. The FHM cover page receive a lot of negative comments among their reader therefore they decided to immediately remove the recent cover page and change it with a new one.
Analyzing the cover page further, denotation was observed at the title which was cryptic and highlighted and simply use an acronym FHM (For Him Magazine). I also noticed that eye contact was established among the models. The three black women’s eyes were focused on Bella’s body as if they were amazed or insecure. On the other hand, Bella’s eye lines tries to connect with the reader with an imaginary plane with her lips spouted seductively. She was trying to attract the readers, demanding them to have an imaginary relationship with her by buying the magazine. A large number of focus was also place on body by making her breast and face very attractive.
Meanwhile, the cover text “Lubricants handy” and “25 ways to Ditch your Woman” implies that if the reader is not a guy, he wont understand what the text is all about. These texts defines the type of target reader of FHM which are guys specifically “young guys” who are into sex and playful relationships. In fact, three out of ten lines in the cover page provides an idea of sex though it do not literally mention about it. These sells sexual fantasies among men and the image of the sexy models adds to it. It also uses noun modification like “naked woman ” which connotes sexiness and tries to tell their target audience that there will be more sexy women beyond the cover page. Furthermore the acronym FHM connotes simplicity making the magazine simply a guy thing.
The difference between races, power , class and gender were also revealed on the cover. These were seen through the combination of colors and how they were used. Bella Padilla wore a bright and larger spectrum of bikini colors whereas the black women stayed with black bikini . This was supported by the text ” stepping out of the shadow”, implying that the black people are in negative state or position in our society. The identity of the cover magazine also defines two different races mainly the white and black colored people. In terms of gender, FHM preferred to use sexy and beautiful models and created an ideology that women should be feminine but sexually liberated and can be lusted for and used as a sexual object. This implies that FHM wants to make men dominant over women, thus manipulating their target reader in living the lifestyle that they promote by providing their reader’s desires.
The ability of media in influencing people’s perception through signs and symbols should always be considered by every publishing company. As the reader’s gives them the power by spending their money to purchase their products, they should also feed them with ethical ideologies. They should avoid and tone down labeling. Identifying people with label is unfair to 99% of people in the world and it might open a critical discussions and arguments on color, race, gender, class and equality. According to Gregory Dickow , ”The evolutionary process of emotional, intellectual and physical development of a person do not happen in a snap of a finger”, meaning being the best version of us and stand out like Bella Padilla in the magazine cover do not happen by condemning other people or other race in order to be the best among the rest. Rather, its about self-worth and self-appreciation. It is about how we see ourselves as an individual who is always willing to learn towards continuous self-development and how we present ourselves to other people.
