Representation of media language - Zoella

We can make sense of Zoella through binary oppositions, and conflict. Zoella is hyper-real, she has a persona which is larger than life. A constructed text, such as Zoella, can be quite ambiguous because we don't know what is or isn't real.

Simulation is no longer that of substance.It is the generation by models of a real without origin or reality: A hyperreal.

Zoella, much like many other vloggers, is based on a mode of constant hyperreferentiality and is impossible to understand without an intimate knowledge of Barthesian referential codes.

Liesbet Van Zoonen: 
Gender is constructed through codes and conventions of media products, and the idea of what is male and what is female changes over time. Women's bodies are used in media products as a spectacle for heterosexual male audiences, which reinforces patriarchal hegemony.

Zoella is conventionally feminine, and is seen as a spectacle for heterosexual male audiences, as the camera is always focused on her and her traits.

Gender Performativity - Judith Butler
Performativity is a repetitious and ritualistic act that constructs identity. 
There is no gender identity behind these expressions of gender.
Our identity only comes as a result of this performative act.

Representation Questions:

What sort of representations of masculinity and femininity are suggested by this video? Think about:

The way that Zoella reinforces conventional beauty ideals through makeup, hair, and costume decisions..
The performance style of Zoella and the impact of this in terms of the gender representation constructed.
The way that traditional gender binaries are reinforced through the presentation of Zoella's relationship with Alfie.

Alfie is hypermasculine, goes to the gym, and supposedly farts everywhere, he can't fit in the backseat of a mini.
Zoella's use of heavy makeup reinforces conventional beauty ideals, suggesting that femininity is achieved through a specific aesthetic look. The contrast with Alfie's gym fresh cameo further reinforces traditional notions of gender - men are promoted as active. whilst Zoella's passive presentation style and her anxiety about leaving the house helps to reinforce her domestic role. Zoella and Alfie, in this sense, represent a conventional gender binary - a carefully controlled expression of a traditional male / female relationship. 


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