'Woman' magazine- 'Are you an A-Level beauty?' article analysis

“Are you an A-level beauty?”

Layout:

 Headline- The headline of the article is “are you an A level beauty?” at the top going across the double page spread. The use of this rhetorical question intrigues woman of the 1960s how to become this beauty which was an expectation for woman of the 60s to be beautiful in order to attract men with their appearance. Furthermore, the use of the wording “A level beauty” creates the impression that to look beautiful it’s like an award/ qualification suggested from the word “A level”. From this woman of the 60s with little education would have felt empowered from this use of wording an impressed at how their beauty could have such an impressive impression of them.  Overall, using this type of headline would have intrigued woman of the 60s making them seem to be more intelligent and empowered but also be at the same time be fascinated in the impact that beauty can have on people giving them an expectation of how important being beautiful is.

 Images- Within the article there are a number of different styled pictures and diagrams of what the expectation of a typical 1960s woman to look like. Further on showing how woman can achieve these looks by the use of makeup. The diagrams provided are showing woman how to apply makeup in order to transform them into looking beautiful. The pictures of the woman within the article show very middle class white woman that most women of the 60s would want to be making them more interested in the whole article.

Theorists: From these pictures of middle class white woman discriminates black woman which was a main point in bell hooks theory. bell hook theory would have suggested that just because of your race you are incapable of looking at what society call beauty suggested from all of the white woman illustrated in the article. Furthermore, creating discrimination towards black woman and showing a hierarchy approach to the 1960s social scale.

 Different columns within the article- On the whole double page spread of the article there are a number of different columns on how to apply different steps in a woman’s makeup routine entailing different information on the makeup stages giving suggestions in the style of rhetorical questions for example, “have you worn?”, “ever used?”, do you know?” intriguing woman to find out more about makeup with recommendations for them to take into consideration. By having these rhetorical questions it also creates a sense of mystery into wanting to try these different makeup items and techniques also giving them the want to look beautiful in order to impresses people.

 Font size- The headline of the article of stands out as it goes across the whole double page spread showing that the article is on both pages and what all the content entails. The actual writing of the article is set at a smaller size with the subheading being in a bigger font, this makes the readers eye go straight to the article they are most interested in then allowing them to read more of the smaller text about that particular item. The style of text within the whole article is a typewriter font creating a professional approach to the overall article making woman of the 60s want the image of being professional beautiful woman intriguing them into reading more of the overall article.

 Mode of address- The overall mode of address for the whole article is very direct in the way that it uses rhetorical questions to give the reader the impression as they are being directly spoken to which furthermore comes across as a persuasive technique into woman finding out more about makeup interesting them to try these products and recommendations for themselves.

 Specific devices-

• Rhetorical question: Throughout the whole article there are a number of different rhetorical questions such as “are you an A level beauty?”, ever tried”, “have you worn” etc. This creates the impressions to woman that they are being directly spoken to which interests more readers into this particular article. Using rhetorical questions also creates a sense of mystery and intrigue into finding out about these products and how they may make them come across as more beautiful.
• Ellipsis: Running through all the subheading of the article there is an ellipsis creating a pause for the readers to think about what is being said within the article. This pause can come across as persuasive as giving the reader’s time to think it also gives then chance to wonder how these products and techniques can benefit them and create a stronger interest for them to find out more and try them for themselves.
• Repetition: Within each piece under the subheading there is a common use of reputation “A level girl”, this use of repetition makes woman feel like the need to be this “A level beauty” in order to be noticed  and excepted in society. By using this repetition it also gets stuck in woman’s head that this is the expectation for woman of the 60s persuading them into purchasing these products in order to be accepted by society and impress men with their looks.