The Borderland of Typography : About Gender Norms in Change

The earlier studies of how gender is visually constructed in lifestyle magazines have mainly been done on photographs. But, photographs are only one part of the entire magazine Therefor3, we saw the importance in examining one of the other big parts, typography. We have been studying if gender can be constructed in lifestyle magazines through the shape and color of typography and the color context. It is important to point out that we have not been studying the written word but only the shape and color of the typography. The study has been conducted through a qualitative content analysis with a comparative process of the selected magazines. The analysis began with a semiotic analysis of selected parts of the magazines. The result was then analyzed with a feminist theoretical approach. The result of the study shows that gender can be constructed through typography in a number of different ways. This depends on what feminist approach it is looked upon. In one way gender is constructed in a traditional perspective where the boundaries of masculinity and femininity is constrained to stereotypes. In another way it is constructed through a modern perspective where the boundaries of gender is no longer fixed