Elle x GQ

Magazine Comparison – Elle x GQ

Elle – http://www.magazines.com/magcom/covers/0/06/040/0060400.jpg
GQ – http://www.futureofthebook.org/sivavaidhyanathan/archives/gq.jpg


The front cover of Elle has Keira Knightly in a blue dress; she is posed in a somewhat innocent yet provocative manner. This has been done, as Keira Knightly is known to be quite innocent yet beautiful, perhaps what the target audience aspire to be like. Elle is read by female’s aged 25-35 therefore many are wives whom want to be the stereotypical slender, innocent looking wife but to also have a sex appeal, similarly to Keira Knightly.
The cover of GQ has Jessica Simpson on the front, which is used to sell the magazine, which is clear emphasis, on whom the magazine is sold to. Additionally, the colours connote a rugged army and nationalistic ideology due to the American colour theme used, and Jessica Simpson wearing army clothing.
Both magazines colour schemes match the month in which they are published, for instance the cover of GQ was published in July and the colour scheme uses reds, blues and green to emphasise the summer. Where as Elle was published in December and a red and white colour scheme is used to emphasise cold, snow and Christmas.

Elle is known to focuses on women's fashion, beauty, health, and entertainment where by it is the one of the largest fashion magazines. Elle has been around for many years, being known to appeal to the more sophisticated female audiences when compared to rival fashion magazines. Additionally, GQ is also known for the more mature and sophisticated male as other rival magazines such as FHM and Maxim.
GQ is a men’s lifestyle magazine, meaning it talks about all aspects of life. It covers men’s interests and hobbies. For example, the cover how to ‘be the best dressed man in America’ which covers men’s clothing and how to dress which for some men may be a daunting task as men are known to be uninterested in fashion and may need guidance. In comparison to GQ, Elle is the same magazine but for women. Elle covers women’s hobbies and interests such as, ‘hair… the secret to super-brightness’.


GQ objectifies women as they use Jessica Alba to sell the magazine, as the tagline states, “God this is a great country… Jessica Simpson” which has the implications of her being an object. Laura Mulvey’s theory of ‘to-be-looked-at-ness’ is clearly illustrated on the cover of GQ as Jessica Alba serves no other purpose except to sell the magazine on a sexual content basis where by she is wearing an American flag covered bikini with rolled down camouflage combat trousers. Her costume represents GQ and it’s audience to be nationalistic as their object of desire is bathed in American print clothing whilst most of the text is in red or blue.
However, Elle uses Keira Knightly as women of beauty, a person who can be seen as a role model where she is seen as a person rather than an object. However, as she appears to be so perfect does this really mean she isn’t an object of perfection, where she is an unrealistic idolized version of what women want to be, where by she has been manipulated in order to look like that therefore, has she been treated as an object must be considered.

The audience for both magazines’ are rather similar, where Elle caters to the middle class housewife and GQ caters for the middle class male. However, either magazine differs due to the gender of their audience. On the cover of GQ, articles such as, ‘In search of the greatest hamburger in the nation’ which shows the boyish male side to the magazine. Where as Elle’s articles are more mature and feminine, ‘How to be the best dressed girl at the party’, which shows that women care about looking good when going to parties, however the word girl gives off the ideology that it may be a mature cocktail party rather than a teenage house party.

To conclude, both magazines appeal to very similar markets and audiences the only separation in audiences is gender as both are sophisticated lifestyle magazines for a mature audience when compared with their key rivals. However, it is clear to see that a patriarchal ideology runs throughout GQ as they continuously use women as objects.