Buffy Picture Analysis

In my magazine, I will include an image of a band member from my made up band "The Uncommoners", "Buffy". This will be used to open up the target audience to women as well as men, as a girl icon will be more likely to draw in female attention. The image of her here demonstrates a few of the symbols that are commonly associated with a punk rocker.

Firstly, her tartan dress. During the mid 1700s, it was ban to wear tartan by the British government that applied to all men in Scotland. If this law was broken six years of imprisonment was given, if a second infringement occurred, 7 years over seas was the punishment. This was done so that the Scottish would adopt Lowland cultures. The punks took this idea into account and adopted the tartan print as a symbolic act of rebellion against the British government.

Secondly, the Dr. Marten boots which link more to the skinhead side of punk rockers, a movement during the 1960s. Skinheads tended to be from working class, the dressed in ways that suited their lifestyles and their jobs. Dr. Martens were worn. Sometimes, the skinheads would wear laces in their boots that were representative of their football teams or their political thoughts.

Thirdly, the Union Flag mat. The use of the Union Flag by punks was in irony, as they disliked the establishment. By wearing and claiming the flag as a symbol of the subculture, they were symbolically acting against the government, perhaps even mocking it.

The edits to this picture are a copy of the cheap photocopy style of fanzines that were popular during the punk movement. Fanzines used inexpensive copying methods so that their zine was available to larger audiences who could afford the low price. This was part of Dick Hebdige's bricolage idea, that the subculture of punks would create their own identity using symbols and gestures that would be recognizable as their own. The poor quality images in fanzines was symbolic of being their own as they would not follow societal norms of investing in good quality paper. They used DIY as a weapon against the government, avoiding conformation to big brands or companies.

I will use this image of "Buffy" to advertise a prize in the contents page. In one of the corners I will include the word "WIN", using the centre dot of the typical mod RAF roundel to be the dot on the top of the 'i'.