Figure 1: Lana Del Rey, Born to Die album cover (Unknown, 2012)
Lana Del Rey:
Lana Del Rey is a well known model and pop singer and performer. She is very feminine in the way she presents herself and, at times, this can be in quite a sexual way. She is a beautiful, idealised woman.
On this album cover, Lana Del Rey is very feminine in appearance. Her hair and make-up have been styled to make her look nice - the red lipstick is quite seductive and feminine - her top is sexualised as you can see her red bra through the fabric. However, her stance is gender neutral. She is looking directly down and into the camera, making her appear powerful, particularly because the shot is looking up at her so it looks like she is looking down on us. The picture appears to have been taken in someone’s backyard, making the image appear slightly casual, however this contrasts with the obvious dressed up look of Del Rey.
Figure 2: Male on Lana Del Rey's album cover (Josh Barrowclough, 2016)
Our Version of Lana Del Rey:The stance that he is taking in this shot doesn’t affect how we perceive his gender. As discussed above, this is a gender neutral pose and so either gender could adopt it and still be identified as male or female. The slight change in costuming may change how his gender is perceived. If he was wearing a see through top with a bra underneath, he would be seen as a man dressed as a woman, however, because he is wearing a white t-shirt, we identify him as a man. Because of the neutrality of setting and pose that Lana Del Rey used in the original, we still see her as a woman and we still see our version with a male subject. There is no transgression of gender roles.
Figure 3: Troye Sivan, Blue Neighbourhood album cover (Sam Murphy, 2015)
Troye Sivan:
Troye Sivan is an Australian singer, actor and YouTube star. He is quite feminine in appearance, while still maintaining his male identity. This could be because of the way he styles his hair and the way he often poses in photos.
In this album cover, Troye Sivan takes on quite a feminine appearance. His curly, styled hair and the animation of the shot help add to this. The pink on his cheeks has been emphasised and pulled together with the background colouring and the text. The lighting is quite soft in the shot, giving him a young, boyish appearance. Despite this, the audience still recognises him as male. He is gazing away from the camera, which makes him appear vulnerable and powerless. This pose would typically be more expected for a female, whereas the angle and gaze of Lana Del Rey would perhaps be more typically used on men. Sivan’s white shirt emphasises his innocence, while blue and pink (which are dominant colours in the shot), are often associated with babies when they are born - girls and boys - which neutralises the gender in this shot. Sivan is transgressing gender.
Signs in these images:
The colours blue, pink and white are significant in both of these shots. Blue is a signifier for boys while pink is a signifier for girls. The use of both of these colours together in these shots mixes the two genders together, creating gender fluidity and transgression from males and females. The use of white costuming in these shots is a signifier as innocence and may be representing the youth of these singers, but it could also be seen as a gender neutral colour - it is not associated with males nor females but both at the same time. It emphasises the idea of being gender neutral.
Gaze is a strong signifier for power in these shots. In Lana Del Rey’s cover and our version of her cover, the subjects are gazing down at the camera which gives them a powerful feel. However, Troye Sivan is gazing away from the camera, making him appear vulnerable and more feminine in his cover.
References:
Barrowclough, Josh. (2016). Male on Lana Del Rey's album cover.
Murphy, Sam. (2015). Troye Sivan, Blue Neighbourhood album cover. Retrieved from http://theinterns.net/2015/12/07/album-of-the-week-troye-sivan-blue-neighbourhood/.
Unknown Author. (2012). Lana Del Rey, Born to Die album cover. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born_to_Die
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