WPC% 2 B=P Z Courier 10cpiCourier 10cpiCG Times (Scalable)CG Times Italic (Scalable)HP LaserJet IIIHPLASIII.PRSx  @,\,6TX@USUK2>N#|WUSCEHPLASIII.PRSx  @,\,[/wX@USCEӾ22*$"$[zzCourier 10cpiCG Times (Scalable)CG Times Italic (Scalable)CG Times Bold (Scalable)"m'^;C]ddCCCdCCCCddddddddddCCȲY~~wCN~sk~CCCddCYdYdYCdd88d8ddddJN8ddddYYdYCdddddCCCCddddddddd8YYYYYY~Y~Y~Y~YC8C8C8C8ddddddddddYddddsdYYYYYYYd~Y~Y~Y~YdddddddC8C8C8C8oNd~8~8~8~8~8dvddddJJJkNkNkNkN~8~8dddddddYYYd~8dJkN~8dddddCddCCC/NdddCYQQddddddFddddFCChhd44ddzzdddwooChdF"Ȑdhd岲dCCȐzȲxCddodȐȅdCdYdsȐ]ȐȐȧzȐUwŐdȐYYCCCCΐz~ozoY~NYdYC8YooYdYzsdzdd~YYzozzzzNd88YYYzYzzzzCCdddddddzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzNNNNNNNdddddddddddddddddddd888888888888YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzCs~CzdYCxdYCx2TX\ > Z?xxx,wx6X@8;X@ 8wC;,[hXw P7XP66uC;,"/3Xu&_ x$&7XXOΰ Sv &} t 6**ˀ[_tOx sn.G*4ddCCCWxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxNdddCd]]ddddddFddddFCCddd88ddzzdddkddCddF"Ȑddd岲dCCȐzȲxCdzdodȐȅdCdYdsȐ]ȐȐȧzȐUwŐdȐYYCCCCzzzozoYzNoYdYC8YooYdYzzdzddoYoYzzozzzzzCdoozYzzzzCCddddzdddooozCsdYCx"m'^;C`ddCCCdCCCCddddddddddCCȲdzzzsCYozzdozzooCCCddCddYdY8dd88Y8ddddNN8dYYYNYdYCdddddCCCCddddddddd8zdzdzdzdzdYzYzYzYzYC8C8C8C8dddddddddoYzdddoYdzdzdzdzdYYYYdzYzYzYzYdddddddC8C8C8C8dYYo8o8o8o8o8dzddddzNzNzNdNdNdNdNo8o8ddddddoYoNoNoNdo8dzNdNo8oYoYdddCddCCC/NdddCd]]ddddddFddddFCCddd88ddzzdddkddCddF"Ȑddd岲dCCȐzȲxCdzdodȐȅdCdYdsȐ]ȐȐȧzȐUwŐdȐYYCCCCzzzozoYzNoYdYC8YooYdYzzdzddoYoYzzozzzzNd88YYYzYzzzzCCdddddddzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzNNNNNNNdddddddddddddddddddd888888888888YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzCszzCozdYCxdYCx"`H2 : ^ENluuNNNuNNNNuuuuuuuuuuNNhN[}NNNuuNhuhuhNuuAAuAuuuuV[AuuuuhhuhuuuuuuNuuuuuuuuuAhhhhhhhhhhNANANANAuuuuuuuuuuhuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuAuuuuuuuuuAAuuuuuu}[}u}uuuuuuuuuhNuuNNNWxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxNuuuNh__uuuuuuRuuuuRNNyyu<<uuuuuNyuR"uyuuNNxNuuuuNuhulcuhhNNNNh[huhNAhhuhuuuhhNuhNNuuuuuuuNuhNx?xxx,wx6X@8;X@28wC;,[hXw P7XP636uC;,"/3Xu&_ x$&7XX47zC;,=sXz_ p^7X5ANE,, P7P@NE,=!3_ p^7YFdo88d8odddNN8oYdYNdddddddddCddddddddd8dddddYYYYYN8N8N8N2%> Dd 4F"`H2 : ^ENluuNNNuNNNNuuuuuuuuuuNNu[pNNNuuNuhhRuANAuh[NuuuhuuuuuuuuuNuuuuuuuuAuuuuuhhhhh[A[A[A[AuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuAuuu[uuuu[Auuuu[uuuuuuhNuuNNNWxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxNuuuNuccuuuuuuRuuuuRNNu<<uuuuuNuR"uuuNNxNuuuuNuhupcuuuNNNNh[hhh[Ahhuhuuuhh[uhNNuuuuuuuNuhNx2% Y  3'3'Standard'3'3StandardHPLASIII.PRSx   .҇#Xw P7[hXP#expressions. A different example: my heartbeat (the source)is slowed or speeded up by a complex amalgam of humoraland neural factors (the message) by the vagal andsympathetic cardiac efferents (channels); changes from thenormal rhythm are reported ("fed back") by sensitiveinterceptors (other channels) to my brain (the desination),specifying factors such as timing, volume, and pulsepressure (further messsages). The feedback loop betweenheart and brain provides an oscillatory input to my centralnervous system on the basis of which vital readjustments arethen effected. The message received (and at last interpreted) by thedestination is, in practice, never identical to the message sentafter having been formulated by the source. In other words,the output of the channel isn't at all tantamount to the input. This discrepancy may be due to random but persistentdisturbances that variously intrude into the system and thusobscure the clarity or quality of the communication or, inextreme cases, obliterate its comprehension entirely. Achannel might also, say, for secrecy, contain an interposedscrambling device. Such disarrangements, which render theoutput unpredictable even when the input is known, are Y collectively called noise. Messages always consists of an amalgam of signal and noise,which can be stated as a ratio of the two. If the signal (thatportion of the "intended" by the source) is greater than thenoise (that portion of the message which intrudes in thecourse of its transmission to the destination), comprehensionis, to a greater or lesser degree, ensured; if, however, thenoise is greater than the signal, special techniques must beemployed to restore a degree of accuracy in the reception."xxx XLLVthe big B, you've got to ask yourself if you'rereally trying to get over him. Maybe you thinkthat you'll be closer to him if you live in thepast or that he'll see your love as true if yourefuse to let go. Calling his house and hangingup, waiting around in the school parking lot tocatch a glimpse of him, hounding his friendsfor information, -- none of this is going tohelp you get better. Nobody knows theanswers to all the questions, but one thing isclear: He would be with you if he wanted tobe with you, and he's not.ƈ,L So Seventeen comes through in the end. Ninety-five percent of it is bad, but the other five percent gives the reader a glimpse into what matters in the lives of these girls, beyondthe day-to-day distractions. It is also the only magazine thatcan hold the attention of someone outside of the targetgroup. Unlike the other magazines, Seventeen is worthwhile,and it would be a loss to see it cease to exist. 84xxx  xx8 XWell, afterward, I started to bleed. Does thismean I'm not a virgin anymore? Did he popmy cherry?D and: XMy best friend Stacy lied to her boyfriend andtold him that she wasn't a virgin. Now she'safraid that if she has sex with him he'll knowshe's a virgin because she'll be tight or it'llhurt. She's afraid to tell him the truth becauseshe thinks he'll hate her for lying. If a guy'sexperienced, can he tell if a girl is a virgin?D Pretty crazy stuff, better not let Mom see it. Seventeen iscoming perilously close to reality. The former letter affordsan opportunity for moralizing: The Young Lady should takeDebra Kent's advice and do some thinking for herself, andmaybe then she will shed some of her hypocrisy. She istrapped between two conflicting desires: To "just do it," andto preserve the sanctitude of what she calls "my cherry".The unpoppable cherry has nothing to do with it, becausevirginity is not a biological label, but a state of mind. Thisgirl is running the gamut of "his fingers" and many Latinterms and what-have-you, and certainly it is stretching it abit to call her an untouched virgin bride, which is the wayshe would prefer to exist. But again, Seventeen usually redeems itself enough to make it worth the $2.50 cover price. This issue, too. It was foundin the article by Ann Patchett with the title "How to Survivea Breakup": XIf this guy is still the centre of everyconversation you're having six months after D xxx To circumvent noise and thereby to decrease the probabilityof transmissions errors, the source habitually introjects Y0redundancy. There are many kinds of noise and manytechniques for overcoming them, but always at a price suchas slowing the source (and thereby the rate of the entiretransaction). Imagine, for example, an airport trafficcontroller (the source) attempting to convey precise landinginstructions (the message) to a pilot (the desination) by radio(the channel) during an electrical storm (noisy environmentalcontext). One means perhaps the simplest whereby thecontroller can intromit redundancy to ensure reasonablyerrorfree reception in such a highrisk situation is toreiterate all or parts of the original message, even at theexpense of slowing him and the process of landing appreciably. After the delivery of every message instance,the controller might ask (feedforward): "Do you copy?" Thepilot will repeat what he understands the instructions to be(feedback). If the pilot judges that a satisfactory consensushas been reached, he might so acknoweldge with the code"Roger," and conclude with "out." A different example: When I utter a sentence in the presenceof a light source, I simultaneously engage in a wide array ofother bodily movements, some of them audible("paraphonetic"), most of them visible (nonvocal as well asnonverbal). These parallel communicational strands alwayspartially redundant to one another, a welcome fact which,under noisy conditions, reduces the degree ofmisunderstanding between the communicants. The force ofthis mundane example can be appreciated by turning off thesound on your television set or, alternatively, by leaving thesound on but masking the image. H"xxx$ t:t:xxH Incidentally, geneticists have found that the relation betweenthe (fourletter) nucleic acid code and the (twentyletter)proteincode the genetic code is replete with redundancy,since several groups of three nucleotides, or triplets, alongthe nuclei acid chain define the same amino acids along theprotein chain (that is, these groups are synonymous. Since the question of whether there is life elsewhere in theuniverse remains as yet wide open, communication isassumed to be confined to the terrestrial biosphere, as wellas to be a universal property of life on earth.  Y 0The first traces of life, hence the phylogenesis ofcommunication, date from the Archaean Aeon, of 3,900 to2,500 million years ago. The earliest living world consistedof prokaryotes, such as bacteria, made up of cells in whichthe genes are not packaged into a membraneenclosednucleus. These vastly multiform microorganismsexclusively populated Earth until about 800 million yearsago. According to a current view of biologists, different speciesof microbes came to form symbiotic unions among oneanother, which subsequently coevolved into whollyintegrated and perduring collectives of higher life formscomposed of eukaryotic unicellular and multicellularorganisms in which they live. Symbiotic alliances subsuming concepts such as parasitism, mutualism,commensalism, and the like depend crucially oncommunication between individual particpant of two or morespecies for most of the life cycles of each; such alliances eventually become permanently interwoven communities, ""xxx"Ԍpay for, because the cover feature translated to twodecent-sized pictures and 1/3rd of a page of text. Page 24 finds a page on specialized swimsuits, and how to use them to accentuate your body features. Also included is a group of exercises you can use to trim unsightly soft bits. Batter down the hatches for the "Sex & Your Body" column.It's hot stuff. The sub-title is "Are You Experienced?": XLLqThere's generally a sort of hierarchy ofexperiences, with hand-holding and kissing atthe bottom and intercourse at the top. But inbetween the list gets pretty blurry. Wheneveryone you know talks about everythingthey do and grill you about everything you do,you may be able to avoid having your sexualexperience (or lack of it) be publicknowledge... the trick is to respect your bodyand your beliefs enough to always protectyourself, first and foremost, and to do what'struly right for you.ƈ,L Then they pick four letters dealing with this topic. The first two are of average level, but after that it gets pretty hairy. The final two letters, printed verbatim: XLLqI am a virgin and I intend to stay a virginuntil I get married. Instead of having sex, myboyfriend and I do everything else. The othernight he used his fingers. I know it soundsgross, but I don't know how else to put it. ƈ,LH xxx$ hXhX;xxH Yorker" it aint. The fashion features of Seventeen are thebest photographed, and the ads go beyond the norm a fewtimes. But even Seventeen has seen better days. The June 1992 wasweighing in at a rather svelte 120 pages, while as recently as April 1986 it was 216 pages. A perusal of that issue findsseveral ads for General Motors, Rice-a-roni, "Chadwicks ofBoston," and a feature film. This is an indication thatSeventeen, at that time, was almost a "general interest"magazine, the two biggest of this genre being Time andPeople. Certainly that is not the case any longer. There areonly a few ads in this category. The remainder of themagazine is bulked up with YM-style ads for Clearsil, CoverGirl, and Caboodles (a neon-coloured makeup lunchbox).One thing hasn't changed, though, and that is the last pagesare ripe with postage-size black and white ads for mail-orderfirms specializing in bust growing schemes, photoenlargement operations, Groucho Marx glasses & moustache("fool your friends"), and fat camps. It would be premature to jump the gun and label Seventeenas YM trash. The editorial slant does not suffer from thelaugh-track style happiness that infects Sassy. The issue reviews carried a very good fiction piece, actually worthy of reading. It wasn't promoted very much, and appears inthe contents page as "FICTION: Leftovers by CathiHanauer". You can't have too much, and this is a passingbarb at best. She also wrote the "Relating" column, which isan advice column to the lovelorn. The cover girl was Samantha Mathis, which would be reasonenough to buy the whole thing. Yet, you don't get what you " xxx" harmoniously coordinated by means of a steady ebb and flowof electrochemical signs. Each of the three major groups of eukaryotic organisms (inaddition to a fourth, the unicellular protocists) has evolved aparticular type of communication, technically andrespectively called phytosemiotic, zoosemiotic, andmycosemiotic. Animals form an intermediate superphylum,mediating between the plants (which they consume) and thefungi (by which they are ultimately dissolved). Because oftheir pivotal position as message trasnformers, theircommunicative processes are the most elaborate. They arealso much better studied. All animals, including ourselves, communicate byexchanging nonverbal signs. Verbal signs that is, language Y0ԩ evolved uniquely in the genus Homo and seems first to Y{0have been present in a hominid species named habilis("handy man") which flourished about 2.4 to 1.5 million YO0years ago. This form was swiftly followed by Homo erectus("upright man"), dated about 1.5 millions years ago, andsoon by at least two subspecies, of which solely a descendant Y 0of our own kind, Homo sapiens (about 100,000 years ago),survives. In the early hominids, language was not used forcommunication, but for "modelling", that is, a refinedanalysis of their surroundings: the advantages of theforerunners of language were not primarily social, but theindividual advantages for survival appear to have beencritical. However, our species eventually readaptedlanguage into a series of linear manifestations, first speechand later other means, such as script, which flourish assystems supplementary to the more ancient and fundamentalones by which the modern human too communicates. H(xxx$ \v\vYxxH Human verbal and various nonverbal means ofcommunication are now so thoroughly intermingled that theycan be disentangled only by dint of careful scientificanalysis.  Y0As to ontogenesis, human infants are born with an array ofnonverbal devices they can naturally use to communicatewith adults in their immediate environment. They learncontext many months before they learn linguistic devices,although the earlier forms (gaze, gesture, and so forth) don'tget lost; they merely become contingent and optional. Insenility and other circumstances of impairment, language islikewise attentuated and lost before the array of more ancientprelinguistic habits is dissolved. Attention focused on communication studies, in the West,among the Greeks, in particular among those pioneeringphysicians who were concerned with describing interactionbetween themselves and their patients. Patients relatedverbally and displayed by nonverbal means their complaints Y60(dubbed symptoms, which are kinds of indexical signs, thatis, signs such as tracks, footprints, finger pointing, and, inlanguage, pronouns) while reporting "I have a bellyache," orsimply groaned while clutching their abdomen. Thephysicians asked searching questions about their patients'past ("took a case history") and examined them with hands("palpation"), eyes, and ears, or with intruments measuring,for instance, such "vital signs" as blood pressure,temperature, and so forth. Summating their patient'ssymptoms, or subjective signs, with their own objective YR0detection of other signs, they pronounced a diagnosis of thesyndrome, and, evaluating that in the light of their overall Y&0experience, they made a prognosis. These notions and terms"&xxx" A further slide happened late in 1991 when Sassy changedthe physical size -- from an oversized square to a regular notebook size. Soon after, the magazine underwent yet another layout overhaul and now is as active as an MTV commercial with mixed-font headlines and text, and dingbatsby the dozen. Whether or not it loses in editorial quality is irrelevant, as long as it can keep a number of girls interested enough to read it. For magazines are essentially trojan horses for getting the reader to look at advertisements, just as the only purpose of commercial television is use the guise of entertainment to round up an audience to sit through the commercials. Why do magazine articles break up after two pages, to be "continued on page 132"? To get the reader to turn through the next sixty pages, all while looking at the ads. The Sass-meisters seem to be caught in a delicate circle. Sassy was forced away from its old positions that made it quirky, interesting, daring, and worth looking forward to each month. However, there is no demand for a Young &Modern clone, which is the direction that Sassy may have todrift. Sassy is an entity at sea in search of a demographic,which is a very perilous thing to be.  Y0Seventeen Seventeen is the oldest of the group here, and in both the literal and figurative senses it remains the mother of all teenage mags. It is still the most professional, most entertaining, and most professionally produced of the magazines. But this is a small market, and "The NewH xxx$PPwxxH a whole slew of others. They're supposed to be as familiarto the readers as their cafeteria mates. Positively, Sassy does contain the most record and book reviews of any of the three mags, but these are limited. The books are always the latest released kid books, the music the latest six-month shelf life stuff, and the "movies" are always what's playing down at the mall. "Stuff You Wrote"is a poetry-and-quip feature that is passable but is slowly shrinking month by month. Most of the poetry is kinda the same, and an attempt at therapy - the desire to get something out of one's system and not so much to creatework that transcend the medium and develop relevance onseveral different planes. Still, the concept is commendableand the neglect of this feature is not so good. Sassy is still the only magazine that mention the words "vagina" and "penis" as if they are related to each other butthey are very careful when they do it. Sassy does set itselfapart from the other two, but this difference is shrinking. The ads in Sassy are largely those of YM, primarily disposable haircare products, and disposable music products. May of the exact same ads appear in all three magazines. Again - the ads, like the magazine itself, never leave the realm of the day to day distractions of a fifteen and a half year old. "7xxx" were known to Hippocrates and actually spelled out in atreatise by his follower, the prolific Galen. Both Plato and Aristotle were concerned with problems ofeveryday communication and its specialized uses, forexample, in poetics or the rhetoric of persuasion. Forseveral Hellenistic schools of philosophy, notably the Stoicsand the Epicureans, theories of language and of the sign, andof communication, were central preoccupations. The greatAncient rhetoricians, including Cicero and Quintilian,concentrated on the techniques of expression, a field whichtoday focuses on the study of misunderstanding and ways toremedy it. The most outstanding thinker of antiquity onissues such as these was Saint Augustine, who also proposedthe first coherent concept of the lie. During the Middle Ages, studies of logic and languageflourished and led to elaborate considerations of a philosophyof grammar and of principles of a "universal grammar." Locke's work of 1690 became enormously influential inexaminations of the meaning of "meaning," and he canindeed be considered a forerunner of modern semiotics. Debates concerning universals and other aspects ofcommunication were significantly advanced by Leibniz. The nineteenth century, and the first decades of thetwentieth, were marked by an explosive development ofmost of the basic communication technologies still in use:photography and telegraphy, the rotary press, the typewriter,the transoceanic cable, the telephone, motion pictures,wireless telegraphy, magnetic tape recording, radio, andtelevision. These rapid changes in mass media andtelecommunications (most recently, satellite) technologies,H xxx$ `DĕxxH such as interactive TV as well as elecontronic mail and fundstransfer, facsimile machines, and computer bulletin boards,are sometimes (for example, Beniger 1986) referred to ascomponents of the "control revolution." Because theconcept of communication is so central to our contemporarycivilization, and because of the intensive social shaping oftechnology by governments and commercial interests, ourage has increasingly come to be characterized as "theinformation society". Communication studies have hitherto dealt predominantlywith the past and the present, but speculative extrapolationstoward the future have also been made. It is clear that suchstudies are inevitably linked to the biological fate ofhumankind. In 1980 the U.S. department of Energy createda task force to investigate problems connected with the finalmarking of a filled nuclearwaste repository to devise amethod of warning future generations, up to 10,000 yearshence, not to mine or drill at that site unless they are fullyaware of the consequences of their actions. A significantcomponent of this investigation was devoted to the questionof how our generation can communicate with up to threehundred generations into the future. The report which hasbecome particularly relevant in view of the preliminaryselection by the U.S. Congress, in 1987, of a site in Nevade recommended, among other items, that a relay system ofrecoding messages be launched and that messages to beactually displayed be imbued with the maximum possibleredundancy. In any event, in the future, communication will increasinglydepend on developments in biotechnology and computer " xxx"Ԍhas to have a few words of teen-lingo inside of it to keep the readers awake. Do the editors of Sassy wish to keep these people sassy forever? Honestly, this stuff sounds as if it is being spoken in the next Wayne's World sequel. Because of this constant gee-whiz overtone, Sassy is unable to sound sincere when it deals with serious issues. Scorpio (Oct 23 - Nov 21) Partnerships are key to success this mo' (except for hassle-causing bratty sibs on the 10th). Break with routine on the 12th - you need a change. On the 16th you get what you ask for. Hang near water on the 21st for serenity and Esther Williams-y exercise. Day to Savor [sic]: 11th. Scratch Off Your Calendar [sic]: 29th. The "Cute Band Alert" further restricts Sassy readers into this teenage pigeonhole. The Cute Band Alert is just that -- "Alert! Here is a new band with a cute bass player!" and they publish a picture. This kind of narcissism is taken to a further extreme with the "Sassiest Boy in America" contestheld every winter, in which readers can nominate their boyfriend or brother as the epitome of sass. Who is the idol figure of Sassy readers? Anyone who has sideburns, Lollapalooza tickets, a backward-turned baseball cap, and calls himself "a feminist". Sassy takes a different slant than the other three mags: It supposedly includes the reader in the personal lives of the editors. Editors and staff contributors refer to themselves in the first person, and the reader is supposed to feel chummy with Jane, Lew, Christina, Margie, Jacinta, Mary, Kim, Mary Kaye, Anne V, Andrea T, Janet, Mary Ann, andH xxx$ 88xxH  Y0Sassy If you have a ring through your nose and believe that The Butthole Surfers speak directly to you, Sassy will be your bag. Witness this from the letters section: Dear Jane: I was going to send you this comic strip way before your "staff hate mail awards" ["Diary," April]. I swear! My purpose was to show you that a way cool cartoonist like Lynda Barry has her comic strip character reading a way cool magazine like Sassy [only one panel shown below]. So I am glad that you're "spreading like the plague"! Complete with spelling errors, this is the handbook of the hippest home slices this side of Seattle. Hip though it may appear to be, the Kurt Cobain-meets-Frankie Avalon article on "Surf Punks" features the grunge lady wearing $154 worth of clothes (not even counting those big clunky boots) as she looks nihilistic. Anarchy in the USA? Not if you are shopping at the Gap to achieve it. However, Sassy may be a victim of its demographic. In the hopes of hitting the mark, they constantly engage in overkill, as if their audience could never accept anything but affirmations of what they already are. Instead of giving the message that information on the cover photograph is on page fourteen, Sassy has to say For a veritable hoedown of info about our cover, fee fi fiddly-i oh-ver to page 14. This gets very boring very fast. Almost every other sentence" xxx" technology, which already provide humanity withopportunity to redesign itself.  W0 Prof. Thomas A. Sebeok is a Professor of Linguistics andChairman of the Research Centre for Language and SemioticStudies, Indiana University. The essay published here is an Wv0excerpt taken with permission from A Sign is Just A Sign(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990), chapter 2.  YH0HHxxx $ ,xxH  X0 The Aerobic Babe Mythology #Xw P7[hXP# Melanie Barter Currently in North American popular culture there exists atrend which revolves around the ideal bodyaesthetic. Specially designated space, technology, magazines, fashions,and a lot of people's lifestyles revolve around this quicklyincreasing commercial industry. The obsession with havingthe perfect figure has made its way into every element of ourlives: we see it in commercials, in halfhour infomercials,written as slogans, alluded to by food products, andpersonified by work out junkies such as Madonna andSharon Stone. Fitness centres are rampant and exerciseequipment is developed and produced at high speeds. It ispresently so ingrained in our society that it has taken on the Y0form of myth. Roland Barthes says in his book Mythologiesthat "nothing can be safer from myth" (143): that"everything can be a myth provided it is conveyed by adiscourse" (117). In this essay, I will expose the myth of YK0the Aerobic Babe through the creation of its mythology,using Barthes paradigm of first, second and third levelsemiotic systems. I will also explain that by lookinng at theaerobic babe mythology, one could call the myth a perfectexample of our postmodern society. First, to identify the aerobic babe as a myth in a Barthianmanner, I must use his model (124) and fill in the necessarysemiotic elements: the signifier, the signified and the sign. If one follows the Barthian model first there must be aliguistic system where the sign of that system doubles as thesignifier of a second order system, myth. When the sign ofthe first system comes into being, the meaning of that signallows it to act as a signifier in the next mythical system. "" xxx" The horoscopes were uniformly false. I told Chris that hewould meet "a cool guy with killer looks" on the fourteenth.He did not seem to be too anxious. It appears that being young and modern is not a very good condition for the soul. YM implicitly believes that the acquisition and sustaining of a boyfriend must be the central focus in the goals of a girl, yet YM itself showcases that most boyfriends are albatrosses at best, and eventually only cause trouble. YM does not see the contradiction of instructing its readers to pursue the romantic ideal while admitting that Prince Charming is most likely a goof. Someone who is young and modern must be a clothes horse,willing to apply massive amounts of varying kinds ofmakeup, able to spend extravagantly on clothes, diet, use theright kind of soap, wear a two-piece bikini and kowtow to ajerk boyfriend who may or may not be stolen by your bestfriend. If you cannot reach those levels, you are done like a dinner. This magazine portrays female adolescence correctly,as a series of banalities adding up to a tremendousomnipresent burden. They recognize the faults of this value system, but lack the conviction to attempt to bring about changes. Espousing of deviant philosophies (to burn your braor your rouge) could cause what Jennifer Wise fears more than AIDS, which is "a damaged reputation". YoungModern readers cannot liberate themselves because they aretoo busy trying to condition themselves for socialacceptance.  Y 0 H  xxx$   xxH She inevitably had bought into the Puritan ethic of "TheCosby Show" by getting steamed over the inevitable resultsof sex before the wedding night: "a damaged reputation, anunplanned pregnancy, or a sexually transmitted disease likeAIDS". Kaan is in her second year at Arizona StateUniversity, but her arguments remain thinly veiled rantslacking in intelligence. The "Body Q&A" is not as erotic as one might hope. They discuss different types of soap (superfatted or emollient,transparent or glycerin, deodorant, french milled, synthetic,acne and cleansing lotion) and publish photographs of thetatoos of Julia Roberts, Jody Watley, Roseanne Barr, Cher,Stephanie Seymour and "Roshumba". The crew hit the beach, photographed nine surfpeople and asked them "If your surfboard were a girl, who would shebe?" These questions were answered honestly. Three of the seven dudes picked one of several fashion models. One guy said his mom. Bud Struck wanted his surfboard to be aporno star. This article was a veiled excuse for publishing pictures of surf gods, with little erect boy-nipples. The guy thing continued without another survey, "What's theworst thing you've ever done to a girl?" Answers: three dumpings on prom night, physical assault, yelling derogatorycomments from a car window, cheating, raping a drunkard, crank calls, and one guy who vomitted on his date. YM also contains the now-obligatory ad for "Teen Spirit" which remains "the Only Anti-perspirant For Teens". Thisone pictures three happy-go-lucky girls whooping it up at a carnival and presumably stinking up the joint in the process. "  xxx" Barthes views this sign as something with meaning whichtemporarily empties itself or its meaning, so that it maybecome a form ready and willing to be appropriated by asignified. "Myth's point of departure is constituted by thearrival of meaning." (133) Barthes describes the launchingof myth from the sign of the previous linguistic system. Todiscuss and analyze myth Barthes says that it is notnecessary to breakdown the linguistic system: it is onlynecessary to acknowledge its sign as a signifier for myth toaccess. He writes of this, "The semiologist no longer needsto ask about the composition of the language object he willonly need to know its total term and only in as much as thisterm lends itself to myth." (124). Because, then, it is notour concern to show how the first system came to intobeing, I will jump in and start with the signifier of the myth,which as we know, has taken its form from the meaning ofthe sign in the linguistic system. The signifier in the aerobic myth is the woman (orsometimes man) who looks unnaturally toned and fit and isposed usually in advertisements. Her body looks likesomething which came from a plastic mold. It is "perfectly"shaped, smooth, tanned, hairless and flawless. She is thewoman in tight, low cut aerobic wear; big, doneup hair,and a smiling face. She does not sweat, nor is she ever outof breath. She is often found in newspaper ads for fitnessclubs, such as Bally's Matrix and Superfitness, or on TVlate at night selling mail order portable work out equipment(equipment so small that you can hite under you desk andwork out in the luxury of your own office this of course,though, would be for the male aerobic babe). This woman,when in union with her signified, comprise the aerobic babemyth. Once she becomes a myth, her meaning is easilyH  xxx$  * *xxH recognized: people see her and they understand her messageimmediately. This of course, though, is dependent on thesignified, which Barthes also refers to as the concept. Barthes explains that often a neologism is necessary whendiscussing in myth because often the signified is somethingthat does not fit into an already established word. Mythtakes on such a natural form that it is not until one wants todeconstruct it, that it becomes apparant that there is no wordfor what is being signified: until the deconstruction, thesignified seems like a natural phenomenon that gets taken forgranted, thus leaving it unnamed. In the aerobic babe myth Y 0I shall name the concept Inshapness, after the existence ofmany North Americans striving to get "in shape". I have noalternative than to create a new word for the concept of thismyth because other established words, such as fitness orhealthyness do not apply exactly. Each of those words hastheir own connotations and they do not fit the concept which Yd0lies within this myth. The Inshapeness myth is culture andtime specific: it reflects something that is going on in societyright now, and other words to represent this concept wouldnot work. Likewise, the aerobic babe as a signifier wouldnot be right for any of the words that I just considered aspossible signifieds. She could only signify a neologisticconcept because she, herself, is also so new. Now that we have determined that the concept of the aerobic Y0babe myth is Inshapeness, a few words on what In Y0shapeness actually is, are in order. The Inshapeness mythis based in the quest for the perfect body. What constitutesthe "perfect body" is the promoted and accepted version of adesired anatomical aesthetic. This idea has been present forcenturies and the form in fashion is dependent on the trend "( xxx" girls like you to..." The curious thing about this girl is thatshe appears to be falling over backward for no discerniblereason. "Say Anything" is a collection of reader-submittedembarrassing experiences and Freudian slips. The staff then rates these harrowing exploits with one to four stars, the four-star ranking being "Ultimate supremo humiliation".This section is in actuality the most titillating thing you'll see in YM. Hold onto your hats, this is heavy chick-talk: The reason you bought the mag, right? The next best thingto Peeping Tom-ing a slumber party. This month yieldedthree four-stars, the first being about a girl exposing her breasts during a school play, the second about a girl who had her clothes ripped off by a ski-lift, and the thirdinvolved a girlie having a tooth fall out during heavy petting and having Prince Charming swallow the thing.There were a few experiences at being ignored by a "guy"despite all intentions, and one about a girl's dad sitting onthe toilet. Our favourite, although it was only given three stars, was about a girl who 'accidentally' bought a vibrator. She thought it was a curling iron. Dr Ih] . Ih]  Freud would lovethese magazines almost as much as we do. The letter section found Jetha Marek from the Bronx questioning the real value of makeup, which wentunanswered by Bonnie and crew. Crosstalk asked, "Shouldyou stay with a boyfriend who pressures you for sex?" andno specific answer was given. Neither of the sides advocatedthat the victim "do it" with her boyfriend, but Kim Kaan ofTempe Arizona said that you should ignore him. Theeponymous Jennifer Wise of Stockton, Kansas "will onlyhave sex when I am ready for it," when-ever that may be. H  xxx$ H H+xxH same amount of respect. We tallied 32 of 104 pages consisting of full page singles advertisements, and four doubles (Cover Girl, Maybelline, "Caboodles" and Paul Mitchell Hair Products). XBELIEVE IT: When your make-up looks thisnatural, you know it's Clean.D  Y10 XOne look says it all. Natural. Believable.Beautiful. That look is Cover Girl CleanMake-up (tm). So good to your skin. Soclean. With pure Noxzema (r) ingredients. D XFor healthy colour. Honest coverage. Thelook of great skin. That's the believable lookof Clean Make-up.D We found an oxymoron in the term "clean make-up". To be changed from the natural (which is to say, clean) you need to be made up into something different, and therefore you need something called "make-up" to do that. The girls in these advertisements had the particular quality of not resembling human beings at all. There is some heavy airbrushing going on here. They don't even look human anymore, of particular note is the girl squinting eyes,  Y0crunching paper and sticking out her tongue in theMaybelline double-ad. The girl for the Tampax one on pagefour looks like a real person, with a black turtleneck sweaterand blue leggings with numbers on them: "Doing anythingfor the first time can be tricky. But trust the makers ofTampax to come up with a tampon that's a total cinch for "  xxx" of the day, whether it be the Rubenesque woman form theBaroque period or the thin, waiflike woman of the twenties. Now the ideal body is one that is hard as rock or perhaps,"steel", as in the television ad for the mail order videoentitled, "Buns of Steel". Although the previous idealbodies revolved around fashion and/or art, this particularbody in discussion does not entirely remain in that sphere. (In the fashion world the ideal body does have to look toned YH0and fit but it is different from what exists in the world of In Y30shapeness.)  Y 0Inshapeness encompasses a world of its own: it has themasses in its pen. The world of Inshapeness has millions ofpeople buying the same work our clothing, going to thesame type of work out centres, and all desiring to achievethe exact same body which at that point could hardly becalled a body; a form would be more appropriate, or to usetheir language, "a shape". This world makes it convenientfor any one to join. Chain fitness centres exist all overmajor cities, they usually carry the same or similarequipment, and the layout is very ordered, so that littlemental involvement it is like ordering from a fast foodrestaurant. And if you do not have the time or money forfitness clubs, you simply order a piece of equipment foryour home at prices that range from $29.99 to hundreds ofdollars and have your own private regimen. The body inthis world is removed from the Self and is worked on as a Y0seperate entity. Inshapeness does not connote healthyeating for instance, or getting exercise for the sake of feeling Ym0better. Inshapeness revovles around looking great andaiming for an ideal physique. This distinction is necessarywhen looking at this myth as a part of a postmodernsociety.H* xxx$  e e|IxxH The aerobic myth is a combination of the aerobic babe as a Y0signifier and Inshapeness as the signified. Using amathematical analogy the structure of the myth would be: Y0woman in exercise wear + Inshapeness = aerobic babe Y0myth. The sign is the aerobic babe with meaning, until then Y0she is only the aerobic babe with form. Not until she meets Y|0Inshapeness can she be anything but a signifier (unless, ofcourse, she takes a step backwards and remains as the signin her previous linguistic system). Once the sign hasmeaning the signifier and the signified have done their job,and their relationship remains eliptical; they work as a unitand remain that way as long as the sign continues to havemeaning. This, then, is the construction of the myth of theaerobic babe. She is an image that portrays getting in shapeas possible and as a positive move in one's life. Hermessage to the typical North American is that, "You too canhave this great body; get on your aerobic clotes and go workout so that your body can look perfect." The only way the aerobic babe myth can be discussed is withthe knowledge that comes with the aerobic babe mythology. We could not even speak of the myth if the mythology werenot created. The aerobic babe myth without a mythologyexists as naturally as sunshine does: as something so naturalthat it does not even invoke questioning it is a completelyaccepted norm working on the oblivious public. Barthessays that the, "mythconsumer takes the signification for asystem of facts: myth is read as a factual system, whereas itis but a semiological system" (142). Myth, though, can onlybe seen as a semiological system with the exposing aid of amythology. He writes of this, "the best weapon againstmyth is perhaps to mythify it in its turn, and to produce anartifical myth: and this reconstituted myth will in fact be a "(xxx"  a<# P7,P# The Crossroads of Pubescence - An Examination a <of Three Teen Magazines #Xw P7[hXP# Steven Meece - ad522@freenet.carleton.ca This essay is excerpted from an e-zine created by StevenMeece and Christopher Woodill, a new form electronicpublication (see C. Woodill's article on the electronicenvironment). Cropduster is published annually at themoment, and has received recognition from various peoplearound the world who have read electronically, and from a front page article devoted to it in the Ottawa Citizen(Dec. 26, 1993). KIh\Issues of Cropduster can be obtained by contacting the authors.K  Y 0Young & Modern / Missy  Y0 YM is supposed to stand for "Young and Modern." Until afew years ago it stood for "Young Miss," but the editorsdecided that the title was too prissy and waif-like for thegritty reality experienced by young girls today. It istheorized that girls would rather be modern than a miss,which seems to be like two coins with the same side. The pages are quite glossy, and the magazine has aparticular smell to it. The pages don't feel like paper. The second thing we noticed about this issue and possibly this magazine is that its sole purpose seems to be the promotion of make-up. The magazine is bulked up by advertisements for various-makeup products, many of the reader inquiries include queries about the proper kind of blush to use, and they themselves find that makeup is the central core of any young and modern girl's existence. Otherthings are delved into, but they are never treated with the Hbxxx$ pgxxH be relegated to the status of a fringe phenomenon ordismissed as easily as they tend to be."xxx" mythology" (147). Mythology is a third order system thatoperations in the same way that the second order system ofmyth operates. Just as a myth takes a sign from a linguisticsystem and uses it as a signifier, mythology takes a signfrom a mythical system and uses it as a signifier. Amythology of a particular myth, then, uses the mythical signas its signifier. The mythology of a particular myth, then,uses the mythical sign as its signifier. The mythology of theaerobic babe uses the sign in the aerobic babe myth as itssignifer, the process then starts all over. As we have already established, the signifier in the aerobicbabe mythology starts as the sign of the aerobic babe myth. It is the exact same woman in her aerobic wear, except thatshe no longer has her mythical meaning. She is for a secondtime drained of most of her meaning so that she may becomea form, again to be appropriated by a signified (one mustremember that she never really loses her meaning, she justwears it on the outside so that a new concept may provideher with a new meaning.) Her form has always been thesame, it is her meaning that keeps changing: it evolves andchanges, and accumulates more meaning as it passes throughthe various semiological systems.Hxxx$x,xxH The process within a mythology is exactly the same as theprocess within a linguistic and mythic system. Amythological concept must now come and appropriate theaerobic babe form in order to give it meaning. And just asthe concept in a myth is usually a neologism, so is theconcept in a mythology. The concept in mythology isusually a metaconcept: it is a concept that is aware of theprevious concept and makes a statement on that previous concept. In the aerobic babe mythology I shall call the Y10concept Postmodern Bodyism.  Y 0As a signified, Postmodern Bodyism is aware that theaerobic babe myth is a farce and should only be seen as anoutcome of our own postmodern society. This conceptprotects one from being trapped by the myth itself. AsBarthes says, it cuts him off from all the mythconsumersand allows him to liberate the myth (171). By being awareof what the aerobic babe myth is and how it works, one isable to avoid becoming an aerobic babe themselves. Onedoes not have to physically participate in the myth to be abeliever: the myth is an ideology and one can acknowledge itas legitimate and never have to leave the couch. One may Y 0not be cognizantly aware of Postmodern Bodyism, forexample, but may intuitively be a cynic and therefore beable to skirt myth's trap: the protection here is that the cynicfeels the concept and relates to it, but has never found it Y0necessary to name it. Postmodern Bodyism has its roots indisbelief and sees through the myth. It is an idea that is Y0aware of the fact that the goals of Inshapeness are Yo0ludicrous. Postmodern Bodyism is, then, the concept that In YZ0shapeness is false: that the idea of the perfect body is farceand that all it is, is another way to manipulate society by the".xxx"ԌConsidered as a whole, the tabloid universe is a selfcontained one, complete with its own mythology, privatecodes and even a moral subtext. The interrelated symbolsystems of the fantastic, the heroic, and the practical providethis world with flesh, and with boundaries; the moral codeprovides it with bones. Selfcontained, but not independent. Its moral code is familiar to us already, since it is composedof elements taken from the more conservative part ofwestern society's valuesystem. Its mythology is likewiseappropriated from other texts, including television. I would like to mention the strong connection betweentelevision and tabloids. The obvious intertextual nature ofsome of the articles aside, the moral codes of television andtabloids have similarities. The most important is the strongconservative thread which is found in both, especially inprimetime television and the less popular tabloids. Inaddition, the actual layout of the tabloid corresponds to thelayout of television channels in any given time segment. When we watch television, we lazily flip from on station toanother (without recourse to a  IhV TV IhV  guide) and encountercompletely unrelated narratives along the way. In much thesame way, the tabloid places totally different material onsuccessive pages, and even juxtaposes thematically unrelatedmaterial on the same page. The free nature of the layout,and the lack of a table of contents inspires the same "pickand choose" feeling we associate with television. I wouldnot be surpised that the relationship is a casual one, and thatas television changes in the future, tabloids will alter withthem. In these ways, and possible others tabloids are closelyrelated to television, the text which we all share; as such, Ido not think that they can H xxx$  xxH The target audience can now be identified as older women ofa low to lowermiddle class income bracket. The focus onthrift and the pragmatic nature of the recipes and productanalyses, the orientation of the advertisements, and thehighly critical nature of the fashion commentary point to thisconclusion. By contrast, due to their focus on high fashion,beautification products, and uncritical and unsophisticatedarticles, I would contend that women's magazines aredirected more at a younger, less responsible and slightlymore affluent audience. The value system of tabloids is a highly conservative one,which usually finds its expression in the articles onpersonalities and in those tabloids which focus on freaks ofnature. An article on the marriage of two personalitiesfocussed on all the positive qualities which each possessed,which included, "good looks, a great career", and "beautyand strength", and on the importance of a "good match". Incontrast to this conservative view of what constitutes a goodmarriage, Kenny Rogers was presented in an extremelynegative light in an article discussing his most recent affair. The freak articles provide even more sinister evidence forthe reactionary nature of tabloids the open ridicule of thosewho are unusual or don't fit into the 'normal' scheme ofthings. Because these two sorts of articles feature prominently inthat second class of tabloids which have been largely ignoredin this discussion, I conclude that such tabloids appeal to thearchconservative section of the target audience, whereas themore popular sort have a more liberalminded readership."7xxx" reins of their own vanity, into a world of packaged, fitnessgoods. The sign in the aerobic babe mythology will look exactly thesame as the sign in the aerobic babe myth, except that shewill read much differently: her meaning could not be fartherfrom the meaning of the mythical aerobic babe sign. Onceone sees through the aerobic babe myth, the original signifersignifies the crass, dehumanized, automated, producedworld of postmodernism. When one sees the aerobic babe Y 0as a mythological sign the message is not get in shape and Y 0obtain the perfect body. On the contrary, the messagecommunicates the world of fitness as unrealistic, consumeroriented, and a sign of our inorganic times. Barthes writes,"the mythologist is condemned to live in theoreticalsociality; for him, to be in society is, at best to betruthful...his connection with the world is of the order ofsarcasm" (171). This view of a sign, that to others wouldrepresent the myth of the aerobic babe, shows the metacognizant nature of mythologies. The aerobic babe as a mythological sign of the postmodernmay seem clear, but some examples for those who have notbought into the myth may help to clarify the world which itrepresents and how that is an example of postmodernism. In the fitness world of the aerobic babe myth the body that isworked on is no longer a part of the Self: the connectionbetween body and mind gets severed. The mind becomesmetaaware that it is working out and striving for a shapethat has already been constituted. The body becomes anobject to the mind that is external entity and can becontrolled just as any other piece of equipment can be. H$xxx$ 0xxH Conceptually the body gets deconstructed into individualmuscle parts and is then no longer regarded as a whole. Thework out junkie works on this muscles or that muscle andfails to perceive his body as something that is attached tohim and has life. What happens in this postmodern world ofworking out is a disassociation with the body. The mindtreats each worked out area of the body as though it wereinanimate as though it were being manufactured whichdehumanizes it and makes it a perfect candidate for beingincluded under the idea of postmodernism. Some of the language used within the world of the aerobicbabe reflects how the body is perceived. The most obviousones are the terms "in shape" and "out of shape", "Got toget in shape", "Boy, am I ever out of shape": using termslike this usually means, "I've got to get fit...I've got to gethealthy...I better do some exercise." The use of the world"shape" suggests that there is a shape that is being aspiredto, not a strength or a feeling of healthiness. Getting "inshape" is so commonly used that people do not think aboutwhat they are meaning. Although they would claim thatthey really meant getting fit or healthy, if they have boughtinto the myth then they would literally mean attaining acertain shape. Another word that is used in aerobic classesand circulates around the gym is "sculpt". There are classesthat range from ten to a hundred people who are there to"scuplt and tone". Again, the word "sculpt" suggests thatthe body is worked on as an external material. I think ofscupting clay and making forms, I guess the postmodernworkout babe would too, except the clay would be their ownbody. " xxx"Ԍeach item in the assembly. I found no real critical appraisalsin any discussions of clothing in those magazines I Y0investigated. [Cosmopolitan, Elle and Vogue] The implicitmessage that all these clothes are beautiful and worth havinginsults the intelligence of the audience. In contrast, the Y0"Pizzazz on Parade" section of the National Enquirer hadthese comments to make about the some of the ensembles:"cutie Holly Robinson looks like a trussedup holidayturkey." and "Please! Somebody throw ex'Love Boat' starLauren Tewes overboard. She's frumpy and dumpy in thisTitanic disaster." These candid analyses signify recognitionof the discerning tastes and the sophistication of theaudience. Unlike magazines, tabloid writers do not presumegreater knowl IhQ e IhQ dge than their audience; the arrogant tonesclearly visible in the one are not evident in the other. Therecipe articles are similarly significant; whereas inmagazines they tend towards the frivolous and the complex,tabloid recipes are practical and simple; and mostimportantly, cheap. The articles on toys, while seasonal, are also extremelypractical and signify a personal interset on the part of thetabloid editors for the children of the target audience. Sucharticles represent a larger group which might be named'consumer reports'. Although magazines exist particularlyfor this purpose, tabloids tend to focus on the relative meritsof the most domestic of items, in which category we caninclude children's toys. Such articles weigh the value of anitem against its cost, an issue that increases in importance inan inverse ratio to the magnitude of an individual's income.  YR0The Enquirer provided an analysis of the 'enjoyment value'of the newest toys produced for this Christmas. (The Y&0 IhR  IhR National Enquirer IhR  IhR , Dec. 8, 1992, p. 36, 37) H&xxx$ xxH types of artifice; even though these false articles tend to berepetitive, we can take pleasure in reading them, just aswhen we listen to a familiar piece of music, we can still takepleasure in the progressions and chords. This demonstratesa certain degree of sophistication in the tabloid audience;they already know and understand this peculiar code, therelationship between the writers of the articles andthemselves as an audience for these artistic creations. Certain comments made above might have indicated to thereader the composition of the tabloid audience, namely,women. Perhaps this assertion poses a difficulty; after all,are there not a large number of glossy magazines devotedexclusively to women? [Although some have asserted thatsuch texts contain clandestine codes for homosexual men] Why the need for an alternative source of the same text? Well, let us consider both in order to extract the difference. To begin with, the advertisements in tabloids are almostexclusively for items or services traditionally of interest towomen. These include wigs, diet pills, breast enlargementcreams, slim cigarettes, and psychic advice. There is asignificant lack of advertising for perfume, makeup, or highpriced clothing, the the triad which comprises theadvertisement code of magazines. As further evidence, beyond the advertisements lie a groupof articles conerned with fasion, recipes and toys. But these Y|0articles are unlike the same sort found in Cosmopolitan andothers. Fashion articles in the glossy magazines are barelyarticles at all; next to a large photograph of a model occur afew lines of type expressing positive sentiments about thequality or style of the clothing to be analyzed, a price list for""xxx" The equipment used in up to date gyms verges onunbelievable unless you have seen it for yourself. Imaginefifteen Stairmasters (automated stepping machines) next tofifteen hightech, programmable stationary bikes, tread millsthat can increase their slope, and hundreds of other machinesfor every muscle in your body. Imagine this on a couplefloors of a high rise building, complete with neon lights that Y_0flash and spell aerobics, little, white lights, snazzycarpeting, chrome, and popular music being piped in orleaking out from the glass box that holds the aerobicsclasses. This is no exaggeration this is Bally's Matrix inEtobicoke. The fitness centre is the farthest thing from anything naturalthat I have seen. At capacity, at least one hundred peopleare there stepping in sync, rowing in sync, bending forward,lifting bars, lying down pushing some thing and more. These people are like robots who interact with machines thattalk to them: they listen to their walkman or independentlytune out because there is nothing with which to make aconnection. The machines are all programmable accordingto your own personal selection. Before you start you haveto push in your weight, your desired level, your desired timeperiod and then you're off. You interact with a machine thatbeeps every time you are below performance level, or havewalked so many flights of stairs, or are almost finished frankly these machines beep whenever they get the chance. After you have finished, on the display panel appears theamount of calories you have burned off, how many flights ofstairs you have climbed, or the number of kilometres youhave just jogged or cycled. This is a sign of the informationobsessed attitudes of postmodernism. The attitudes that alsothrive on automation and technology and communicate inH"xxx$ |xxH ways that are less and less in need of other human beings.  Y0I want to make one final point on the world of Inshapenessand postmodernism. There is a paradox which is intrinsic tothe system: Why would someone work at saving time andenergy, only to have to make up for it at the gym? Why,for example, would Mr. Executive ride the evelator thirtyfive floors to his office twice a day and then after work goto the gym and walk seventy flights of stairs on theStairmaster? Or ride the escalator, or partake in any otherenergy consuming device? Could it possibly be that he,along with many other millions of people, have bought intothe aerobic babe myth? All the people who are involved inthis contradiction prove the point that "naturalization is theessence of myth" (142): that myth makes its way into ourconsciousness and takes the form of something real. It isprecisely because of myth's cunning nature that mythologiesare necessary. The only hope for escaping myth is formythologies to be recognized, voiced and communicated. "6xxx" a curiosity which was once addressed by circus side shows. Whereas the articles on famous people connect quite firmlyto an established order, and the articles on extraordinarymembers of the hoi polloi explore the flexibilities in this Y0order, the freak articles focus on its limits. Philosophicalquestions, such as "what constitutes a human being?" areadressed by such articles as "halfhuman, half fish found in Ya0florida!" [ IhK  IhK Weekly Word News IhK  IhK , Dec. 15, 1992, p. 1 & 21.] As well, such articles are themselves a symbol system forthe completely fantastic. But beyond this, in the structure of these particular articlesthere occurs an interesting phenomenon. their headlines willgenerally be displayed on the front paeg, while the articlesthemselves are buried within the paper. These headlines Y0rarely, if ever, fully connect with the contents of the article. The bold assertions in the headlines end up being highlyqualified in the articles themselves, until the event is reducedfrom the extraordinary to the doubtful or the pedestrian. Asthis occurs with astonishing regularity, it does not seempossible that a regular reader will be "taken in" by the intialclaims stated in the headlines after their first contact withthis type of article. The phenomenon is akin to watching anextremely formulaic movie or play. An audience willrecognize certain 'tags' in a dramatic narrative which will tipthem off to the conclusion in advance. When someonecomes to such a realization, they no longer watch inanticipation of the ending; the entertainment now comesfrom seeing in what way the writer will resolve thenarrative. Of course, some of the articles are outrightfalsehoods, complete with faked photographs; but the textstend to be so tongue in cheek that they signify themselves asparodies of real news articles. People enjoy all H&xxx$@$.pxxH Hesiod creates a symbol system. So it is with those figuresthat exist as demigods for us in our world. It does notbelittle them; it allows us to understand them as being muchlike ourselves. Reading an interview with Kenny Rogers onhis upcoming album and what his future career holds isinteresting in an abstract sense; it is much more engaging tofind out whether he was having an affair with one woman ortwo at once. Although such figures are discussedextensively in the mainstream press, it is usually in a'professional' capacity; the details of their personal lives arereserved for extensive discussion only in tabloids. Those articles which feature ordinary people engaged inususual endeavours have a slightly different significance. Rather than discussing what seems to be purely part of the'natural order' of things, as the articles on personalities do,these articles symbolize possibilities; specifically, thepossibility of moving from one symbolsystem (the ordinaryexistence) to another (the demigod personalities). Althoughthere is an order and clear structure to the tabloid world, thepeople in these articles manage to transcend the normalboundaries. An artice on a woman who founded andoperates the first all female car repair centre clearlyexpresses that this is possible for any woman to accomplish. The "super cop" who managed to arrest 22 gang members atonce, represents not only a possible model for men, butmore importantly, transmits a possible sense of security forwomen, who are generally more dependent on the policethan men. The articles which focus on freaks are at once less importantand also reveal more about the nature of the tabloid than theothers. On one level, they satisfy" xxx"  a<# P7,P# Expressing The Alien #Xw P7[hXP# Lisa Voisin Against a fiery orange backdrop, a green alien displays anAmerican Express card as if it were a type of greeting. Theunusual background suggests a far away place perhapsanother planet? another galaxy? or evey just the unfamiliarand unexplored. The alien is lovable: his green eyes arelarge, with a wideeyed innocence to them he looksbewildered and confused, invoking an empathic response. He has a small mouth: is he more a creature of action thanmere talk? Is there a communication problem? He is not alarge creature: his narrow shoulders and spindly neck are notsigns of strength, but weakness. He is vulnerable, and theAmerican Express card he holds before him is hisidentification and protection. Below the picture, four shortsentences offer an explanation, linking us with the alien andaddressing our need for recognition and esteem. Thisadvertisement answers the question: "How do I show that Ibelong to society and prove my worth?" To satisfy his ownneed of belonging, the alien has an American Express card. Is is that simple; the alien is considered to be "a respected,responsible person of the world," even though he is not fromthis planet. Not merely a painting of a cute little alien witha credit card as the text may suggest, the subtext of thisadvertisement addresses our own feelings of alienation andour need to belong. The inconic sign representats the issue of the alienation ofthe tourist or immigrant, without pinpointing any particularcultural group. However, the name on the credit card isEnglish, making this alien a member of the English speakingWestern world: he was either born into it, or he has HAxxx$ LLd0xxH converted by anglicizing his last name. He epitomizes thestranger in a strange land and personifies our intrinsicfeelings of alienation. His facial features, large eyes and asmall mouth, making him more of an observor than acommentator like most tourists. The small mouth implies alack of discourse; perhaps he speaks a different language andtherefore must use the card as his method of communication. The alien's green eyes symbolize envy and imply a desirefor acceptance. Because he owns an American Expresscard, he is accepted by the real world; if he can belong,anyone can. At the same time there is an irony to thisadvertisement. It suggests that even an alien belongs to ourworld prividing he has an American Express Card. The credit card itself is the only real thing in the picture. While the alien and his surroundings are painted, the card isa photograph superimposed in the foreground, as if to statethat the card is reality; the alien and his environment aremerely fantasy. The position of the card, hovering in frontof his hand suggests that he is about to grasp it an,therefore, reality. The placement of the card between thereader and his outstretched, almost waving hand makes thecare a symbol of greeting. Thus, the card makes himwelcome: he belongs in our society and is therefore real. The American Express card is also green, like omnipotentmoney, and has a picture of an ancient, perhaps Trojan,warrior in the centre. The soldier itself symbolizes unityand uniformity a sense of belonging. Soldiers travel theworld by conquering it: they have control. The ancientdress of the soldier suggests a timeless tradition, such as theestablishment. Indeed, the soldier is a very powerful symbolto Americans; it represents their need for importance," xxx" information on religious cults. The array of information I uncovered was mindboggling; Iwondered if it could possilby be resolved into a coherentwhole. As it turns out, tabloids do have a strong internalstructure and clear purpose, which is both sophisticated andsubtle. The world of tabloids is divided into two major groups: thefantastic and the "realistic". Generally, certain papers willfocus on the one area or the other. The fantastic paperscontain more of the 'freak' article category, with'personalities' coming a close second. The realistic papersdeal almost exclusively with the 'personality' category, witha liberal addition of articles concerning 'ordinary' people. The second type is the more popular of the two; there are agreater number of papers of this type, and they also have alarger circulation. Consequently, they are a more valuablesource of information for us than the first type. As mentioned above, a prominent place is afforded to thosearticles which focus on great personalities. It is quiteapparent that everyone involved in western culture issomewhat interested in the activities of these figures. Why? A comparison can be drawn with the gods of the ancientGreeks. The myths as related by Hesiod begin with adiscussion fo the professional actions of the gods: theirascent to power, the creation of man, Prometheus'unintended gift of fire, and so on. But later, the poemsbegin to focus on the gods; in other words, a way in whcihpeople can relate to them. In so doing, H xxx$ jjpNxxHԌwhile they stood in line at a supermarket. The sensationalheadlines, including such wonderful examples as "'HomeAlone' Dad Snatches RealLife Son", "Liz' [Taylor's] hubbymicrowaves germs to save her life". and "White House CatFaces Nervous Breakdown the untold story", were easilyridiculed, denied or ignored. I certainly never imagined thatanyone bought them, let alone read them. This naiveassumption was quickly dispelled when I began to noticetabloids in laces other than the newstands. At myhairdresser's, at the Walkin Clinic on the corner, and most surpisingly in the hands of women in diners andcoffee shops everywhere. People, being human, generallyshare a wide variety of interests; there is no topic under thesun tha ta person will not touch on, at least mentally, oncein their lives. Was I, perhaps, 'missing out' on something? Semiotics provided me with a perfect opportunity to discoverjust that. After purchasing with some embarrassment afew tabloids for analysis, I hurried home with them toinspect their contents. Taboids almost never contain the sort of information which Y0can be found in 'formal' newspapers. The articles focus onsoap opera stars, movie stars, European royalty, the familyof the American President, and television evangelists; inother words, largerthanlife figures. There are also,although not usually on the first page, articles on 'ordinary'people who have performed extraordinary events. Sometabloids also document extremely unlikely events, such asextraterrestrial visitors, eight year old mothers, or thephysically unusual; in short, freaks. Like ordinarynewspapers, they also have classified advertisements; theadvertised services usually include tarot card readings, cashloans, blank birth or divorce certificates, recipe booklets and" xxx" dominance, and tradition. Like an exlusive club, ownershipof the card unites people with tradition, giving them identityand significance. The slogan beneath the picture appeals to our desire foridentity and significance: "You're right off the plane. Theydon't know you from Adam. And you expect to berecognized as a respected, responsible person of the world? Absolutely." The first sentence appeals to us, because wego on planes and feel out of place when we arrive. Bydirectly addressing us as "you" the advertisers establish alink between us and the alien, reminding of us of ourinsecurities and feelings of alienation. The second sentenceconfirms those insecurities by saying that nobody knows us,we have no identity, we are anonymous and unimportant. Moreover, the reference to Adam adds a religiousconnotation and a different social text from the sciencefiction them of the ad. The juxtaposition of Adam, the firstman, with the alien suggests that the alien represents a newrace a race of American Express members, a race ofconsumers. Reference to the Bible, which is considered tobe the way of God, in the context of this advertisementsuggests that the American Express card is the way of thefuture. Although Adam was fallible, weak (the alien looksphysically weak), and brought the downfall of humanity,owning the credit card makes him a "respected, responsibleperson of the world", as if to solve the problem ofhumanity's fall from God's grace. The third sentence also tells us, by questioning, what wewant: respect, identification, importance everything thefirst two sentences threatened to take away. The last, oneword statement informs us that we can, without a doubt, H xxx$ dlxxH  Y0 have what we want. However, we must have an AmericanExpress card in order to achieve it. The use of black lettersagainst the white backdrop suggests simplicity: getting anAmerican Express card is an easy solution to the problem. The white backdrop, when closely examined, is not entirelywhite: the American Express symbol has been watermarkstamped, in light greay, all over the page, as sign of quality. White signifies purity, simplicity, and goodness, all of whichare positive traits to which Americans aspire. By usingwhite to cover more than half the page, advertiserse arealluding to the establishment; since the page has beenembossed with the American Express logo, AmericanExpress represents the establishment. The bottom of thepage states simply in larger print: "The Card. TheAmerican Express Card" and gives a phone number. Theadvertisers are suggesting that the American Express card isthe only thing that will give us the status and respect wedesire. By calling itself "The Card", American Expressimplies that it is generically the best card others do noteven come close. This advertisement offers a simple solution to theundesireable feeling of alienation: belong to AmericanExpress. It preys on our insercurities by addressing uswhile using a picture we ask ourselves if we belong tosociety and question our own society. Because this cardoffers the significance, identification and sense of belong wedesire, we want it.  Xe0 "exxx"  X0The Semiotics of Tabloids #Xw P7[hXP# A. Max Jarvie The living generally regard any age that they call the'present' as somehow new and categorically distinct fromages of the past. Only those living in future times may lookback and decide the validity of that distinction, and also seehow how that 'present' is connected to the past. Occasionally, someone might select some particular elementof their 'present' and connect it to the past, giving it ahistory and a place in an ongoing tradition. Some choose toanalyze people; Robert Burns was characterized by hiscontemporaries as a modern Catullus, through the style ofhis poetry and its subject matter. Some choose to analyzepopular institutions (although in some cases a person canconstitute an institution), as Roland Barthes did in his book Y0Mythologies. Notably absent from Barthes' notes on aspects of popularculture is a discussion of tabloids. Perhaps France does notpossess a tradition of tabloids as North America does;perhaps tabloids in France are like tabloids in England,sensationalist reiterations of the sobersided reporting foundin major, 'respectable' newspapers. Since we live in an 'informationdependent' society, andsince printed dailies and weeklies are the most commonlyconsumed forms of information, it seems likely that acomment on the value of the information found in tabloidswould be useful.  Y70I used to think that the National Enquirer, the Star, and the Y"0Sun existed purely for the amusement of sophisticated types