Brand Beckham and Mumzilla's. The future of society?

In the two feature articles “Mumzillas” and “Brand Beckham”, the first written by Niki Waldegrave and featured in the women's magazine Marie Claire, with the second written by Robert Lusetich, featured in the “Men's Issue 2007” of the Weekend Australian Magazine, there is a distinct issue being discussed, with “Mumzillas” encroaching upon the ever-growing epidemic of over-possessive mothers domineering their star-studded children, in an almost sadistic way and with “Brand Beckham” there appears to be an inception of metrosexual men, whom everybody seems to worship in our contemporary society, none more so than the ‘ladies man’ himself, David Beckham. Through the use of feature article conventions such as language, structure and selection of detail, as well as the values, attitudes and context of the writer and the target audience, including myself, helps to challenge and reinforce the issues being discussed. The two feature articles, “Mumzillas” and “Brand Beckham” appear to promote and enhance certain popular ways of seeing groups in society, especially overpowering mothers and metrosexual men, this also shows to me that these groups are all based upon celebrities and that these groups would merely be unheard of without this media attention and focus.

English: David Beckham, England, own work (by ger1...

English: My own personal photo of David Beckham.

Beckham's last season in Real Madrid

David Beckham was always well known as a football player, but nobody could possibly imagine his transformation from a “cockney lad who grew up dreaming of playing for his working class parents’ favourite team” to a man who lives a life of “radical hairstyles… fashion plate… exotic tattoos… provocative photo spreads… and his championing of chic metro sexuality”. The feature article “Brand Beckham” tells the reader a story-like tale of David Beckham’s rise to stardom, from his early days wanting to “play for… Manchester United” up to his “marriage to Posh Spice”, which turned him from a normal “cockney lad” to a...