Analysis of the Representation of Women in Magazines
In this essay, I am going to analyse how girls and women are represented in a range of magazines. Depending on the target audience, the contents of the magazine differs. This essay will look and describe the differences between the magazines and why they are there. The age groups and magazines I will be examining are; teenage with the magazine ‘Sneak,’ twenty something's with the magazine ‘Glamour,’ and middle aged with the magazine ‘Women’s Own.’ I will give a general overview of each target audience and what is represented.
I will begin with ‘Sneak’ and the target audience of teenagers. Although aimed at teenagers, many eight and
…show more content…
‘Glamour’ is aimed mainly at late teens to late twenties. When flicking through the magazine, I noticed that there was more text and adverts. This reflects how the age-group has more time and disposable income. Also, ‘Glamour’ was the most expensive magazine, being £1.90 and included a website, (see figure 2,) which again indicates a higher disposable income and extra time. The front cover yet again includes an hourglass shaped celebrity, but she is older, although she still conforms to the dominant ideology for a young female. The magazine includes the latest fashion and make-up styles, but on a much larger scale when compared to ‘Sneak.’ “MASSIVE FASHION SPECIAL: 1322 HOT NEW LOOKS.” It again includes problem pages, but the problems are mainly on lifestyle or sex, instead of dating. ‘Glamour’ also advertises to the stereotypical women using its front page with the advert; “20% off SHOES At Faith for every reader.” Magazines can use this effectively, because it represents the expectations reflected by society and the media.
‘Women’s Own’ is mostly aimed at middle aged housewives, although older people do read it, because it would give them a chance of extended youth. The front cover for the magazine, (see figure 3,) is dramatically different. It has older soap celebrities, who some women would be able to relate to. The people on the cover are less bothered about
Furthermore, in spite of women gaining independence they started to shock society by their rebellious fashion styles and attitudes. Their rebellious attitudes were shown mainly through fashion choices: hemlines got raised, more jewelry became worn, makeup got heavier and hair became shorter.1 According to the 1920’s Vanity Fair, these magazines allowed people to stay updated on Women’s Suffrage and fashion ideas. In the light of, 1920’s Vanity Fair, many of the images shown were of women’s fashion which consisted of ‘Flappers’ who were the progressive, sexually liberated woman of the 1920’s.45
Kenon Breazeale’s argument in his text begins by touching on how Esquire would place certain articles in their magazine in hopes of attracting the male consumer. In order to do this, Breazeale claims that the magazine did so by the “simultaneous exploitation and denial of the feminine” (Breazeale 72). In that way, the magazine
Cosmopolitan is the queen of women’s magazines. Her royal court also consists of Glamour, Red Book, Vogue, and other smaller magazines. These magazines demonstrate these beauty standards. Naomi Wolf researched on body image and found a
Teenage girls are at an impressionable time in their lives. Mass Media is a key idea in one of the factors of socialization that become important to teenagers. Teenagers look to the media for a sense of entertainment. Whether it is movies, magazines, or even some aspects of social media, teenagers get a lot of influence from the media’s message. The problem with this is the media has a specific way of doing things and can be negative to a susceptible teenage girl. Media’s way of portraying a woman can be skewed and unrealistic way from what reality is. Teenage girls then have a desire for this look or way. In this essay the three ways I will describe as to why the media can negatively affect a teenage girls body image is by showing
Gender and the Media by Rosalind Gill addresses gender stereotypes that are brought onto women and men through the media resulting in objectification and subjectification. Gill discusses how the representation of gender is altered as a result of the media in Western societies. Gender and the Media is aimed to address the rapid transmission of media and how those changes affect the construction of feminine and masculine gender roles in society. Gill uses her interest in the contradictions of gender construction by society, to analyze gender and the media. Using feminism as a backbone for her research, Gill and many commentators support the idea that feminist ideas are common and may even affect the media. Gender and the Media addresses multiple forms of media: postfeminism in advertising, gender in the news and journalism, and gender in magazines. Gild aims to address the construction of gender representations, elements for gender analysis, and feminist culture with Gender and the Media.
In todays society media has many different represtionations of womens body ideals and they are portrayed in many different ways. The majority of body images are female and represented with negative connotations. Women are plasteted on billboards magazine covers and play an very important role in the way young women are viewed and how they feel they should look. Through out this essay I will look how media has such a massive impact on our lives and the power it has to control the ideals of young women and how the industries with in the use of media are exploting women of today and how they are benifitting from it to make multibillion companys with out the a second thought to the explotation and harm it is causing to our socity and health with in the new generorations. I will also explore how some organistions are fighting against this ideal and how this is creating a more healthy view of women and challenging what we have had drummed into since an early age.
Feminists present a third argument saying that magazines such as Playboy lead to depression or anorexia in women, especially amongst impressionable young women (Chancer, 85). There is little argument against teenagers
Today’s cultural standards play a major role in how people see us, especially in young female teens. Two women, authors Pamela Abbott and Francesca Sapsford write, “Clothing the Young Female Body” and argue that the fashion industry and the media are imperative to how a young female chooses their clothes. Abbott and Sapsford begin their argument by first giving readers examples of where young teens are influwenced, they state that advertisements and media paint pictures in teens mind on how they should dress and look like. Throughout the article they provide readers quotes from experts and give us an even bigger insight on how teen females
The three main categories were women’s magazines, men’s magazines, and magazines that appealed to the general interest. Döring and Pöschl (2006) found that 54.8% of pictures of women in the general interest magazines were depicted. Generally, magazines either advertised certain products using people, or have a page for certain celebrities. It was rare to read a magazine that does not have a picture of a woman in it. Pictures of women can be interpreted more thoroughly by not only judging the sexuality of the ladies, but the overall condition the women were
Ferguson (1983) conducted a study of young women’s magazines and found that they promote a traditional idea of femininity. They promoted the idea that girls should aspire to be beautiful in order to get a husband (Andrew Pilkington and Alan Yeo (2009)). It is true that some women might want it but in most the cases they learn it from their mothers or the media. For instance, girls should wear pink and boys should wear blue, this is another stereotype, which is in our heads since we were children.
I open up the “hottest” teen magazines on the market; Allure, Cosmopolitan, Seventeen, and Teen Vogue are a few at the top. As I flip through the magazine this holiday season I see pages of clothes that only the rich can afford, pictures of half-naked people draped over each other, articles about horoscopes and editorials talking about which teen star is the sexiest. Fashion, makeup, men, sex, celebrities, and exercising are the most popular topics I see as I peruse these magazines. These popular magazines take no time to tell me how beautiful I am, but only tell me the hundreds of things I need to do to improve. They tell me that I need more new, expensive makeup to look like a movie star. These magazines teach me how to seduce a man, but
Redbook magazine are devoted to selling products ranging from shoes to shampoo. The entire magazine only has only 210 pages. Approximately 6-8 min of every half hour television show is produced by ad agencies. Americans are bombarded with advertisements. We see them everyday in many different forms and through different mediums. Advertisers study America’s population through a systematic breakdown and analysis of our likes and dislikes in relation to our differences. These differences include gender, sexual orientation, economic status, location, race, ethnicity, and more. Advertisers have substantial knowledge of what appeals to each of these demographics and how these demographics will respond to
Research indicates that exposure to thin ideal images in women's magazines is associated with heightened concerns for body shape and size in a number of young women, although the media's role in the psychopathology of body image disturbance is generally believed to be mediated by personality and socio-cultural factors. The purpose of this research study is to know and gather solid facts and reasons about fashion magazines affecting the teenagers’ body image in a form of research to self evaluation through careful accumulation of acceptable data and relevant resources for such data to be precise and spontaneous in its respected details to support results.
fifty times in the press. Male political figures might be called mean and terrible names, yet those words do not, more often than not, reflect superstition and fear (Monière 2006).
The media, which seems to endlessly show women as sexual objects, has the capability of limiting a woman’s potential and damaging their self worth. More often than not the media depicts the way people go about their daily life. People look at the media to determine how they should dress, act and in some cases even how they should perform sexually. There are the fashion magazines that focus on beauty, attracting and satisfying men, self-improvement, and (occasionally) work and politics. Examples are Vogue (emphasizing fashion and makeup), Cosmopolitan (emphasizing sexuality and relationships with men), and Self (emphasizing self-improvement and employment). Not only are most magazines directed at women, but the ones that are directed towards men are about work and politics, not about how to improve your looks or please your woman. The media along with other social institutions plays a large role in how women are viewed. A horrible example is being set for today’s youth, and men are taking the loss of self respect of women in the media to the extremes, thinking that they can degrade women in everyday life as well. With the constant representation of women being viewed as nothing more than sexual objects, women themselves are beginning to feel as though they have little or no potential, as well as no self