Gender Roles In Teen Magazine Research

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

Unfortunately for young women, they must live up to the ideals of what society expects. One way society implicates itself and its standards onto women is through social media. Social media affects women’s body image of themselves through unrealistic and phony pictures. Our textbook clarifies that “It is estimated that the average woman is exposed to thousands of advertisements a day…” (Shaw 222). Through advertisements, videos, and various other forms of social media that all have the underlying message of what society expects women to represent, which is an object of impossible attainment. Shaw states in the textbook, “Corporate powers, advertising, and the fashion, cosmetics, and entertainment industries all help create standards for us…” (Shaw 222). All of these aspects of social media confronting and condemning women’s body image, leads to unreasonable expectations for women to uphold.

The quality of American television has become a national disgrace. Young women in America who are displeased with their appearance more likely then not can trace those feelings directly back to images from the mass media on television. The unrealistic representations of women that the mass media bombards young women with indicates that the television has become a source for a distorted understanding of gender roles among adolescent women. These images warp young women’s views of their own gender identity. The mass media on television should in an attempt to provide more positive gender identities for adolescent women depict women on television in more realistic ways, should stop

In society nowadays, we are surrounded and affected by the social media. Often times we turn to social media to under the world around us, and also to make sense of our identity. For instance, people are influence and come to understand their identity with the interaction they make with media. Therefore, our perception of our existence is socially constructed through the influence of media. As stated by Duke and Kreshel, “we create and perpetuate and understanding what it means to be a woman [or men] in our society.” (Duke & Kreshel, 1998). But with this overwhelming clutter of information from social media it can impact on how we view our identity. Female adolescent’s self-identity is socially constructed through the magazine which can negatively impact their perception of their own femininity. Magazine creates female ideology, giving girls insecurity about their look and weight, and finally the feminine identity is socially structured from male point of view. In this paper I will analyse the magazine Seventeen how it socially constructs negative perception of female identity. Seventeen magazine is chosen for analysis because it is one of the top selling magazines and it is highly popular amongst the adolescent girls in the United States. I restrict my analysis only on teenage girls only because they are the largest consumer of magazines compare to male. Also, adolescent is the stage in life where they try to figure out their sexuality, gender identity and where would they fit into society (Durham, 1998).

The media plays a major role in creating our social norms, whether it be through advertisement, television, film, newspapers, or magazines. From a young age, gender roles are taught to both boys and girls. Young girls are given dolls, carriages, and easy bake ovens, while boys are given action figures, toy soldiers, and cars. Once those same young girls and boys get a bit older, the messages send through the media change. For females, these ads seem to focus on physical appearance, during a time when self-esteem is most important in their lives.

From music videos and television, to billboards and magazines, the media has continued to grow and evolve over time into the monstrosity it is today. Everyone sees the media, and it cannot be escaped. Defined by its easy access, media exposure to billboards, magazines, T.V., and movies reach all over the world. Because of the influence in the media, many younger ladies feel the need to attract attention by showing off their bodies, trying new styles of clothes, shoes, makeup and trying to be unique as possible, while still trying to “fit in” with the popular. The media has an extreme impact on the society of younger women that is both positive and negative on  what they believe, and how they appear and behave.

The audience for the magazine titled, I Surveyed More Than 1,000 People to Find Out How Having a Working Mom Really Affects Kids, written by Pamela Lenehan (2016), is both scholarly and general. Lenehan shows she did research by providing statistics, which is scholarly. In addition, the magazine is also for a general audience because the amount of complex vocabulary is limited so that everyone is able to understand it. The information provided is primary in nature. In other words, Lenehan describes her own research and findings. She also gives general background information on this specific topic. Additionally, the page gives three links to other magazine articles related to this topic: 1) Gayle King: How to Let Go of Working Mom Guilt by Gayle

The question that our research project asked was ‘How is the gender identity of young women constructed and communicated through self-representation on Instagram?’ Through this question we also looked to answer the questions of how women perform and communicate their femininity through and what are the gender stereotypes created by magazines that are reproduced by women on social media.

Al., 2013, p.152). Magazines are notorious for influencing girlhood with their catchy article titles, fashion advice, and celebrity endorsers. Girls use magazines to look to their favorite, role-model celebrity for fashion and sexuality advice. Cory, age 12, claimed she was a fan of Miley Cyrus, and noticed how she and other girls buy certain things because their favorites celebrities have them as well. This is an example of how the pervasive and powerful marketing to girls presents them with the possibility of “being” their favorite celebrity by adopting their style (Jackson et al., 2013). These are but a few girls out of millions who recognize the media’s advertising tactics, and it does not improve from

In the contemporary media, the much-criticised gender stereotypes, their appearance and the other roles are more prevalent in magazines than in any other media. Female representation in the advertisements, that the feminist movement criticised for so many years are still going strong, particularly in magazines that are specifically targeted to their

In “Low-Cut Shirts and High-Heeled Shoes: Increased Sexualization Across Time in Magazine Depictions of Girls”, Kaitlin Graff, Sarah Murnen, and Anna Krause cite a report stating that “women were underrepresented compared to men, and when they were depicted it was often in a sexualized manner.” (xxxxxx). In a study conducted by the researchers, it was discovered that hypersexualization of young girls was becoming more and more present:

Popular culture has an undeniable influence on how society perceives itself. When examining mass culture, one must keep in mind the equilibrium between how much we, as a society, affect the way popular culture is constructed and to what extent popular culture influences the way we view ourselves and shapes our ideologies. An aspect of popular culture that may serve to greatly exemplify this theory of society as both the affecter and the affected is the genre of magazines targeted at young women. Though these publications are targeted as the representation of our society’s adolescent females, they actually have a great influence over the ways in which teens view and construct

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

Throughout American history, gender equality and gender exploitation has played a significant role in the stereotypical American culture. The media ultimately determines who the perfect women or man is. Magazines and racy commercials have misconstrued the image of gender perfection. Even television shows and big-budget movies spend millions of dollars on famous actors and actress to look and act a certain way. This is killing the self-esteem of young and impressionable pre-teens and teenagers that feel they must stack up to these generalized standards. Specifically, young women are more affected by these sexist and glamorized ads and television shows. We are being targeted and molded into what society believes to be the “normal” way to be. This stereotypical thinking should be changed. If we continue to promote the addiction to unhealthy weightloss, beauty products, and sexist remarks it will harm not only these women’s self-esteem but also lead to even more severe consequences. With more positive female role models in the media, we can slowly change the image of women and how they are perceived.

How is it that on one page in a magazine the topic is focused on “Being Yourself” and on the next page it focuses on how to dress, look, and act like someone the complete opposite. If this isn’t confusing then I don’t know what is. The girls living their life out of a magazine are the ones who have the wrong interpretations of what’s most important in this world. Girls are transforming themselves to what they see portrayed in these magazines because they think those are the only images that are accepted in this world. These magazines are corrupting these young girls, making them believe that just being yourself is not enough. Many teen magazines are marketed towards girls between the ages of thirteen and fifteen, but of course, these magazines are attracting younger audiences as well. Carol Platt Liebau, who is a writer and political commentator, mentioned that some of the content is relatively innocuous teen fare, with stories about lip gloss, parties, and how to be popular. But 18 percent of magazine articles pertain either to sex, sexually