Essay about Teen Magazines' Negative Influence on the Teenage Society

Teenagers all over the world are struggling everyday with their bodies, their faces, and their self-confidence. A new email newsletter called Clover, written by Teen Vogue editor Casey Lewis and fashion magazine Nylon editor Liza Darwin, is trying to end this struggle by sending out weekly e-newsletters giving them the latest news, letting them express themselves, and giving them the chance to learn about one another in a safe and private place (Rogers 2). This new idea that Lewis and Darwin came up with is a way of communicating with millennials because they realized that this generation of women weren’t responding to traditional ways of advertising. These two women are using only their own money and as of now have no means of advertising,

In our popular culture, the media worships the beautiful, perfectly made-up, perfectly-coiffed, perfectly-dressed, THIN woman! Our current standard of beauty is based on super models, actresses, musical artists, reality TV stars, all for the most part very thin women. With the overwhelming amount of these images bombarding us every day, the message seems clear: women who do not fit this standard of beauty are unattractive, unloveable, and unacceptable.

Yet, girls are more pushed to follow the super model look and have curves that appeal to men. According to Giordanom, “In a study conducted on mass media it was revealed that women’s magazines had about 10.5 times as many weight loss advertisements than men’s” (Giordanom 4). Men look at women in an external, physical, and materialistic way. When men look at women it is all about the eyes, body, legs, hair, lips, body, etc. Society portrays that men look for nice bodies and only care for appearances. The criticism women hear from men eventually get into their brains and make them animosity themselves. Glamour magazine points out, “today 54 percent of women—13 percent more than in 1984—are unhappy with their body, and 80 percent say just looking in the mirror makes them feel bad.” (Dreisbach

There has been an ongoing issue that has not been acknowledged. This issue has affected the lives of particularly young girls and has led to a deep disconnect in the many lives of girls and that culprit is the media. Much of the media has altered the way our young girls look at the world due to the media painting a picture that women are only beautiful when they are tall, skinny, and powdered down in makeup. In society today, women are being degraded, sexually degraded to be exact, in every way possible. On magazines, television and the internet, the women that make it to the front cover are the ones who are wearing the least amount of clothes and because of this, young girls feel that they are not good enough and tend to seek other outlets so that would feel like they fit in with the women that are viewed as perfect.

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

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the most critical of them of all. Do you ever just stand in front of the mirror to point out and criticize all of your flaws? According to the Dove campaign, 92% of girls would change something about their appearance with body weight coming in at number one. There are many forms of media today and society uses models and celebrities on the covers of magazines and display them on television to send the message that you have to look a certain way according to them to be considered “beautiful”. Most models are well under a healthy body weight and the media tells women that you have to be unhealthy to be accepted in today’s society. Many women are very vulnerable when it comes to their weight and appearance and

This beauty standard has trickled off the elite models and landed on top of the ordinary woman. In order to keep up with the increasing demand for extreme thinness, clothing manufacturers have been practicing vanity sizing, which involves “cutting clothing larger but labeling it smaller. Some in the fashion world claim a size 8 in the 1950s became a size 4 in the 1970s and is a size 0 today” (Borgman 78). However, some women don’t buy into this unnatural beauty standard.“Although there is ample evidence that many women are striving to meet a beauty ideal presented in the media, there is also evidence that women often recognize this ideal for what it is—unrealistic and largely unattainable for most women” (Engeln-Maddox 64). Ultimately, women have the choice of whether or not to accept the unrealistic thinness as beautiful or embrace their natural body

In todays society the media implicates the basic idea of the perfect woman to be skinny and beautiful. But what is beautiful? Magazines everywhere promote the latest style and the way you should look to be what is considered “normal” or acceptable. Young girls should not have to worry about the clothes they wear and if it’s the next best thing just because the model on the cover said so.

Magazines are a way for us to connect to celebrities, keep up with the latest fashion news and who’s dating who. The aim of this essay to contrast and compare two different magazines targeted at teenage girls; Frankie and Girlfriend. Even though these magazines are fundamentally aimed at the same age group and reader base, there are obvious differences between the two. Girlfriend magazine is a very colourful and graphic magazine comprising of approximately 150 pages and printed on glossy paper. Girlfriend is designed for a quick fix of fashion and relationship advice. Frankie is a demure looking magazine comprising of approximately 120 pages and is printed on recycled paper. Frankie is designed for those looking to read something quirky and something a little different. Frankie is issued bi-monthly, whilst girlfriend hits the shelves every month. Girlfriend’s price fluctuates every

Mass media imposes how adolescent girls are supposed to act through advertisements in teen magazines, such as the thin body type representation and being feminine. Teen magazines reinforce stereotypes and gender prescriptions directly to adolescent girls into womanhood and negotiate their roles of being feminine, being fashionistas, and focusing on enhancing their appearance (Currie, 1997). In Decoding Femininity, Currie (1997) explains that during the 1980s “feminist sociologist characterized the advertisements, feature articles, and stories appealing to women’s magazines as vehicles of women socialization into subordinate roles” (p. 456). “Research on adolescent girl magazines has been done, and these magazines promote socialization of

Magazines are perhaps one of the main influential and ideal articles a girl can come across with. Writers and editors that develop magazines earn up to thousands of dollars and constantly spend over time to develop the latest trends, along with great tips on how to bargain your dollar. Magazines tend to have a massive amount of celebrity gossip and best tips when it comes to buying makeup. However despite all the beauty tips and entertaining gossip, magazines are negatively affecting women’s viewpoint on body perspective.

A magazine advertisement’s main selling point is a model or the “perfect body” that all girls dream of having. We all think that these advertisements cause no harm. But in reality, teenage girls are developing self-consciousness and sensitivity around their peers. They worry that their shape, size, and muscle tone is all wrong. On womensenews.org, Joan Jacobs Brumberg, author of “The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls”, states, “The body has become the central personal project of American girls.” A lot of young women start to question themselves, “Am I pretty enough?” or “Am I skinny enough?” Because of these questions, most girls end up depressed or having suicidal thoughts. A 15 year old girl wrote on a website stating that she worries that she’s not good enough.

Out of a dozen-plus teen magazines at my local newsstand, all but one revolve around girls' relationships with boys. The lone exception is geared for a younger, prepubescent audience. A sampling of these magazines reveals articles like these: "41 Ways To Make Him Swoon," "Kissing Tips," "Must-Have Fashion," "The Coolest Prom Ever," "High School Sex Scandal." The "Total Turn- Him-On Guide" in April's Young and Modern tells girls to stand tall, show their intelligence, and maintain their own interests-- but to do all these things within the context of attracting and "keeping" a boy. The article also offers advice such as "soft lips=hot lips" and plans for how to touch a boy without it seeming planned.

Every generation has a set of values that they believe make a person beautiful. In the 1940’s and 50’s it was considered beautiful to be a voluptuous woman. A woman with a large chest and full hips was the ideal woman, such as Marylyn Monroe. The difference between then and now is, young women could escape this image if need be. Today it is impossible to ignore the stick thin super models on bill boards, TV, and in magazines. The influence of society on teenagers is so much that men actually expect a woman to be that stick thin model or they are considered “fat”, “tubby”, etc. The average fashion model is 5'9" to 6' tall. The average American woman is 5' 4" tall. The average fashion model weighs 110-118 pounds. The average American woman

In today’s society we are more concerned about how we look and how people perceive us, rather than the true issues that are happening at that moment. We pay more attention to the standards of “perfect”, which unknowingly creates insecurities on us and starts to consume us and control our lives. In society’s standards, the image of a “perfect” and or “beautiful” woman is someone who has soft flowy hair, long legs, and most importantly, is skinny. Therefore, whenever someone looks at a magazine while they are in the checkout line at the grocery store, the woman presented has most of those traits. After a while, we become so accustomed to what the women look like on the magazines that they do not draw us in anymore and it starts to become easy to look past them. They all start to look the same and it literally becomes boring. We want diversity; women of all shapes and sizes, races, ethnicities, and styles. We want to showcase women with the intention of celebrating them and their uniqueness.