Representation of gender in women's magazines

https://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/media-magazine/articles/15854
Article written by Julian McDougall MediaMagazine 8, April 2004
(talks about how most mens magazines will feature mostly women unless it has something to do with health)

Here are a few starting points for such an analysis. A textual analysis of the covers of Nutsand Zoo (and if I appear to be lumping them together it is because it is hard to distinguish between them at this level) reveals a clear formula shared by both titles – a semi-naked woman stares into the camera in a sexual pose on every issue, performing clearly for what Laura Mulvey calls ‘the male gaze’. Have you noticed that women’s magazines tend to feature female cover models, and wondered why this is? The only male magazine that features a male model on the cover is Men’s Health, and the image is always in black and white as this provides more distance from the heterosexual reader (who would not want the newsagent to get the wrong idea, I suppose). Returning to women’s magazine covers, Janice Winship’s feminist reading (1987) of the genre analysed what is at stake in the semiotics of the female cover star, concluding that

The gaze between cover model and women readers marks the complicity between women seeing themselves in the image which the masculine culture has defined. - Janice Winship Inside Women's Magazine


How female celebrities represent women in women's magazine.

Beyonce GQ magazine as a case study

'she as graced more magazine covers than any black star in the world'
'her mass appeal means she has the ability to reach out to massive audiences'
'she is fiercely controlling of her own image and representation'
'Beyonce's stance is a provocative one: her arms are held above her head-clutching her hair- and her top skims her cleavage while her pants reveal her extremely toned stomach'
'she gazes directly at the camera in attempt to attract the male gaze'

Changing reps of women - Nick Lacey 2010 mediamagazine
'Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at.' - berger 

'on the whole women were represented as passive and less important than men, and the emphasis was upon their sex appeal'

http://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/more/g620/Kim-Kardashians-body-secrets_/?slide=1

Key ideas in media by Mike Edwards
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=9g2DzGywU2AC&pg=PA58&lpg=PA58&dq=trevor+millum+study+of+womens+magazines&source=bl&ots=EbRXGlfwg_&sig=k9pqw9Yq7bG0bJHZiy_1ABCvI8s&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiIraTwmuXUAhUKLsAKHbAWBgcQ6AEIVDAL#v=onepage&q=trevor%20millum%20study%20of%20womens%20magazines&f=false

(BODY IMAGE)

'representations of the female body are one of the most densely packed with meaning of all signs in modern society'

'magazines offer roles models, heroines and heroes, idols and icons for people's dreams and fantases and mirror the world back to them'

'it raises innumerable issues for the reader in terms of control, unattainable ideals, stereotyping, eating disorders, anorexia etc.'

'some of the typical codes and conventions of female representation in magazines are as follows:

• head and body tilting. the tendency to push forward the head or lean the body towards the camera. often emphasised by the lighting.
• the lowering of the head and eyes lowered slightly can be conventionally read as submissive and passive, and an eyelid wink read as a 'come on' sign.
• child-like, playful, kittenish poses, wide expansive smiles and open eyes can be read as 'cuteness', innocent sexuality, trust. often when combined with other elements, such as fur, cuddly toys, animals in the mise en scene, they can be read as betraying a lack of seriousness'
• open body postures with the arms behind the body can be read as openness and trust into which a reliance of the goodwill of the onlooker can be read
• hands over the eyes, lips, parts of the face can be read as suggesting obedience, mystery, secrets, intrigue, enigma.
• an unfocused gaze can suggest sexuality, inner secrets, dreaming.
• where eyes meet the gaze of the viewer it can be read as a challenge (in much the same way as hands on hips) or as a come on.
• images of exaggerated emotional display such as tears, laughter, arms in the air can be read as typically female signs in that traditional representations tend to foreground such emotional display by women'

Femininity

'There's plenty of evidence that traditional femininity is no longer popular. virtually everybody wants young women to be successful, so the characteristics of femininity -  passivity, reticence, assuming that men and authority figures are probably right and that you are probably wrong - are therefore redundant'.

'meanwhile young women have a wide range of other assertive 'girl power' role models to choose from in magazines, movies and pop music'

'today, magazines such as cosmopolitan suggest ways in which cunning women might use 'feminine' tricks to get certain things from gullible men'.

'femininity, then, whilst seen as a 'nice' thing for women traditionally, is increasingly irrelevant today.'

'femininity now is just  swishy kind of glamour -  and ideally is just a masquerade, utilised by a confident woman who knows exactly what she's doing'.

Queer Theory Summary

'the binary divide between masculinity and femininity is a social construction built on the binary divide between men and women - which is also a social construction'

'we should challenge the traditional views of masculinity an femininity, and sexuality, by causing 'gender trouble'.

'women might well have unique experiences in common - experiences of childbirth, of menstruation'

model - 'you have a body - you may perform an identity - you may have desires.'

Nick Lacey: Lacey's Repertoire of Elements.

Lacey considers these work in combination to suggest a media text belongs to a particular genre or mix of genres. He provides a useful framework to follow when analysing genre. 
Lacey breaks a text down into 5 areas to identify the elements in each, these are:
- setting
- character
- narrative
- iconography
- style
Lacey does not see genres as fixed but as dynamic and changing over time.

David Gauntlett - Media, Gender and Identity: 

- Representation of Femininity...
"Women were neglected as a sop for their exclusion from the realm of power-striving men"
"Some parts of popular culture are said to be 'reasserting' from traditional forms"
"Femininity is not typically a fore value for women today. Instead, being "feminine" is just one of the performance that women can choose to emily in everyday life - perhaps for pleasure, or to achieve a particular goal".
"Traditional femininity is no longer popular."
"The idea of a women being seductively feminine in order to get her own way"
In magazines… "Women might use feminine tricks to get certain things from gullible men, but traditional femininity is far from being essential to the modern"
"Femininity offered a space for pleasure and fun while simultaneously regulating and generating insecurities"
"Aspects of femininity are something which they have learnt to perform"
"if a women puts a new dress and make-up on, she might declare 'i feel like a women'".

NOTES AND QUOTES

David Gauntlett - feminism: from book 'media gender and identity' quotes "feminism on the other hand is not necessarily seeb as the state of 'being a woman'; instead, it's perceived more as a stereotype of a women's role from the past". 
"Today, magazines such as Cosmopolitan suggest ways in which cunning women might use 'feminine' tricks to get certain things from gullible en, but traditionally, femininity is far from being essential to the modern, female reader, instead, it is one technique amongst many, and an amusing, light-weight one at that."
Gauntett, in his book mentions Judith Butlers Queer Theory in the opening of chapter 7, which is also written about in her own book "Gender Trouble: feminism and the subversion of identity (1990)".

"24% of 11-16 year old girls are 'not at all happy with the way that they look' " ,"our attitudes towards women and women's equality are shaped in multiple ways including by our upbringing and personal experiences." and "women continue to be predominantly represented in passive and stereotyped roles in films and television" -  according to the Fawcett Society. 

Angela McRobbie

areas of expertise:

- Feminist Theory
- gender and popular culture
- the global fashion industry
- gender and the modern work economy


Her academic research spans almost 4 decades and is influenced by Stewart Hall.
Fields: youth culture, feminism, media studies and politics.
Book: "The aftermath of feminism: gender culture and social change".

McRobbie supposedly "had interesting things to say about how the old school feminists seem unable to accept the fact that younger women might want to do things a bit differently now". She also said that "if we can accept that modern women's magazines carry one kind of feminist argument to be assertive, confident, sexual, "true to yourself", demanding rights ad pleasures - then how can this view and the more 'traditional' feminist view to talk to each other? - www.theory.org.uk/mcrobbie.htm

key theorists:

David Gauntlett - media gender and identity (2002) book
Germaine Greer - books: the whole woman 1999 and sex and identity 1984

Women's Magazines Objectify Women Just as Much as Men's Magazines Do

Noah Berlatsky - The Atlantic

"Men's magazines are mostly based around heavily eroticised images of women. And women's magazines are also based around heavily eroticised images of women."

"Alex Bilmes.." (Journalist, Editor of Esquire UK)  "..admitted that the women in the men's magazines were objectified."

"We provide pictures of girls in the same way we provide picture of cool cars. It is ornamental. Women's magazines do the same thing." - Placing a woman and a car within the same category represents her as an object.

Alex bilmes "went on to argue that women's magazines enforce more rigid and damaging beauty standards."

"The reason images in men's magazines often look like images in women's magazines is that, despite the different audiences, they are both doing more or less the same thing" -- "They are making women sexual objects, and serving them up to satisfy, or more likely provoke, the desires of their readers."

Men's magazines are "telling men that female bodies are objects to be used for their enjoyment."

"The fact that women are assumed to be the objects, not just in men's magazines, but in women's as well, indicates just how prevalent, and how constricting, gender expectations can be."

David Gauntlett - Media, Gender and Identity

Media, Gender and Identity

"Femininity on the other hand is not necessarily seen as the state of 'being a woman'; instead, its perceived more as a stereotype of a woman's role from the past" - Many magazines/adverts use the traditional role of the woman as the representation, instead of using a more up-to date one as "Femininity is not typically a core value for women today." (p.g. 12)

When discussing the role of masculinity, Anthony Clare 'On Men: Masculinity in Crisis' states that "Men used to know their place, as provider for their family, says Clare, and this was a role to be proud of. But today, as women show that they can do everything that men can, the provider role becomes diminished." - he then later states that the mass media and popular culture aid men to "adjust to a contemporary life." (p.g.10)

Women's Magazines in the past

"Today there is a well-known, comical stereotype of the ways in which women''s magazines and adverts used to address women as simpering housewives whose dream was to impress their authoritative, working husbands" (p.g 41)

"The advice offered to women was not about how to fulfil their own potential, but was instead focussed on bringing happiness to their family." (p.g. 41)

The 'cosmo' Factor

"Cosmo was playing playboy at its own game, seeing sexual pleasure as  important, and suggesting that women were entitled to it" (p.g. 44)

"cosmo does not bother being consistent : one article would encourage readers to be happy with their body size, whilst another would encourage slimming." (p.g. 44)

Men's Magazines + Modern Masculinities - Chapter 8

"Magazines like Loaded, FHM and Maxim are an attempt to override the message of feminism, promoting a 'laddish' world where women are sex objects" -  (p.g. 164)

Lads mags have "found a way to combine traditional male pleasures with a post-feminist discourse" - (p.g. 166)

Reinscribing Sexism

"The view that they are sexist is often based on the observation that the magazines usually contain several pictures of women wearing clothes which are small, or not there at all" -(p.g. 182)
"Some magazines for women do the same thing back to men" - (p.g. 182)

"Alluring pictures of semi-naked women could specifically be said to be sexist because this feeds into the objectification of women" - (p.g. 183)

The debut issue of LOVE magazine features Beth Ditto as their cover girl and main feature. This is a magazine that aims to break the expected conventions of a women's magazine, Beth Dillon breaks all the 'rules' of what a cover girl should be, she is a 170lbs american singer with tattoos and is very outspoken about her beliefs - this contrasts between the image of a cover girl we would see on another fashion magazine such as Vogue or Elle magazine. The slogan for the magazine that is featured on every issue is 'Fashion and fame.' This gives us context as to what the magazine is about, we know that it is a magazine centralised on the fashion industry, and will therefore feature models and likely have articles on clothing and beauty. We also know that there will be a number of elite persons included in every issue of the magazine which will appeal to it's target audience.

From the cover, we can see the people who are going to be featured in the magazine alongside Beth, who is referred to as one of the 'icons of our generation' by the magazine. All of the elite persons that are listed alongside the image of Beth Ditto are all female bar one, Iggy Pop. Although there is only one article about a male, there are many advertisements through out featuring males.
With traditional women's magazines, they tend to feature a lot of male models and male celebrities to appeal to the target audience of heterosexual women.

In magazines today, gender is represented in a very stereotypical way, women are dolled up and photoshopped and the men are dressed in suits with whatever hair style is in that season. In magazines and also most other media products, women are mainly objectified in a sexual way, this is because of the idea that 'sex sells', with this cliche in mind magazines mainly like to have women half naked, photoshopped so they have the perfect body and dolled up to make their skin seem flawless, this doesn't really represent what a natural average women looks like but what can you expect from something which only wants to sell its product?

The magazine Grazia which is a magazine aimed mainly at a female audience is a prime example of a media product which does this in order to gain more money,

Nick Lacey - Image and Representation 2nd Edition 2009

'A second related point is that the media content endorses norms and values than larger societies.'
The Contribution of Role Models to the Self Esteem of African-American and Caucasian Adolescent Girls.
By Michelle p. Clarke 

"The traditional image of a 'wife-mother-housewife' is now being replaced by images of sexually assertive, confident and ambitious women who express their 'freedom' through consumption."

“The exemplary female prototype in advertising regardless or product or service, displays youth (no lines or wrinkles), good looks, sexual seductiveness, and perfection (no scars, blemishes, or even pores).” 

Nick Lacey - Image and Representation 2nd Edition 2009

Encyclopedia of Women and Gender: Sex Similarities and Differences and the Impact of Society on Gender Volume 1 by Judith Worell

 "Specifically, women were portrayed in magazines in four recurring negative themes. (1) a woman's place is located within the home, (2) women do not make important decisions, (3) women are dependent and need a man's attention, and (4) men regard women primarily as sex objects."

 "Print media like magazines also support early research on the negative portrayal of women."

"Continue to be portrayed in submissive positions to men, in unnatural poses, with sexually connotative facial expressions, and as the subject of violent imagery."

"Magazine representations of thinness have proven to be equally complicit in promoting eating disorder symptomatically."

Gender and The Media - Rosalind Gill

confident expressions of 'girl power' sit along side reports of 'epidemic' levels of anorexia and body dismorphia. 

Daniel chandler – Notes on ‘The Gaze’

‘To gaze implies more than to look at’

‘Women look into the camera more than men’

‘Where the female model typically averts her eyes, expressing modesty, patience, and a lack of interest in anything else, the male model looks either off or up.’

‘American teenagers have chosen to be portrayed differently in their high-school yearbooks – the focus of their eyes has shifted from a straightforward, open look to a sideways glance resembling glamour poses in fashion magazines.’

‘Looking at someone using a camera (or looking at images thus produced) is clearly different from looking at the same person directly.’

‘The camera turns the depicted person into an object, distancing viewer and viewed.’

‘Viewing such recorded images gives the viewers gaze a voyeuristic dimension.’

‘Those who are culturally defined by the West as weak – women, children, people of colour, the poor, the tribal rather than the modern, those without technology – are more likely to face the camera, the more powerful to be represented looking elsewhere.’

‘Male pin-ups more often than not do not look at the viewer.’

‘Stereotypical notions of masculinity are strongly orientated towards the active.’

‘The male model feels bound to avoid the ‘femininity’ of being posed as the passive object of an active gaze.’

‘The amount of gaze can be related to status or dominance.’

‘The camera can reflect a ‘controlling gaze’’

A2 MEDIA RESEARCH BLOG 2

Introduction

1 The gaze’ (sometimes called ‘the look’) is a technical term which was originally used in film theory in the 1970s but which is now more broadly used by media theorists to refer both to the ways in which viewers look at images of people in any visual medium and to the gaze of those depicted in visual texts

2 'the male gaze' has become something of a feminist cliché for referring to the voyeuristic way in which men look at women (Evans & Gamman 1995, 13).

3 Mutual gaze is now possible in forms of interpersonal communication other than direct face-to-face interaction: current examples are video-conferencing and the use of 'cam-to-cam' communication via the World Wide Web.

4 The impossibility of mutual gaze between viewers and those depicted in media texts unfortunately means that much of the research by social psychologists which relates to the human gaze tends to be of limited relevance to media theorists.



Forms of gaze

5 gives the viewer's gaze a voyeuristic dimension.

6 As Jonathan Schroeder notes, 'to gaze implies more than to look at - it signifies a psychological relationship of power, in which the gazer is superior to the object of the gaze' (Schroeder 1998, 208).

7  The most obvious typology is based on who is doing the looking, of which the following are the most commonly cited:

8  the spectator’s gaze: the gaze of the viewer at an image of a person (or animal, or object) in the text;

the intra-diegetic gaze: a gaze of one depicted person at another (or at an animal or an object) within the world of the text (typically depicted in filmic and televisual media by a subjective ‘point-of-view shot’);

the direct [or extra-diegetic] address to the viewer: the gaze of a person (or quasi-human being) depicted in the text looking ‘out of the frame’ as if at the viewer, with associated gestures and postures (in some genres, direct address is studiously avoided);

the look of the camera - the way that the camera itself appears to look at the people (or animals or objects) depicted; less metaphorically, the gaze of the film-maker or photographer.  

 9

• the gaze of a bystander - outside the world of the text, the gaze of another individual in the viewer’s social world catching the latter in the act of viewing - this can be highly charged, e.g. where the text is erotic (Willemen 1992);
• the averted gaze - a depicted person’s noticeable avoidance of the gaze of another, or of the camera lens or artist (and thus of the viewer) - this may involve looking up, looking down or looking away (Dyer 1982);
• the gaze of an audience within the text - certain kinds of popular televisual texts (such as game shows) often include shots of an audience watching those performing in the 'text within a text';
• the editorial gaze - 'the whole institutional process by which some portion of the photographer's gaze is chosen for use and emphasis' (Lutz & Collins 1994, 368).

10  James Elkins offers :

1. You, looking at the painting,
2. figures in the painting who look out at you,
3. figures in the painting who look at one another, and
4. figures in the painting who look at objects or stare off into space or have their eyes closed. In addition there is often
5. the museum guard, who may be looking at the back of your head, and
6. the other people in the gallery, who may be looking at you or at the painting. There are imaginary observers, too:
7. the artist, who was once looking at this painting,
8. the models for the figures in the painting, who may once have seen themselves there, and
9. all the other people who have seen the painting - the buyers, the museum officials, and so forth. And finally, there are also
10. people who have never seen the painting: they may know it only from reproductions... or from descriptions.

In relation to viewer-text relations of looking, Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen make a basic distinction between an ‘offer’ and a ‘demand’:

• an indirect address which represents an offer in which the viewer is an invisible onlooker and the depicted person is the object of the look - here those depicted either do not know that they are being looked at (as in surveillance video), or act as if they do not know (as in feature films, television drama and television interviews); and
• a gaze of direct address which represents a demand for the viewer (as the object of the look) to enter into a parasocial relationship with the depicted person - with the type of relationship indicated by a facial expression or some other means (this form of address is the norm for television newsreaders and portraits and is common in advertisements and posed magazine photographs). 

11  To a statistically significant degree, women look into the camera more than men, children and older people look into the camera more often than other adults, those who appear poor more than those who appear wealthy, those whose skin is very dark more than those who are bronze, those who are bronze more than those who are white,
12 One might also expect some change over time, as cameras became more common everywhere, but there is no difference in rate of gaze when the period from 1950 to 1970 is compared with the later period' (ibid., 371-2).
13 In some well-known studies Hess found that pupil dilation can also be a reflection of sexual attraction, and that photographs of female models in which the pupils had been artificially enlarged elicited unconscious pupil enlargement from male viewers (Hess & Polt 1960, Hess 1972, cited in Argyle 1975, 163). Knowledge of this has led some 'glamour' photographers to enhance their photographs in the same way and thus to increase the attractiveness of the model.
14  Where the female model typically averts her eyes, expressing modesty, patience and a lack of interest in anything else, the male model looks either off or up.#
15   the focus of their eyes has shifted from a straightforward, open look to a sideways glance resembling glamour poses in fashion magazines.
16  The amount of gaze can also be related to status or dominance: higher status people tend to look more whilst they are talking but less when they are listening.
17  Michael Watson (1970) found cultural variability in the intensity of gaze. He distinguished between three forms of gaze:

• sharp: focusing on the other person's eyes;
• clear: focusing about the other person's head and face;
• peripheral: having the other person within the field of vision, but not focusing on his head or face. (cited in Argyle 1988, 59) 

18  Paul Messaris notes a common assumption that a direct gaze at the camera lens by a depicted person may remind viewers of their position as spectators, but that where such shots are subjective point-of-view shots within a narrative this effect is negated (Messaris 1994, 151).

Angle of view:

19  high angles (looking down on a depicted person from above) are interpreted as making that person look small and insignificant, and low angles (looking up at them from below) are said to make them look powerful and superior.

Apparent proximity:

20  In relation to camerawork, there are three main kinds of shot-size: long-shots, medium shots and close-ups.
21  Edward T Hall illustrated how physical distances between people in face-to-face interaction reflected degrees of formality. He referred to four specific ranges:

• Intimate: up to 18 inches;
• Personal: 18 inches to 4 feet;
• Social: 4 to 12 feet;
• Public: 12 to 25 feet. 

22  In camerawork these 'modes of address' are reflected in shot sizes - close-ups signifying intimate or personal modes, medium shots a social mode and long shots an impersonal mode.

The eye of the camera:

23   the camera turns the depicted person into an object, distancing viewer and viewed.
24  'Photographing is essentially an act of non-intervention... The act of photographing is more than passive observing'.
25  'The camera doesn't rape, or even possess, though it may presume, intrude, trespass, distort, exploit, and, at the farthest reach of metaphor, assassinate - all activities that, unlike the sexual push and shove, can be conducted from a distance, and with some detachment'

The social codes of looking:

26  Looking is socially regulated: there are social codes of looking (including taboos on certain kinds of looking). It can be instructive to reflect on what these codes are in particular cultural contexts (they tend to retreat to transparency when the cultural context is one's own).
27  Within the bounds of the cultural conventions, people who avoid one's gaze may be seen as nervous, tense, evasive and lacking in confidence whilst people who look a lot may tend to be seen as friendly and self-confident.
28  The directed eye contact violates a code of looking, where eye contact is frequently broken but returned to, and leads to depersonalization of the victim because an aggressor deliberately breaks the rules which the victim adheres to. (Danny Saunders in O'Sullivan et al. 1994, 205)
29  One woman reported to a male friend: ‘One of the things I really envy about men is the right to look’. She pointed out that in public places, ‘men could look freely at women, but women could only glance back surreptitiously’ (Dyer 1992a, 265). Brain Pranger (1990) reports on his investigation of 'the gay gaze.
30  Almost everyone I interviewed said that they could tell who was gay by the presence or absence of this look. (in Higgins 1993, 235-6)

John Berger's ways of seeing:

Research

1) "Magazines for young women are emphatic in their determination that women must do their own thing, be themselves, and/or be as outrageously sassy and sexy as possible" - Media, Gender and Identity, David Gauntlett (2008)

2) "It sounds as if mens magazines are geared to turning out a stream of identical men" - Media Gender and Identity, David Gauntlett

3) "in contrast with womens 'you can be anything' ethos, the identities promoted to men are relatively constrained." - Media Gender and Identity, David Gauntlett.

4) "archetype of masculine strength and independence" - Media Gender and Identity, David Gauntlett.

5) " 'girl power' are todays most prominent expressions of what Angela McRobbie calls 'popular feminism.' " - Media Gender and Identity, David Gauntlett.

6) "Modern media has little time or respect for tradition" - Media Gender and Identity, David Gauntlett

7) " The media disseminates a huge number of messages about identity and acceptable forms of self-expression, gender, sexuality and lifestyle" - Media Gender and Identity,  David Gaunlett.

8) "These men and their cultures are largely ignored by the problem-centered discourse and masculinity studies. - Media Gender and Identity, David Gauntlett.


13) "In fashion magazines women are much thinner. We have older women, not really old, in their 40s." - Esquire editor: We show 'ornamental' women in same way as cars, Alex Bilmes.
14) "[Esquire] provide pictures of girls in the same way we provide pictures of cool cars," - Esquire editor: We show 'ornamental' women in same way as cars, Alex Bilmes.
15) ."Most women's magazines don't put them [older women] in their magazines." - Esquire editor: We show 'ornamental' women in same way as cars, Alex Bilmes.
16) ""It is ornamental. Women's magazines do the same thing." - Esquire editor: We show 'ornamental' women in same way as cars, Alex Bilmes.
17) "Firstly, many of the images included in Heat are what I like to call ‘red-carpet’ images. These can be described as images of women wearing glamorous, expensive-looking dresses, with their hair and make-up perfectly placed, posing at the camera " - How women are represented in hat magazine, Katie Bradford,
18) women are represented as being glamorous beings, who strive to look perfect in front of a camera. Not only this, but the readers are therefore represented as being interested in the these women when they are looking their best. - How women are represented in heat magazine, Katie Bradford.
19)  "The mass media are generally agreed to be an influential source of images and messages about the idealized body that women and girls are expected to strive for."  - How women are represented in heat magazine, Katie Bradford.
20) "inaccurate stereo types damage women's self perception and limit their social roles" - Women Feminism and media, Sue Thornham (book)

acedemia.edu

''Masculinity and femininity can then be examined as a set of social expectations, created and maintained in a patriarchy society''  magazines and media in general create this expectation of how they perceive society and offer guidance and advice to maintain the expectation. 

''The traditional characteristics of masculinity are made to seem so correct and natural that men find the domination and exploitation of women and other men to not only be expected but demanded'' mens magazines fully support this as women are often objectified within the magazine, however they are often shown to be dominant and in control whilst being featured in this way. Gender roles are different in womens magazines as whilst women are shown to be in control and dominant, it is within themselves being successful and in control of their health and lifestyle. Womens magazines moves away from traditional characteristics and points of views. 

''portrayals of women in the media that depict them as physically or mentally less able than men, or where their beauty, sexuality or domestic service are the aspects that are most highly valued in them'' magazines such as Good House Keeping represent this traditionalist view point however other magazines such as Cosmopolitan and Women's Fitness suggest that women aren't just rewarded and respected on their beauty but also on how successful they are, where they stand in life and what they want to achieve. women and men share some of the same qualities in todays society 

Rosalind Gill - From Sexual Objectification to Sexual Subjectification: The Resexualisation of Women's Bodies in the Media

''What makes these hyper-sexualised representations of women's bodies different from earlier representations in the 1960s and 1970s is that they are clearly responses to feminism, and, in that sense, I would suggest, are far less 'innocent' than earlier sexualised depictions'' Suggests that feminism has changed over the years as it is now about being bold and sexy. 

''this pervasive re-inscription of women as sexual objects is happening at a moment when we are being told that women can 'have it all' and are doing better than ever before'' gender within magazines are constantly contradicting themselves. it suggests that society doesn't understand what it's portraying upon women. 

'' we are confronted by a popular culture increasingly saturated by representations of women's bodies as objects, and on the other, a mantra-like repetition and celebration of 'women's success' and 'Girl Power'' 


simultaneously as a reassurance for men threatened by girls' increasingly good performance in public examinations and women's success in the workplace. some womens magazines promote women in a positive point of view and show how women are becoming empowering and successful, they point out what they're doing right and congratulate them whereas mens magazines just tell them how to improve with work, women and social events. 

'' older women, bigger women, women with wrinkles, etc are never accorded sexual subjecthood and are still subject to offensive and sometimes vicious representations.''

''Young girls seem to be getting prettier all the time.  There is a return to femininity, but it seems to me that most girls don't give two hoots about men.  It is about being fit and healthy for themselves not for men.'' magazines now offer guidance and advice on how to make yourself feel younger and bring out the best of you. They offer columns on how to stay young for longer and keeping up good health as well as looking your best for yourself, not on how to suit yourself to a man. 

http://www.theoryhead.com/gender/more.htm

‘More is a British magazine aimed at older teenagers and twentysomething women.’

‘International viewers might think of an even more youthful and zesty version of Cosmopolitan, with even more emphasis on sex and enthusiastic discussion of how you can make men submit to your sexual will.’

‘A woman has the right to look and dress however she likes, for her own pleasure; and that a woman has the right to demand satisfaction in sex, in work, and in every other area of life.’

‘It is emphatically heterosexual (in a way that is not really undermined by the occasional feature on the joys of lesbianism).’

‘The magazines reduce women to sex-obsessed predators, and objectify men as 'eye candy'

‘this is a blatant reversal of the traditional 'male gaze'’

‘They may promote an ideal of attractiveness which readers may be unable or unwilling to attain.’

‘Magazines may not exactly reflect feminist ideals, but points out that, as far as many young women are concerned, academic feminism is part of the world of middle-aged authority figures’

‘Cosmo do promote the kinds of confidence, self-awareness and assertiveness that feminism was always calling for’

Research

"Notes on 'The Gaze' by Daniel Chandler

• 'to gaze implies more than to look at - it signifies a psychological relationship of power, in which the gazer is superior to the object of the gaze.' There is a voyeuristic aspect, audience have more power.
  
• 'some 'glamour' photographers to enhance their photographs in the same way and thus to increase the the attractiveness of the model.' Create unnatural appearances of models which audiences aspire to achieve, however, the model of course have been edited to look this way.
  
• 'Stereotypical notions of masculinity are strongly oriented towards the active...male models feel bound to avoid the 'femininity' of being posed as the passive object of an active gaze.' Don't challenge stereotypes.
  
• 'close-ups signifying intimate or personal modes, medium shots a social mode and long shots an impersonal mode.' Camera shots creates different modes of address and can be analysed in different ways.
  
• '...the camera frequently enables us to look at people whom we would never otherwise see at all.' The camera allows other people to be noticed, not just celebrities and models on the front page of magazines.
  
• 'Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at.' Women are often sexually objectified however it is never really the other way around. This suggests that women allow this objectification to continue and accept it.
  
• '...women were still 'depicted' in a different way to men - because the 'ideal' spectator is always assumed to be male and the image of the woman is designed to flatter him.' There are still stereotypes and men are seen as the dominant characters

This page from magazine Cosmopolitan shows some ideologies of the magazine. Firstly looking good is or should be very important to women, The model for this particular article is Michelle Phan who is an attractive girl and a youtube make up demonstrator. In each picture she is giving direct eye contact to the camera, this shows her confidence which is a result of looking better by using these make up tips. The woman used is very important as she represents the 'Cosmo mantra of being fun and fearless'. She is also a self made woman who has become known by herself with hard work and dedication to her passion. She is a success story and Cosmopolitan recognises this success by stating how her channel on youtube is the most subscribed. This could also represent and ideology of the magazine to follow your dreams and that we should aspire to be always better than we are. The magazine also appreciates the difficult and busy lives that women lead with 'getting makeup done in double-quick time' . This once again emphasises how important it is too look good as even with minimal time and more pressing priorities, the magazine still prioritises looking good over everything. Another ideology of the magazine is also shown which is that we should help each other. The women in the magazine is giving and teaching us her beauty tips to help make us look better. The magazine reinforces how important looking good is by giving us commands to look better, these are not suggestions as much as they are instructions 'Wet a small brush and use it to pick up some dark blue eyeshadow' the alternative would be 'if you want to create your own eye art you should wet and small brush and use it to pick up some dark blue eyeshadow' . The magazine wants us to look better.

Marriage is important, whether or not you want it you will find your husband, it is likely the first thing you will see on the website. Their is an ideology that we all should get married







Below the masthead we have subheading representing different sections of the website, 'Beauty' 'Body' 'Worklife' 'Love' 'Come to our fashion' . These were chosen over every other section of the website to be displayed on the front page, this means that this is what the magazine considers important to the women reading the magazine.

Another subsection of the website again states what the magazine believes should be important to the readers if the magazine such as 'Fashion' 'Beauty' 'Body' 'Love & Sex' The idea of looking good is important

David Guantlett

• 'Magazines bought on one level for a quick fix of glossy entertainment, promote self-confidence, and provide information about sex, relationships and lifestyles which can be put to a variety of uses'. Magazines encourage women to be themselves but then contradict that by coverlines with advice for their futures, looks and fashion. suggests that women are looking for a quick fix at life. 
• 'We lap up this material because the social construction of identity today is the knowing social construction of identity' everyone knows how to become what society wants through media and stereotypes. 
• 'magazines for young women are empthetic in their determination that women must do their own thing' this leaves room for agruments as most magazines who follow this and promote this act in some way as role models for the audience, they guide them in their life, however they contradict themselves by using an independant, determined icon on the front cover. 

Research

'Media, Gender & Identity' written by David Gauntlett

• 'The traditional view of a woman as a housewife or low-status worker has been kick-boxed out of the picture by the feisty, successful 'girl power' icons.' - The mass media is a force for change and the whole idea of traditions are considered to be quite strange. Women are represented as more independent by the day while men are beginning to be represented as more emotional, seeking advice. 

• 'Magazines...promote self-confidence (even if they partly undermine it, for some readers, at the same time) and provide information about sex, relationships and lifestyles which can be put to a variety of uses.' - These topics are all part of the social construction of identity. 

• '...role models serve as navigation points as individuals steer their own personal routes through life.' - An audience, for example, can aspire to look like a celebrity they see on the front of a magazine or they might wish to achieve what they've achieved. They have an impact on individuals. 

• 'Magazines for young women are emphatic in their determination that women must do their own thing, be themselves, and/or be as outrageously sassy and sexy as possible.' - Magazines essentially aim to defeat social ideologies about women and emphasise the important of certain aspects, eg. independence. 

• '...the magazines are often centred on helping men to be considerate lovers, useful around the home, healthy, fashionable, and funny - in particular, being able to laugh at themselves.' Magazines are not always too serious when offering audiences advice. 

• 'It is impossible to say that women's magazines always carry a particular message, because the enormous range of titles target an equally diverse set of female audiences.' - Magazines can be contradictory in what they say however this range of messages can appeal to a wider range of people. 

• 'In contrast with the past...we no longer get singular, straightforward messages about ideal types of male and female identities...Instead, popular culture offers a range of stars, icons and characters whom we can acceptably borrow bits and pieces of their public persona for use in our own.' - Traditional ideologies about gender are no longer prevalent and the media offers a more diverse variety of messages to present to us. 

• 'Media messages are diverse, diffuse and contradictory.'