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"SELF MAGAZINE" & WOMEN IN SOCIETY.
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Essay Subject:
Overview of changes in women's role in society & media & gender analysis of magazine aimed at young women in both content & advertising.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Overview of changes in women's role in society & media & gender analysis of magazine aimed at young women in both content & advertising.
Paper Introduction:
INTRODUCTION
A gender analysis of the magazine Self shows that it is directed largely at young women both in terms of content and advertising. The magazine is a monthly publication dedicated to questions of health, fitness, and lifestyle, and it is apparent that the magazine would be identified more as a women's publication than a man's based on the various issues addressed and the way these issues are treated. In addition, while the advertising often shows a certain sexual appeal that might seem to be directed at men, most of the products make this doubtful and instead suggest that the young women in the ad are intended to evoke a degree of envy on the part of magazine readers so they would buy the product in an attempt to emulate the young women and in effect become them. This is in keeping with the tone of
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Editorial Content An analysis of the editorial content of the there magazines showsthat the articles presented are of the same sort as are featured on thecover, addressing women's issues and concerns. The American woman 1992-93. Many of thesewomen were ladies of means and social position in society: The main burden of their argument was that woman suffrage placed an additional and unbearable burden on women, whose place was in the home. It has any full-pages of advertising, most of it in color, withmuch of the advertising directed at selling makeup, clothing, scent,jewelry, and health-related products to young women. . Some of the advertising is gender-neutral, as in the car ads which only show the vehicle and suggest reasonsfor buying it. These magazines have very different emphases on matters relatingto women, but all are directed at women. These women feltthat something was missing in their lives without knowing what it was, andmany of them sought psychiatric help to discover the source of theirproblem. Unquestionably, these covers are intended to appeal toyoung women concerned about these issues and who see the sort of womenfeatured on the cover as good role models. The magazine isnot directed, then, at young women with families but at young women who areon their own and coping with the need to attract a man rather than toalready have one. New York:John Wiley. Stone (1992). This response is not new. Megatrends for women. Ries, P. 8). The fact is that the family has changed and that the traditionalfamily structure of homemaker, husband as breadwinner, and children nowconstitutes only 1 percent of families. Cambridge, Massachusetts:Harvard University Press. WOMEN IN SOCIETY The role changes for women after World War II developed gradually andseemingly unnoticed for a long time. There is a definite gender bias in the waythe magazine is designed, written, marketed, and situated in themarketplace. The magazine also plays to the American fitness craze of recentyears, and health and health-related matters have become important to manyAmericans of both genders. In addition, whilethe advertising often shows a certain sexual appeal that might seem to bedirected at men, most of the products make this doubtful and insteadsuggest that the young women in the ad are intended to evoke a degree ofenvy on the part of magazine readers so they would buy the product in anattempt to emulate the young women and in effect become them. Women and sex are addressed again in an article aboutwomen who coerce men into sex, asking whether there is some relationshipamong female aggression, childhood trauma, and changing women's roles insociety. Friedan (1963) wrote about the issuein the early 196 s and noted how many women were expressing discontentwithout knowing the source, beginning in the late 194 s. There is also an article on a new drug that women havebeen using for energy, an illegal drug that can cause harm. This wasaccomplished on one level by preventing women from gaining the sort ofeducation offered to men, and while this has changed to a great extent,there are still inequalities in the opportunities offered to men as opposedto women. The magazine has a subheading on the title page pointing toits primary concerns: "The Educated Body, the Independent Mind." GENDER ANALYSIS The cover image on every magazine is of a young woman, healthy,beautiful, and successful. Such changes alsothreaten many women who have accepted a more traditional role and who seeany change as a threat. Articles are also included on makeup and home decorating. This is not simply amatter of imitation, for other influences are at work at the same time.All behaviors are regulated by their consequences, and these can come fromthree sources: direct external consequences, vicarious experiencing ofconsequences to others, and self-produced consequences (Pervin, 1993, 396-399). (1984). New York:Villard Books. It is also seen in the covers used,the stories featured on the cover, and the general tone of the magazine.Successful young women in the public eye are used to attract readers, andsometimes their stories are used as inspiration for other young women toemulate them and achieve the same success. The articleoffers a warning and also presents the stories of a number of addicts as towhy they use drugs and what drugs have done to them. Social roles for women have changed since World War II, and over thissame period television entered the American home and became identified asthe mass medium of our time. The magazine appeals to young women who feel theneed for self-improvement and who want to see how other people areaccomplishing this same desire. The content of these three magazines shows considerable similarity insubject matter and even in more specific element,s with repeatedadmonitions regarding the need for exercise and nutritional tips. This has all taken place within the context ofexpanded choices for women: There is no 'moral' or politically correct way for the woman in each family to juggle home and family responsibilities. Movies are accused of ignoring women more and more in our mass culture,and advertising in magazines and newspapers is seen as presenting adistorted view of women in particular, using them as sex objects to sellproducts. The feminine mystique. The heading "TheEducated Body, the Independent Mind" suggests that there will be more aboutthe mind than there is in the magazine, and the independence is suggestedrather than shown in any detail. New York:W.W. This trend was noted by 196 , but the size of thetrend was underestimated. The ads on all three back covers are for women's products,moisture creams and mascara, and placing these ads on the outside also isan indication of the way the magazine is directed at one gender over theother. The role for women has expandedwith more women in the workplace and with a variety of family structureswith new roles for all members of the family. . Advertisinghas an overt and a covert rhetoric, a text, a context, and a subtext mixedtogether. Numerous reasons were given forthis, including a growing number of young single women looking for theirfirst jobs, newly divorced women with little or no income from their formerhusbands, women whose husbands did not earn enough so that the familyneeded a second salary, and women from higher income families who had adesire for broader horizons as a primary reason for working. The placement of the magazine is suggestive--stores place themagazine among other women's magazines like Harper's Bazaar and FamilyCircle. This is inkeeping with the tone of the whole magazine--it is directed at self-helpand self-improvement--and the ads tend to address the same issue fromdifferent perspectives. The June issue has similar articles, beginning with an emphasis onconcerns about eating with an article implying that what people consider"healthy" eating may not be healthy at all. Advertising Content The advertising in the three magazines follows a similar pattern.This is a slick magazine, called that because of the type of appear used,but also a term that has come to identify a highly produced magazine withample advertising, photographs, color, and graphics. (1993). The second article continuesthe health theme with a discussion of how to make the most of time during aphysical workout. Many of these ads are image-ads, showing young women not unlike thereadership working, playing, painting, dancing, exercising, and otherwisedoing whatever they choose to do as independent young women. When women firstagitated for the vote at the beginning of this century, they were opposedby women's groups who wanted things to remain as they were. Friedan, B. Naisbitt (1992). Others start home-based businesses. The observer mightassume that young women are interested entirely in improving their looksand their health, often with little differentiation between the two. Women andMen: Traditions and Trends. There are magazines that direct thesame sort of information to men, so this cannot be seen as a gender issue.The fact that there are so many magazines directed to young women inparticular, though, shows what an important market they constitute and thefact that they have the money to be of import to the advertisers whosupport these magazines. Most of theadvertising in Self is shaped around the same target audience as themagazine articles--the young woman. Also citedfor this rise was the liberation of young wives in the 196 s with economicliberation and effective birth control methods (Lindsey, 1977, 139-14 ). Pervin, L.A. Brownmiller, S. By the mid-197 s, women had entered the jobmarket at rates not expected to be reached until the mid-198 s, and it wasreported then that nearly 48 percent of American women over sixteen yearsof age either worked or wanted a job. & J. (1963). The suggestions in thismagazine are not unusual in this regard or in the fact that the informationis shaped and directed to young women. Self follows thispattern. CONSEQUENCES The repetition of certain themes in these issues of Self suggeststhat the readership is interested in these matters, worried about them, andeager to find answers to alleviate their worries. Other health-related articles address fitness ("Stayfit and de-stress") and eating problems ("Fourteen strategies to endcompulsive eating"). At the same time, itis evident that progress in changing media portrayals is behind the curveas far as the degree of equality that should be depicted, the roles givento women in the media, and the roles women play behind the scenes in themedia as well. The magazine tells women they areindependent and that they have the right to develop both their bodies andtheir minds, but the emphasis here is on physical fitness rather thanmental development. Wilson Company. Theconcerns are not all health related, though even the makeup tips and skincare suggestions are intended to make people feel better as well as lookbetter. Brownmiller (1984) writes: The sad history of prohibitions on women's learning is too well known to be recorded here. Women were then given advice by an army of marriage and child-guidance counselors, psychotherapists, and armchair psychologists, alltrying to show women how to adjust to their role as housewives. This desperation has been fed throughout history by the practice ofkeeping women in their place by limiting their options. CONCLUSION A gender analysis of Self shows that the magazine is gender biasedtoward young women, specifically young working women with an interest infitness, health, and related matters. INTRODUCTION A gender analysis of the magazine Self shows that it is directedlargely at young women both in terms of content and advertising. & A.J. There is also a column by a woman who has had certainbehavior problems over the years and who now believes that she is sufferingfrom Tourette's syndrome and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. . Thearticle includes a questionnaire the reader can fill out to ascertain theirown sexual health. Friedanwrote: It is no longer possible to ignore that voice, to dismiss the desperation of so many American women. As we enter the 199 s, we can see how much this has finally changed,though inequities still exist: Since 197 , increasing proportions of women of all races have completed high school, although white women were more likely than either black or Hispanic women to have done so as of 1989 (Ries & Stone, 1992, 279). These issues center onfitness, self-improvement, and topics of interest primarily to young women--a story on fitness, a quiz on sex, the problem of compulsive eating, topicsabout food, how women can manage money and love, and a warning about a drugused by women. Personality: Theory and research. The kinds of information included in these magazines also shapes howyoung women view themselves, and the repetition of themes of fitness andappearance contribute to the perception young women have that this is theway for them to get ahead and succeed in the world. The correspondence between the media and thewomen's movement may be illusory, for the question is not necessarily howdid the media help the women's movement and may be did the women's movementdevelop in spite of the media? WOMEN AND THE MEDIA The nature of the relationship between women and the mass media hasbeen considered in recent years by sociologists and psychologists as wellas media critics, in part based on a concern that the way women areportrayed in the media has a deleterious effect on the way women are viewedin society at large. Most schedule child care and work full time. Media portrayals of women have beencriticized for some time, and television in particular is seen asdistorting many facets of American life in pursuit of commercial interests. The February issue beginswith an article entitled "Sex, Health, and Pleasure," which is actually asex survey of 2, women and men "to assess how their physicalrelationships affect their overall health an well-being" (p. The September issue is a larger issue than usual and is headed"Self's Annual Fitness Report." Most of the articles in this issue relateto health and fitness issues and suggest ways women can improve theirfitness, nutrition, problems with exercising, and skin care in differentkinds of weather. References Aburdene, P. In much of the world women are barred from advanced knowledge and technical training (Brownmiller, 1984, 1 7).The democratic society founded in the New World was slow to make any changein this attitude, but girls were admitted to the first public school systemin Boston in 1789, though they were admitted to primary schools only until1825. Fitness has become a major American industry, and magazines,television shows, and newspaper articles feature much information about thematter and suggestions as to how to achieve it. In a sense, the media tends to be more like Congress thanlike the rest of society, touting and promoting social changes that areforced on society at large while the media and Congress continue as if therules and requirements of contemporary society do not apply to them. This is not what being a woman means, no matter what the experts say (Friedan, 1963, 26). New York: Fawcett Columbine. New York: W.W. More and more women have been entering the job market in the yearssince World War II. Business has been slow tochange and to acknowledge the new family, and for all the complaints aboutthe woman's movement as anti-family, the movement has instead followed thetrend of placing the family in the forefront and of addressing familyissues as vital to women. This magazine has a good deal of advertising andcould be considered successful from this point of view, and thedemographics of the readers would be presumed to fit with the sort of adsand articles seen in the publication. Thereis little other content in these magazines, no discussion of any broaderissues, even those related to women. Women's roles in society have been changing throughthe determined efforts of feminists and sympathetic political groups overthe past two decades, and some of these changes are clearly reflected ontelevision, in film, and in other media portrayals. . Yet examples like these do not even begin to describe the diverse courses families take (Aburdene & Naisbitt, 1992, 217). Social learning theoryholds that our behavior patterns are learned from observation of others.We learn our behavior from the family, peer behavior, and from theobservation of models in the mass media. It would be a mistake to see changing gender roles in society asthreatening only to the males who dominate that society. Self is directed more at theyoung career woman, more likely unmarried than married. This means that what is seen in the media has to be reinforced byother sources, but the repetition of the same message in a variety of mediais likely to have an effect on behavior and attitudes over time. Century of struggle. The three issues analyzed here were forFebruary 1998, June 1998, and September 1998, and in each case the coverimage was of a young female celebrity who could serve as a role model forother young women, respectively actress Calista Flockhart from television'sAlly McBeal, actress Tea Leoni from television's The Naked Truth and thefeature Deep Impact, and model Elle MacPherson in a bathing suit. This magazine addresses these issues withreference specifically to women but follows a similar pattern to other suchpublications, considering matters of nutrition, exercise, weight-loss, andgeneral self-improvement. This is seen both in the articles inthe magazine and in the advertising. The consumer is the target of the advertiser and a member of theaggregate audience who is affected, as the advertiser wishes, by what he orshe sees in an advertisement both consciously and unconsciously.Advertising can be considered a form of discourse and a form that isdirected at effecting change--the advertiser wants the consumer to changehabits or buying patterns and to shift to the product being sold by theadvertiser. Femininity. Lindsey, R. Themagazine is a monthly publication dedicated to questions of health,fitness, and lifestyle, and it is apparent that the magazine would beidentified more as a women's publication than a man's based on the variousissues addressed and the way these issues are treated. A variety of theories have been offered to explain how we learncertain attitudes and behaviors, and they shed some light on the effectthat demeaning portrayals of women in the media may have on futuregenerations, as well as on contemporary society. Norton.----------------------- 14 There is alsoan article on "25 people who changed the way we eat, cook and think aboutfood." Several articles are also included on makeup tips and skin care.Again, there is a clear effort to shape the magazine toward young womenwith concerns about their health and appearance. The child observes the behaviorof people in life and characters on television and then models his or herown behavior on that example in order to gain certain advantage or expresscertain feelings associated with such behavior. The overt message in every advertisement is precisely the same--"buy this product." The other half of the overall message of anadvertisement is why the consumer should buy the product, and part of thismessage is overt, expressed in the words, and another part is hidden,embedded in imagery, code words, and mode of presentation. Norton &Company, Inc. In addition, each cover features titles of articles to be found inthe magazine and so emphasizes certain issues and subjects which areintended to appeal to a certain market segment. Some are giving up successful careers to care for children. New York: H.W. Only a few ads could beconsidered gender-neutral, and these are for such products as automobiles. (1977). (1959). Flexner, E. "Women and Jobs." In Suzanne Fremon. (Flexner, 1959, 296).These arguments are heard today from religious fundamentalists who believethat the woman's movement is a threat to the family.
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