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| Good Housekeeping Magazine Cover |
Are women objectified in women's magazines in order to satisfy male viewers despite the target audiences being women?
Referenced Texts:
Karen Bale. (2011). Review of literature . In: Karen Bale Media Representations of female body images in women's magazines. Saarbrucken, Germany: VDM Verlag. 29-31.
Judith Butler. (1990). Subjects of Sex/Gender/Desire. In: Linda J Nicholson Gender Trouble. United States: Routed. p1-16.
David Gauntlett. (2008). Women's magazines and identities. In: David Gauntlett Media, Gender and female Identity. 2nd ed. USA: Rutledge. 190-222.
Plan for essay:
INTRODUCTION:
* Essay focus/question
* set up argument
* chosen texts and why they were chosen
MAIN BODY:
* P1: Generic conventions of magazine covers
* what are female representations in the general media and the specifically magazines
* Relevant theories/ dominant ideologies of western beauty
* Detailed analysis of first text which conforms to the magazine stereotypes
* P2: Detailed analysis of another text which conforms to the stereotypes of magazine covers.
* P3: analysis of the final text
* Compare the text that challenges dominant ideology with the other two texts.
* Make sure there’s at least 5 developed points through out the main body
Conclusion:
* Explain what research has led me to see
* Draw conclusions from research
* What ill be doing for my practical as a result of research task
Research Opening Paragraph/ Draft:
The role of women in society has changed over the years and women are becoming more career motivated instead of being focused on marriage and children. The changing views on sex has also resulted in women being sexually liberated and having a lot more freedom in the way they dress. This essay shall explore the representation of women in magazine print texts. Women are often objectified in magazine covers and are portrayed so often in such a sexual nature that it has become the norm in today’s society. The media has a large part to play in the current way women are shown to be and the status of women as they depict women with the same typical conventions to the consumers of various forms of media text. For example a common convention of a women's magazine will feature a women often in her 20s or 30s to promote that for a women to be desirable they should look youthful. Carl Rogers 1980 Idea self and partner theory argues that magazines are encoded to make a certain lifestyle appear desirable. I am going to be exploring whether women in magazine covers are heavily sexualised in order to sell itself to consumers. To do this I will be analysing 3 different magazines; Glamour, Good housekeeping and women's weekly. I’ll be assessing whether they conform to the stereotypical view of women and actually contribute negatively to societies view of a women's role today.
Firstly I’m going to go through the generic conventions of magazine front covers. The cover is designed and constructed to sell itself to the consumer so they are deliberately eye catching and often feature bright colours. They also feature a main image which is usually taken as a close up or medium shot. The image is often of a celebrity which attracts the fans of that particular celebrity to pick up a copy. The mode of address is usually direct to allow a connection to form between the reader and the writers.
Glamour 2009 cover which features Rihanna on the cover. She is wearing a short, tight dress which shows her body and curves. This is all to appeal to a male audience according to Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory. This theory argues that audiences are forced to view women from the point of view of a heterosexual male even if they're heterosexual women or homosexual males. Rihanna appears to be youthful with glowing skin and as a light skinned women she conforms to the western ideology that lighter skinned women are more desirable (Bell Hooks). Good housekeeping also conforms to society's idea on what a women should be. The cover features a white women dressed in classy dress but it also shows off her body. As we know magazine cover images are predominately of white women as that is what fits western ideology of beauty. Women are also represented as to only care about how they look, sex or how to please men. Examples of this are shown in the cover line of Good housekeeping where it says "Control your weight" and on the Glamour cover "relax! 7 reasons guys like you the way you are".
One magazine which challenges the stereotypical representations of women in magazines is Women's weekly. It challenges the western idea of beauty and what a women should be by using an imagine of an elderly woman on the cover. She is dressed moderately with barely any flesh showing which challenges the dominant ideology as it tells you that they don’t need to expose a women's body to sell their magazine. The common idea is that once a women reaches the age of 40 they are no longer attractive or desirable to a male audience so by challenging the stereotypes in such a way it give the audience an alternative representation on women.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths: strengths of my investigation research are that there’s detailed analysis of my chosen magazine print text which outlines the conventions my magazine cover and double page spread will have to incorporate to score me high marks. I am also taking my own images for my production.
Weaknesses:
I need to include the referenced texts into my writing so it is less opinion based. As I haven’t yet included knowledge from my chosen boos I can’t do a bibliography so I need to do that in order to get the bibliography done
I also feel like I need texts that are maybe a bit different from each other so I’m able to do more comparing and contrasting.
Opportunities:
Include bibliography
Begin putting together the magazine layout
Threats:
The deadline is soon so it’s just a question of whether everything will be done on time but I’m going at a good pace so it should be completely finished on time
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