Apart from the words “Cosmopolitan” written at the very top of the magazine and stretched out from one end to the other, the headlines “99 New Sex Facts” and “What Men Find Hot” are also written in a bigger font size than any other headline to attract a certain type of audience. Who is this audience? Well certainly not Granny Lou or 10 year old Roy and Regina. They are supposedly in that age group where they should neither be interested in sex or way passed the age to try on new "sex tricks" created for a younger generation.
“Cosmopolitan,” or “Cosmo” for short, attracts thousands of readers based on their health articles and celebrity articles. But perhaps their articles about love, fashion, and beauty are the most important. Then again, their health articles are not based on studies about cancer and their celebrity articles are not written to depict the life of stars like Bon Jovi; but, instead the celebrities discussed are glamorous, somewhat young (all the way from a seventeen year old Miley Cirus to a forty-four year old Adam Sandler) HIP stars like Shakira, and the health issues discussed are based on staying fit and losing weight. Why doesn't Cosmo mention the band KISS or pancreatic cancer? Well it's because the type of audience that they are trying to attract are mostly wannabe glamorous women who range from the ages of 15 all the way to 45 and who are worried about their physical body and not a disease. These women also either want to be in a relationship or already find themselves in a relationship that they want to improve. The evidence of these two scenarios come once again from the headlines “99 New Sex Facts” and “What Men Find Hot.” If a woman finds herself in a relationship then she would probably read the articl...
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...'t have wrinkles because it wants to portray a younger face to appeal to the type of readers they want to attract. They are also wearing loose clothes that are either “sexy” or casual. These types of clothes aim to make a connection with teenagers or college students who wear casual clothes a lot and who want to dress up in a way that will attract men’s attention. Even though this magazine is mostly targeted towards women, certain men can also pick up these types of magazines because of the pictures of the “hot celebrities.” There is also a women's confession column, as well as a men's confession column. Just like there is advice about attracting men, there is also an article about attracting women that arising male readers might be interested in. Why not expand the number of reader right? After all, the magazine can make more money from a bigger pool of audience.
By only focusing on the female body in Esquire’s illustrations, the magazine is taking away the idea that females have control of their body. Each woman featured in the magazine is pictured as described above, in doing so women are portrayed in an unrealistic sense and men expect real-life women to look like this skewed image of the female body. For this reason, women no longer feel confident in their body and feel the pressure of the male gaze to look like the images in magazines like Esquire. It was also said that these images were used to market to the straight-male consumer in order to reject any interest women might have in the magazine or any homosexual male. Esquire attempted to make all readers of their magazine think the same and this included making them all have the same idea of what makes a female attractive.
Advertising is form of communicating and using methods into getting the buyers to purchase a product. Cosmopolitan has done a good job in determining what readers and listeners want and need. Cosmopolitan is a magazine directed toward young people who have low self- confidence and low self-esteem and also who care about health and appearance. As Fowles said, “By giving form to people’s deep-lying desires and picturing states of being that individuals privately yearn for.” (Fowles, 137). All advertisers know who and what readers wish or long for.
through some old things of my father's in the attic. I came across an old issue
A common strategy that I found was the use of identification. All the articles included in the website form a sense of identification with the audience before introducing their topic. The website assumes its target audience is young women and appeals to the shared values of most young women in the opening of each article. By relating to the audience's preferences and experiences, the articles and website increase the chances of a positive audience reaction. If the audience feels as though they can identify with the author or subject of the articles, the audience will be more open to the acceptance of the intended message. Another language strategy that is used in many areas of the website is depiction. By using highly descriptive language the audience gains attention and interest in the subject almost automatically. Since many of the articles on this website include informative and opinionated information, using colorful language enhances the quality of the articles. If the author intends for the audience to read the entire article, it is important to include captivating language so that the author does not lose the attention of the reader. I think Popsugar effectively uses identification and depiction to engulf the audience's attention and increase audience
Aging is inevitable and at one-stage of life everyone has to face the visible signs of aging. Women are considered as the obsession of beauty and always desire to look beautiful, young and charming. Women hate wrinkles, dark spots, fine lines and deeper pores as these signs make them look older than their age. They can possible do anything to get rid of these fine lines and wrinkles.
Unsurprisingly, headlines that tout the largest fonts and excessive amounts of bold are almost always about gender, and whether a female genitalia is behaving how it ‘rightly’ should.... ... middle of paper ... ... Cosmopolitan is a magazine that gives harmful ideas to women about their sexuality, their health and happiness, and how it is supposedly dependent upon whether or not they fit into the unrealistic beauty standards that this magazine possesses.
...ce in society. And the effects of the ideals behind these magazines are all the more powerful because of their subtlety." Women walk away from these magazines with an empty feeling and feelings of many inadequacies and they really don't know exactly why. The subtle undermining of women's intelligence and cause strips away their sense of worth ever so slowly and leaves them feeling depressed and in search of something that really can't exist together. Growing old while staying young takes many years of complete and internal happiness not many years of collagen injections and the added stress of having to stay unattainably perfect. While some consider these journalists for women's magazines talented writers, I consider them horrendous displays of talent in which they sell out the naturally beautiful women of the world for a quick buck and a popular magazine.
Breazeale explains, “It had to be unequivocally clear that women were the natural objects of its readership’s desire” (75). In the eyes of Esquire Magazine’s audience, it was just as bad to be a woman as it was to be a homosexual person, so Esquire’s founders had to ensure that their would be no doubt in their readers’ minds that this magazine was created for straight males only. Esquire’s use of erotic imagery of women promoted women as nothing but objects; while half of the magazine insulted women on their tastes, the other half portrayed them in inappropriate, sexual ways solely for men to look at. Esquire Magazine even used inappropriate cartoons and voyeurism as a way to assert the male dominance. Esquire would run articles of women naked in the restroom surprised by construction workers, burglars, or firefighters, or there was an accidental loss of clothes on the street; whatever the situation, all featured a woman in surprise and a male initiating a look that the female does not necessarily want (78).
Women celebrities often remark that the media negatively displays women and sexually objectifies them through many mediums such as film, TV, video games, and advertisements. However, there are many female stars that are willing to pose provocatively for a wide variety of men’s magazines such as Maxim, a European magazine targeted at men. Their hypocrisy in shooting the pictures invalidates the argument that men exploit female sexuality, as they are likewise eager to take those pictures. These women are so quick to jump at an opportunity to pose seductively for the camera, a...
The first eye-catching difference is the size of the magazines themselves. Spin takes a more conservative approach to the publication's size. It is printed in the standard eleven-by-eight inch format used by most magazines in The United States. By choosing this size, Spin gains advantages such as portability and attraction. Rolling Stone on the other hand, has taken a quite different approach. With its massive size, almost double the size of a standard magazine, Rolling Stone draws prospective buyers in their direction. It is obvious that Rolling Stone's unique choice makes them stand out in a sea of clones. Whether readers think out of the box, or conform to the norm, they will find that magazine size is essential to publication sales.
The majority of the magazines emphasizes on the physical, outside attributes of women (body shape, muscle tone, makeup and hair, clothing, etc.) and rarely mentions the importance of being funny, smart and possessing many other positive attributes that have nothing to do with women’s body.
Within the beauty industry there are numerous examples of media propaganda that can be investigated, but the television and magazine industry privdes a very specific representation of what women experience daily through the media. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the ...
... This is inferred because the articles are about current celebrities and their lives. These would interest those women more than it would a fifty year old man. One can also say that the reader will not see an article about fishing in People magazine because that is not relevant to the target audience. Magazines also have advertisements that would appeal to that target audience. People has advertisements for items such as makeup and face wash which would appeal to young adult women and not an older woman who is in her sixties or seventies. Just like with the articles, one can say that the reader will not find an advertisement for Viagra or for Copenhagen chewing tobacco. It is not relevant to the target audience. This is how a magazine becomes successful and sells a lot of issues. It would not sell as much if it did not stay focused on a particular target audience.
Well, they do fail, but in a different way. In all the articles I encountered under the broadly titled ‘Women’ section, they featured a scantily clad woman and tended to give advice toward men. The photos featured in the women’s section had an emphasis on both the breasts and butt, further simplifying women down to just their body. Most headlines contained the word ‘sexy’ and referred to women as ‘babe’ or ‘our girl’, not only dehumanizing them but also pushing a sense of ownership. One particular article, written by a fellow woman, had the title Victoria’s Secret Model Throws First Pitch Like a Really Hot Girl which enforces everything that a feminist would despise. Clearly Corsillo, the article’s author, wrote the article with the intent for a male audience, even if she herself does not feel the same way. The few women that were actually interviewed included two WWE female twins who happen to be in relationships with famous wrestlers. Instead of interviewing them about their life stories, their questions centered on “tips on picking up women at the gym” or “what [their] stance [is] on working out with a significant other” (Rouse). Partnered with this article is a picture of the twins gazing at a male’s butt as he works out, enhancing heteronormativity but with a new twist. One article even goes so far as to dumb down the idea of consent for the male readers, promising that they won’t
An article by Christina N Baker, Images of Women’s Sexuality in Advertisements: A content Analysis of Black And White Oriented Women’s and Men’s Magazine emphasizes on how women’s are portrayed in media such as advertisements and Magazine. The author analyzes how media has a huge impact in our society today; as a result, it has an influence on race and gender role between men and women.