Judging a Woman by the Cover of Her Magazine
Should we judge a woman by the cover of her magazine? The immediate
answer that springs to mind is a resounding NO, however, if given more
thought; the answer could be very different. Many of us are guilty of
jumping to conclusions and stereotyping. If we had to say who is the
more intellectual from the choice of a reader of Cosmopolitan and a
reader of the Financial Times, the vast majority of us would vote in
favour of the Financial Times reader. What our answer should be is
“you should not judge, based on this information alone.”
Let’s look at February’s issue of Cosmopolitan - the first thing that
draws your attention is the stunning Mischa Barton who is this month’s
cover girl. With the front cover bursting with body, diet and fashion
advice it suggests that anyone could achieve the same ‘perfection’,
and aspire to looking like the cover model, solely by reading the
magazine. Of course this is unachievable for the majority of readers,
without either undergoing extensive and expensive surgery or putting
their health on the line. Should we therefore assume the women who
pick this up to read are aspiring to this dream or reading it in
disbelief!
Popular phrases such as “tricks you must try” and “every woman must
read” plant seeds in readers’ minds which grow and develop, to the
extent that readers decide that they do want to try and they must read
it because it is what they want. I am generalizing here but magazines
do use these tactics to influence and persuade. Bearing this in mind,
what type of woman would pick up such magazines? Surely not the
intellectual, I hear you say, but perhaps this thought is wrong. Why
not the intellectual woman? Maybe she is busy every day with work and
meetings and these magazines give a form of escapism where trivia is
relaxing and takes her mind off the pressures of her every-day life.
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.
This is a stereotype, which has been engraved into heads of men, women, and children. By plastering the world with models who seem to have it the genetic jackpot, Dove set out to discredit this cultural cast created by our society. Body image, to some people, is the first part of a person they notice. A study conducted by Janowsky and Pruis compared body image between younger and older women. They found that although older women “may not feel the same societal pressure as younger women to be thin and beautiful…some feel that they need to make themselves look as young as possible” (225). Since women are being faced with pressure to conform in ways that seem almost impossible, Jeffers came to the conclusion “they should create advertising that challenges conventional stereotypes of beauty” (34) after conducting various interviews with feminist scholars. The stance of Figure 1’s model screams confident. She is a voluptuous, curvy and beautiful women standing nearly butt-naked in an ad, plastered on billboards across the globe. Ultimately, she is telling women and girls everywhere that if I can be confident in my body, so can you. Jessica Hopper reveals, “some feel that the ads still rely too heavily on using sex to sell” (1). However, I feel as if these are just criticisms from others who are bitter. With the model’s hands placed assertively placed on her hips, her smile lights up the whole ad. She completely breaks the stereotype that in order to
Ed. Katherine E. Kurzman, Kate Sheehan Roach, and Stasia Zomkowski. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 1998. 242,243. Print.
Firminger examines the ways these magazines represent young males and females. She reveals that these magazines talks about the physical appearance of young girls but also their sexuality, emotions, and love life. The author informs how the advice given by the magazines is negative. The author also argues that these magazines focus more on their social life than how their academic performance
Many groups of ethnicity are portrayed in media in either in a bad way or a good way. Hispanics are groups that are mostly portrayed in a negative way in all types of media. Many Hispanics are judged on just what they wear, where they come from, and just because they are Hispanic. In my examples that I have chosen show Hispanics that are judged just because they are Hispanic, Hispanic that is judged because he looks like a Hispanic gangster, Hispanic teens that are judged because where they lived, the stereotype that all Hispanics are immigrants, and my last example shows that not Hispanics are not showed in a negative way in media. Even though I am Hispanic myself I have never been in a situation just because I’m Hispanic.
The female body is the site of extensive theoretical discourse and intense political struggle; it has become the expressions of culture but also has become a site for social and political control. Through history the female body has been the site of discrimination, exploitation, abuse and oppression. She has also occupied a dominant position in the discourse of beauty; its imagery being pervasive and manipulated throughout literature, visual arts and religions and also the site of scientific and psychological investigation. Through historically male dominated fields of expertise and political power, the female body has become the subject to conscious and unconscious patriarchal influences.
The media is a fascinating tool; it can deliver entertainment, self-help, intellectual knowledge, information, and a variety of other positive influences; however, despite its advances for the good of our society is has a particular blemish in its physique that targets young women. This blemish is seen in the unrealistic body images that it presents, and the inconsiderate method of delivery that forces its audience into interest and attendance. Women are bombarded with messages from every media source to change their bodies, buy specific products and redefine their opinion of beauty to the point where it becomes not only a psychological disease, but a physical one as well.
I suddenly became acutely aware of my own fat bulges and folds. I imagined every eye in the room on me, shaking their heads in pity, revulsion and even morbid curiosity. I pulled my shirt surreptitiously away from the bulges of my belly and my hips, trying to separate the appearance from the reality. I shifted in my chair, and felt my cheeks burn hot and my stomach churn... And yet I was ashamed. I was aware of the disgust my body inspired, its complete unacceptability and invisibility in the sexual domain, apart from as a figure of ridicule. I felt hot tears sting my eyes, and I knew I had to get out. I squeezed my wide hips between the rows of chairs, and fled the room. (238)
... 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.
In modern society there is more and more digital editing without the knowledge of consumers. Currently there are various reasons for why women develop negative body image, low-self-esteem and eating disorders. According to Naomi Wolf in her novel “Beauty Myth”, one of the many reasons women obtain concerns with their bodies is due to the universal images of young female bodies presented through advertisements in fashion magazines. Advertisements in magazines are altering and shaping the desires of men and women. Magazines sell viewers images of beautiful, skinny, flawless confident young women. When people are constantly antagonized with the magazine industry’s ideal of “perfect beauty” the viewer’s then, subconsciously believe these images to be true and begin to form biases about what they themselves should look like and what other people must also look like. People who view magazines get mislead by advertisers because they are unaware that all the images displayed are digitally altered through Photoshop and airbrushing. Today’s magazines are formed completely on false ideals of flawless beauty and unattainable body images, to prevent women and men from falling victim to the magazine’s deceitful images we as a society need to become aware and educate ourselves.
The media has one of the most influential impacts on what is seen as beauty in society (Bromley, 2012).Women spend thousands of dollars on products and cosmetics to achieve the unrealistic and unhealthy look of models on advertisements (Valenti, 2007). In most extreme cases, women who feel that their unhealthy weight goal is not achieved turn to extreme eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia, and binge eating (Cunning, 2011). However, despite the unrealistic frames of models on advertisements, women are still lured and pressured into the “perfect” image that is portrayed by the media using race, youth, and sexuality (Bromley, 2012).
The title Thackeray chose for his novel Vanity Fair is taken from The Pilgrim´s Progress by John Bunyan. In Bunyan´s book, one of the places Christian passes through on his pilgrimage to the Celestial City is Vanity Fair, where it is possible to buy all sorts of vanities. A very sad thing happens there: the allegorical person Faithful is killed by the people. In the novel Vanity Fair Thackeray writes about the title he has chosen: "But my kind reader will please to remember that this history has 'Vanity Fair' for a title, and that Vanity Fair is a very vain, wicked, foolish place, full of all sorts of humbugs and falsenesses and pretensions" (98). The choice of title is appopriate, because in his novel Thackeray deals with people who put wealth, property, and a station in life before everything else - including honesty and love.
The human body is one of the most complex and yet beautiful things on the earth. We live in a time where our perception of the way we view the body is driven my social stereotypes. In todays world we are supposed to live by the standards of this unwritten code. All of this affects the quality of life we live in. It ranges from the workplace; our personal relationships to the way strangers perceive a person. At this very day in age we are categorized due to being born male or female and things that should be talked about are considered taboo to others.
“Beauty is only skin deep” and “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” can be very controversial quotes to some people. Those quotes are all based on how they are viewed by other people. You may not believe in them but others might believe strongly in them.
The New Yorker, with 47 publications each year, often generates some debate. In July 2007, the literary magazine released its latest issue. The cover included the title, price, edition, and three differently dressed women sitting on a bench. The first woman’s face and body are covered, except for her eyes. The second, with long blonde hair, is wearing a halter top, short shorts, sunglasses, and flip flops. The third is wearing a tunic and veil. Our first impressions are often stereotypical, and we must look deeper than the cover. Immediately, different conclusions are drawn based on each woman’s appearance. Just from this magazine cover, we can assume different things about each individual: including her religion, self image, and family life.