Women/Girl magazines and female identities..

I'm sitting on the front lawn chatting and painting the toenails of the middleschooler I babysit when she begins sharing about one of her favorite magazines, SEVENTEEN. She then proceeds to bring out a copy which we criticize together, embracing every moment to sweep up any ideological trash that may have been imposed upon her. I'm a COM studies major on a mission. We do exactly what Elizabeth Frazer talks about after her study with teen girls on whether they "absorb the stories". Knowing full well she also comes into the media experience with wisdom from a well read mom and dad. Together we reach a consensus that most of the stuff is indeed bogus and that she doesn't have to get a boyfriend, or dress a certain way to be "in."

A week later, my sweet middleschooler comes to me in the kitchen and says. "Elaine, am I fat?" What went wrong? Didn't we talk about all this?
It leads me look more into Dawn Curries study where she found that a certain age group may be susceptible to magazine ideologies more than older readers, this being the 13-17 year old age group. I certainly agree with Gauntlett that these magazines focus on the insecurities of this particular phase of life when things don’t make sense anyway. Humez in his article on Gender and Hegemony in Fashion magazines mentions that younger women view “images identified with hegemonic femininity” as a sign that they are the ones in the drivers seat “controlling” their sexuality. They don’t really see this as male ideologies of what females should be or look like.

“How to kiss…the right way, Get your best butt, Is school secretly making you fat? (April 2007 issue). Among the many repeated topics in the issues of SEVENTEEN were body related concerning fat, makeup, hair and skin-all of which become major insecurities when adolescence hits. The magazines, particularly for teens, seem to celebrate (various versions of) beauty and yet continuously reinforce one kind with the pictures they choose and the way they decide to style their models.

I found this video on YouTube that I applauded, particularly the girls who made. Granted not a lot of girls their age would question some of these topics. The girls talk about “the media” highlighting SEVENTEEN magazine, probably a magazine they read, and how the images that are shown there affect them. What I found interesting is one of the girls, in talking about “what is beautiful” mentions how the women’s bodies in magazines are “perfect.” Really? Maybe not. Perhaps a slip of what she has been made to believe?