The "Right Kind" of Readers and Repetitive Messages

So coincidentally before reading this article, I had just purchased a SELF magazine to read over the weekend. I hadn't purchased a magazine in a long time, what with all the reading I had to do for school and reading all three of the Hunger Game trilogies in a week (ya I was a little obsessed) I just didn't have the time, nor the desire to sit down and read through a Cosmo, or Vogue getting the same content and images about sex, how to "perfect your perfect self," organizing your life, etc. But for some reason, last week I decided to buy a Self and it actually allowed for me to read it in a different way after reading Gills article on "Gender in Magazines." 

Her section on contradiction versus coherence was particularly very intriguing and I set out to look at the content that was contradictory in the magazine. While Self is all about the empowerment of the individual woman, of being free and active to do what she pleases, the advertising and content of the magazine seems to mold her and engulf her into more barriers and ideals of beauty than seems possible. While there are images of women, who are active and outside doing and accomplishing things that are fulfilling, the advertisements on every page send the message that you need to be conscientious of your weight (diet pills and protein shakes had full page spreads), that you need to maintain great nails, hair and skin, even if you are doing things that are active like running and working out, and that the clothes you wear will help you perform better. This myriad of images in hard to achieve, but we are greatly influenced by it. While I like Self because it is not as repetitive with its sex stories, fashion, and content, like Cosmo is, it still maintains a structure of blurring the advertising and content that all of these magazines do to create contradictory messages (Ten pages in, Jose Cuervo had an advert for "light Margarita" mix that was only 95 calories...since when does drinking helping you get six-pack abs like they say you can achieve on page 85?). 

I've noticed overtime that I have stopped purchasing these magazines because they all seem to be sending the same message and images about women. Yes, I will indulge occasionally like I did this weekend, but now it just seems to be a waste of time to try and replicate these images of femininity that our culture puts out month after month for us. It doesnt seem to be changing anytime soon, and I'm quite frankly tired of getting the same message every month. 

Magazines and Identity

Gill's chapter begins with an exploration of the multiple ideologies found in women's magazines. In preparation for this class, I went through my room's magazine collection only to find that we have almost every month of Cosmopolitan but no magazines of true "substance". Personally, I can say that I have no distinct reason for purchasing these types of magazines other than out of boredom but after reading Gill's chapter, I began thinking of what I was actually purchasing, in terms of ideology. As Gill mentioned on pg. 182, "magazine publishers sell the friendly and intimate relationship they have established with their readers"--I have most certainly been influenced by this trusting relationship with a magazine and the ideology it presents to me. There are constant suggestions on how to improve appearances, behaviors, how to portray yourself in a certain way, etc. What bothers me, however, is the sneaky tactics taken to convey those messages. I do not think of myself as a naive person or one who relies heavily on the media to control my looks/actions, but as this class has done in the past, my eyes have been opened to the "subliminal" messages of media. The "sympathetic environment" of magazines helps to contour the content and advertisements to create a relationship of trust among readers and publications; we regard the magazines as somewhat of a friend who we can turn to for monthly advice. Additionally, the women's magazines come in multiple feminist discourses so, just as you can choose your friends based on personality integration, one may choose one's magazine based on her particular opinion and her ideas can be justified and "listened to" by the magazine.

The teen magazine section of the chapter presents images to vulnerable teenage girls who are in constant tension with their own bodies and minds. The magazines subtly express how these girls should look and act so that they may "win over" the males who are presented in the magazines. This is problematic for feminism because it places males as the socially superior which, as Gill mentions, is just as bad as the objectification of women in men's magazines. The content "tricks" teenagers into thinking that the changes they should make to their appearances are done so because they are "super fun!" This idea makes me question the integrity of the magazine publishers because it is almost like they are taking their trusting relationships with readers for granted. While I understand that magazines are in the market for profit, I feel that they manipulate readers to the point of almost brainwashing.

The messages of men's and women's magazines are extremely different and Gill's interpretation of each ideology is that the "representations are designed to naturalize gender difference and male power" (217). Because each magazine has such a niche audience, or at least a gendered audience (typically), these representations are accepted. The magazine publishers know their readers and know what they want/do not want to read about and that "insider knowledge" translates into extreme success, whether we like it or not. There will always be an audience who accept the message of male power but it is the messages within the claims of ideology that we must pick up on.

My voice, your voice and Teen Voices matter!

Gill does a great job discussing the very controversial topics of how gender in magazines is defined. She introduces the topic of contradiction versus coherence where she pulls out the illogical messages mainstream magazines send to their targeted audiences. These assorted messages are in magazines targeting teenagers, children, heterosexual women and men. She studies the magazine discourse with emphasizing on the political economy perspective in understanding magazines. She highlights the ideologies of romance, consumption, celebrity and boy watching, that teenage girls have consumed in the different magazines. One of the main contradicting messages teenage girls had to receive was to correctly display themselves as attractive, with keeping up with the hottest trends and knowing how to attract a boy while also receiving the message that being themselves was essential. The question in play is then, how can a girl be themselves when society has already defined who she should be?

Another controversial topic is sex. There are structuring discourses where magazines like Cosmo emphasize on how women must please their man and how women should get out of their comfort zone.

There is a perception that there is a feminist or post feminist discussion on sex relating to women needing to take charge of their sexually and being comfortable with their partner. With the example Gill mentions, Macdonald (1995) discusses an article in 19 and advises how women should give a perfect blow job although women do not enjoy giving oral sex, they should still perform because men enjoy it. And later states that sexual acts should be mutually enjoyable and women should not feel under pressure. All of these “juggling acts” lead targeted audiences on a wild goose hunt in attempt of defining their sex lives, interest and who they are as individuals.

There are great magazine companies that do not bring such contradiction to this genre. One of my favorites is Teen Voices. 

“Teen Voices supports and educates teen girls to amplify their voices and create social change through media.” The magazine is based in Boston and I remember as a teenager reading Teen Voices with confidence. I felt empowered, inspired and excited to take on the world with my voice. Discussion of appearance, consumption and attracting boys were irrelevant. Teen Voices is great and should be in every teenager’s possession but reality is that it is not a mainstream magazine like Cosmo. How do feminist change this? Why is the media shaping our society? My voice, your voice and Teen Voices matter!

Postfeminist Sensibility and Cosmopolitan Magazine

In Gill's chapter about postfeminist media culture, she discusses the ways in which the "third wave" of feminism is addressed as one of the following: postfeminism as epistemological rift, as historical change, or as backlash against feminism. Instead of categorizing post-feminism as one of these three conceptions, Gill instead makes the decision to regard postfeminism as a "sensibility" which she states "...does not require a static notion of authentic feminism as a comparison point, but instead is informed by postmodernist and constructionist perspectives and seeks to examine what is distinctive about contemporary articulations of gender in the media" (254-255). To highlight what exactly this means, Gill provides the reader with various examples of the ways in which this idea is construed throughout the media, making reference to issues such as sexualization of the body in advertisements, inappropriate targeting of girls as young as five-years-old in selling "sexy slogans" and G-strings, and lastly, the difference between boy and girl magazines.

On page 257, the discussion of "lad" magazines versus "straight women" magazines really caught my attention. To quote Gill: "...in magazines aimed at straight women, men are presented as complex, vulnerable human beings. But in magazines targeted at those same men women only ever discuss their underwear, sexual fantasies, 'filthiest moments' or body parts" (257). As I read this section, I envisioned a Cosmopolitan magazine cover, always emphasizing the articles about sex on the front cover. So, I went to Cosmopolitan's website to find this:

Cosmopolitan

"The Perfect 'Do for a Bad Hair Day"
"Get Girl-Next-Door Hot"
"Blow His Mind Every Single Time"
"Naughtiest Sex Tips of the Year"

What part of Cosmopolitan could be constituted as post-feminist? While this magazine is consumed by girls as young as their early teens (perhaps even pre-teens), it negates its very purpose in presenting these stories to the public. Is Cosmo not intended to empower women? To make them more confident about their bodies, their personalities? It seems that instead, Cosmo is giving into the hegemonic structuring of gender-based society while masking these fallacies as gender empowering. I wonder what Gill would have to say about that...