Is He Boyfriends Material?: Representation of Males in Teenage Girls’ Magazines

Firminger (2006) conducted a study examining two issues of five popular girls’ magazines. Seventeen, YM, CosmoGirl, ELLEgirl, and Girls’ Life. The author coded issues from December 2002 and July 2003 to account for seasonal differences in content. The study showed that males were typically portrayed as having a high sex drive, emotionally inexpressive, physically superficial, having a fear of rejection, and occasionally having the potential to be a “keeper.” The magazine themselves were on average 19.7% focuses on males. The author concludes that the magazine encourages teenage girls to view boys as previously mentioned, use beauty and fashion products to attract them, and apply the information provided to understand and keep them. The study found that “girls are being socialized by the magazines’ norms and expectations,” (Firminger, 2004, p. 307).

(More Women Graduate. Why?, 2006)
 

Interestingly, this study did not find any articles that helped females to attract a mate using her mind. Considering more women are now graduating from college than men and many men have come to appreciate what it means to have a two-income family, you would think that teen magazines would inform their readers that being beautiful is cool, but being intelligent is even better.

Masculinities in Teen Magazines: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Prusank (2007) conducted a study on the way males are portrayed in magazines geared toward adolescent females. This study used a qualitative analysis to examine content pertaining to relationships and males from Seventeen, Teen, and YM magazines from 1965 through 2000. Prusank divided the themes into three categories—“the good,” “the bad,” and “the ugly.” The good theme proved that the magazines were dominated by images of “the new man.” He has characteristics that are more nurturing and vulnerable. He is more likely to open up and express his feelings. The bad theme proved that boys are also portrayed as incapable of functioning appropriately in relationships, which is shown in contrast to females’ natural competence.  Their inability seemingly excuses males’ bad behavior. The ugly theme is the magazines’ portrayal of men as wanting nothing more than sex, to break girls’ hearts, and to cheat on their girlfriends. Prusank explains these findings as implying that “the ultimate message to teen girls about boys is that she should desire them while she fears them, engage them while she protects herself from them, and be close to them while she waits for them to abandon her,” (2007, p. 175).

And they seemed so happy....

(Chris Brown Sends Gifts to Rihanna on Her Birthday, 2009)

Of course, a prime example of why girls should be leery of guys was brought to mainstream media’s attention by Rihanna’s alleged abuse by Chris Brown.  The couple seemed so happy and Chris Brown appeared to be one of the boys that this study defined as one of “the good” ones, but it appears that Mr. Brown may actually have a bad and ugly side.  While it was a very unfortunate situation for Rihanna, it has helped encourage people to speak openly about teen abuse.