Decoding Femininity: Advertisements and Their Teenage Readers

Currie (1997) conducted a study on how girls interpret what it means to be a woman based on advertisements in magazines.  She conducted interviews and focus group sessions with 48 girls ages 13 to 17, most of whom are not regular teen magazine readers.  The focus group sessions used 25 advertisements gathered from Seventeen magazine and the individual interviews allowed the participants to discuss the content from their favorite magazines.  The author found several themes common among respondents.  They rejected ads that that they felt were illogical or irrelevant; often spoke against ads’ portraying women with perfect bodies, but rarely spoke against society’s mandate for women to always look good; linked feeling good about themselves with looking good; and wanted to have the self-esteem and confidence that models personified.  Currie stated that the study is a perfect example of how people develop ideology based on the images that they see regularly.  She found that women may define who they are, but the conditions in which they must thrive are not of their making.

This study reminds me most of a poem that my mom used to hang in my room, which I included below, “Children Learn What They Live,” (Nolte, 1972). The things we see everyday have the most impact on the adults we become. This study focused on the role the media plays in young women’s development. Their role is important, but what children encounter and learn in the household, I believe, is equally important. If parents spent more time encouraging media literacy, so that their children understood the media’s role and actions, more young people would identify less with how the media says they should feel about their image and focus more on how they really feel about themselves as a complete person.

This is the actual poster that used to hang in my room

(Children Learn What They Live, n.d.)

A Feminist Analysis of Seventeen Magazine: Content Analysis from 1945 to 1995

Schlenker, Caron, and Halteman (1998) conducted a study examining feminist messages in Seventeen magazine.  They hypothesized that feminist messages would have changed over time as a result of the feminist movement in the 1940s.  The researchers examined all 12 issued of Seventeen from 1945, 1955, 1965, 1975, 1985, and 1995.  For this study, they used Pierce’s (1990) definition of feminism—“taking care of oneself, being independent, and not relying on a man for fulfillment or identity,” (p.297).  They categorized messages into three categories:  self-development, career development, and political/world issues.  Schlenker, Caron, and Halteman used a Chi-square analysis to determine if the content change from year to year was significantly different.  They found that there were a higher percentage of feminist messages for 1945, 1975, and 1995 compared to 1955, 1965, and 1985.  The strongest waves of feminism occurred during World War II (1940’s) and when women attained better paying jobs during the social reform movement (late 1960’s and 1970s).  The authors also stated that it was believed that there was another wave occurring in the 1990s, when the study was published.  Their study proved that the content in Seventeen correlates with the women’s movement.

This study helps portray the side of Seventeen that is less discussed in scholarly journals– the side of the publication that helps girls to develop into women who focus on more than just fashion, boys, and their bodies. If the magazine were to increase their coverage  of articles that promote female independence to match the level of articles on beauty and fashion, women really might really become a threat—brains and beauty. Of course not all men that can handle those women.

There are some men who can appreciate a woman who has it all

(Fashion In Motion, 2008)

Conclusion

The studies discussed in this blog have covered a variety of ways that magazines influence teenage girls and young women. For some, these publications are a rite of passage—a way to learn what it means to be a young woman and may even help to develop those social skills that are important to womanhood. Learning what it means to be a woman must mean learning about body image, considering it was among the highest segments of teen magazine’s content. Sadly, it did not promote acceptance of various body types; instead, girls were taught to strive for a body type that only makes up only 5% of the population. Encouraging young women to strive for better health and to portray their best face to the world would be more practical than promoting and adapting to the European ideals that fill their pages. Diversity and racial stereotypes are very uncommon in these magazines and do not typically reflect the various races that comprise the countries that they serve. As a result, women of these underrepresented groups are unlikely to find women that look like them modeling a range of products. Feminism, as generally defined by Pierce (1990) as female independence, is too often overlooked in teen magazines. The United States has more women graduating from college than men, yet the teen magazines still commonly portray women as dependent on men. Regardless of the education and careers that so many women have attained, occupations in these magazines geared toward adolescent females still portray males in jobs twice and often as females. Male dominance also carries over into the way relationships are featured. Girls are often portrayed in advertisements and articles in teen magazines as either being submissive to boys or ideally being submissive to boys. The only time girls are usually encouraged to stand up to boys is when it come to their sexuality; however, girls are still taught to expect boys’ sexual advances but are expected to also fight them. These magazines that seem so innocent contain far more harmful message than people often realize. While there are a few magazines that support independent females and a realistic approach to body image, magazines the ones typically discussed are likely hear to stay. Media literacy is the only way that young women and people as a whole can see through the messages that many take for granted. I encourage all people to learn more about media literacy, especially in regard to the media’s values. Consider visiting the Center for Media Literacy’s page for more information.