Role of Magazines in the 21st Century and how has their form Changed Physically - Essay Example

Role of magazines in the 21st century and how has their form changed physically and has this involved a change in the content of "perfect beauty” Course Instructor’s name Date. Role of magazines in the 21st century and how has their form changed physically and has this involved a change in the content of "perfect beauty" Magazines played a very crucial role in the fashion world in America during the 1900s. Haper’s bazar was the first magazine to primarily focus on fashion in America. It presented its readers with a wide variety of women issues on family life, fashion, fiction and nonfiction categories. Most men did not expose their ladies to this fashion magazine at its inception. This magazine highly influenced the spread of ready to wear clothing by accepting to advertising the clothes. The forces of fashion industry in America were fashion journalism, ready to wear advertising and fashion advertising which saw the inception of the vogue. American women responded well to the idea of readymade clothing. The ready to wear industry flourished with the help of fashion advertising. Evolution of the fashion saw the change of the concept of "perfect beauty" from the simple innocent look to the exposure of much skin. Other online fashion magazines like the Dwell and Martha Stewart were introduced whose concept of “ultimate beauty” was majored on body features, the slim and trim hipped-woman. As opposed to the audience in vogue and Haper’s bazar, who are mostly conservative in nature, theirs was a revolutionary woman who exposed most of her skin. Evolution of the fashion in America took many shapes as many designers resulted to designing different types of clothes. Givenchy dressed Audrey Hepburn; her fashion presented the feeling of taller, high, covering high top-knots, long legs, small, midriffs, pretty legs and exquisite clothes. This fashion sense revolutionized to Pierre cardin who exemplified fashion in the school girl look which depicted the perfect young girl look that was simple and portraying the feminine figure. Later, Courreges presented the futuristic ‘space-age ‘collection which had suits, dresses and trousers which were more sculpted as opposed to being sewn. This presented the sophisticated look of the mid-sixties. American designers started designed topless bathing suit which was known as the monobikini and the following year he designed lingerie and consequently seamless dresses. This fashion special influence was the exposure of much skin. The introduction of the internet and the Web 2.0 has enabled many people to share information faster and also share their photographs. This has made many photos of celebrities to be available for copying and enumeration. Such information is shared in different social media like twitter and Instagram. The fashion sense from 2003 and 2013 has changed very much with more people copying celebrities which are slim, with much make up on and exposed skin which is denoted as the "ultimate beauty" . This has changed from the vogue where muscled women with much skin covered were considered fashionable. Ten Ways the Definition of Beauty Has Changed i. In early 1800s, the concept of slimming came into the fashion world where beauty thin was considered fashionable. People resulted to dieting and others resulting to plastic surgery to look ideally thin. ii. Make up became popular. The first make up was the mascara, foundation and lipstick. The advertisement of beauty products on big screens which made beauty look very good promoted the use of makeup. iii. Pale skin was another beauty thing. Everyone wanted to look golden. Others applied ceruse, which made them fairer. In the 20th century, bronzed skin became fashionable and doctors started prescribing sun therapy to skin problems. iv. In 1991, beauty was symbolized by a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, fair-skinned model, which changed by 2011 to symbolize black haired and fair skin beauties like Angelina Jolie. v. The Ever-changing Head of Hair, the concept of hair modification introduced colors and other styles like beehive, bejeweled, braided, teased, spiked, dyed and highlighted vi. Due to the popularity of revealing clothes, women started shaving their legs and armpits so as not to expose much of their hair. vii. Women stated shaving their pubic hair so as to wear skimpy bikinis. Wax was used for shaving especially Brazilian wax. Nowadays women are embracing nudity especially the celebrities like Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, J Lo and Miley Cyrus. viii. Cleanliness and beauty became popular with the introduction of perfumes and odors which made women smell nice. While beauty was viewed by many as visual aesthetic, odors and scents also played a big role in the beauty ideal. ix. Plastic Surgery become popular as it gained acceptance. Women are able to stay ideal in terms of age, weight and sizeable breasts among others. x. The latest revolution in fashion saw the introduction of men fashion make ups and grooming products. this can be seen by the likes of Justin Bieber. Relationship to advertising and the impact of media on people Many beauty products are launched in then market every other day with appeal advertisement promising women glamour and youthful looks. Many magazines have a beauty section where advertisers pay huge sums of money just to advertise a lipstick, a lip balm, mascara or an eye shadow and women spend huge sums of money buying those products. With many older women wanting to attain the Hollywood look, anti-aging industry is growing steadily. Many products promise to erase the aging lines and wrinkles. There are other products which give young women the opportunity to look younger by producing fillers which are less costly and they are available in many places. The use of celebrities in advertising for beauty products which are regarded as supermodels appeals to many people who would like to look like them. By spending very large amounts of money in advertising and urging people to embrace the anti-aging and beauty products, the beauty industry has managed to create a picture of an ideal beautiful woman. To achieve this, most women result to using those advertised beauty products which advocate for a youthful, flawless skin. This picture is deceptive especially to older women. Beauty is directly related to youth and therefore, ant aging and beauty products depict a picture which is distorted and leads to many women obsessing over their ageing looks which turn them to plastic surgery. The irony is that young people are turning to makeup to help them look older while the older women are turning to makeup to look younger. This is as a result of advertising and the picture painted on women’s mind by the media about perfect beauty. Cultural image of the beautiful woman and her beauty The social opportunities of a woman were linked to her physical attractiveness with the beauty concept changing from time to time. In the 1950s, the concept of perfect beauty was associated with the slender woman as a result of massive advertisement, retailing and entertainment across cultures. “Anarexia” and “bulimia” were commonly used terms in the 1900s to describe self-destructive eating habits of women who wanted to grow slimmer with trim hips. Women were culturally inclined to present their physical beauty to suit the cultural image of beauty than men. While men considered women’s beauty to be on their physical appearances, women focused more on the character and personality traits of man. This gave women more pressure to conform to the set standards of beauty. In most cultures, clothes have been used to flaunt the body by exposing some parts of the body while concealing others. Some styles exposed the upper part of the body like the shoulder while completely covered the lower part. Despite the differences in most cultures, there is great conformity with the notion of beauty across all cultures. Sexual features of the young women focused more on the breast, hips, general body roundness, fleshiness and unblemished, flawless skin. Bibliography Allan Mazur, U.S Trends in Feminine Beauty and Over adaption, The Journal of Sex Research, august 1986. Daniel Delis Hil, As Seen in Vogue: A Century of American Fashion in Advertising, Texas Tech University Press, USA, 2007. Julyne Derrick, Trends in the Beauty Industry Over the Past 10 Years, Domino Magazine, 2005. Molly Edmons, Ten Ways the Definition of Beauty Has Changed, 27 July 2011 Read More