Representation of Women in Magazines through the Decades till Today - Essay Example

?Representation of women in magazines through the decades till today Interactions of gender, and race have been of deep interest to sociology and bear significance in building a social identity. Perceptions of beauty and presentation combined with ways of dress accumulate to build one’s identity keeping in view the sociological aspects (Dines & Humez. 2010). Representations of women of different color and economic status would vary in the way of media representations as well. The ways in which the women are portrayed in the mass media have remained the areas of interest for feminists for a long period of time. Many of the texts based on the portrayal of women have discussed that women in the media have been routinely subject to symbolic annihilation. The media stereotyped women roles. Social scientists like Tuchman et al were of the opinion that media like advertisement, films, news and all other media content focus on the traditional domestic roles of women and treat women as objects of sexual pleasure. Margaret Gallagher in a study funded by the UNESCO had explained the reason why women have remained concerned about the image of women in the media. In this context it may be said that, “The…..media are potentially powerful agents of socialization and social change- presenting models, conferring status, suggesting appropriate behaviors, encouraging stereotypes” (Byerly and Ross, 2006, p. 17). Thus one can understand why the media portrayal of women have become subjects of concern for the feminists and has continued till the present day of post modernism. Rather it can be said that these issues have contributed to both the academic and popular feminist struggles. In fact feminists believe that media has more power in the present age and as a result has more influence on the image of women (Byerly and Ross, 2006, pp. 17-18; Chambers, Steiner, & Fleming 2004). The first wave of feminism centered on traditional movements for civil rights. With the publication of The Feminine Mystique Betty Friedan broke the traditional role of women and the cherished role of the timid housewife, which was the dream, and envy of the American young women (Kemp & Squires, 1998, p.3). The 50s brought about a discontent in this image of women amongst the women themselves. There was a rising dissatisfaction, which was inexplicable by the women. The stay-at-home role of women has been criticized under the influence of the second wave of feminism during the 70s and 80s (Bradley, 2007, p.1). At this time of publication the world of media comprised of essentially three categories – television, radio and morning newspapers, which launched women’s pages, engaged in homemaking and care giving. Other forms of media include Time, a weekly news magazine, Life, a weekly issued picture magazine and other magazines like Ladies’ Home Journal and Good Housekeeping, which essentially made the women their target audience (Poindexter and Meraz, 2008, p.3). The names themselves suggest the traditional concepts of gender roles. With time however, the concepts of ‘gender gap’ (related to differences in educational performance and pay between men and women) and ‘gender-bending’ have been explored by journalists to analyze the relationships between men and women (Bradley, 2007, p.2). The paper analyses the representation of women in magazines with respect to the way it affects their social identity When the First World War began in 1914, women witnessed a fall in the stereotyped traditional differences between the economic environment and private sentiments. Men found an escape route from the social financial and sexual duties subjugated within the feminine household and found solace in more typically masculine areas of work like navy and army. The spaces assigned to women during this time were mainly domestic or home based. The war somehow curtailed the women’s movements for suffrage and other campaigns though these formed the backdrop for the activities of women during this wartime. The article “They Also Serve” in the magazine Home Chat in 1914 encouraged the consumers of the magazine by stating, “to keep a stiff upper lip and smiling front when things are going badly, to have a comforting word for the sad when we ourselves are almost in despair, to share our little with those who have less – these are gallant deeds which we can perform every day if we will… she will play her part unobtrusively and as a matter of course. We can all be heroes in that state of life to which we are called. English women will no more be found wanting than English men in any trial of strength that comes.” (Buckley & Fawcett, 2002, p. 50) Such articles in magazines emphasized upon the traditional roles of women whose responsibility was mainly to take care of the home and domestic savings. The duty of women was essentially to stand by their male counterparts in without any mistake and get involved in economical housekeeping. From 1916 the women especially those belonging to middle class economic backgrounds, found themselves in a wide range of economic activities and were employed in various dimensions of industry, banking, civil service, agriculture, bus conductors and collection of tickets before becoming even a bus driver. Hey came up to work in groups like Voluntary Aid Detachment and Women’s Army auxiliary Corps. The women therefore faced challenges in getting accustomed with new kinds of jobs especially outside the domestic scenario. Besides taking care of their home they also had to manage their jobs. In many cases they even encountered oppositions form the men who held them back from participating in the economic sphere. Women therefore became accustomed with duties, both outside and within the domestic frame. This added to their confidence and self esteem which gradually altered their identity (Butler, 1999, pp.3-5). Their psychological changes along with changes in their sociological roles raised curiosity from all spheres about knowing them. On the contrary men receded into a less significant space. Susan Kingsley undertakes an analysis of the changes in women and their social roles through the concept of identity changes. Such shifts in identity could not be easily assessed. The war period not only brought about alterations within the men and the women in terms of their roles, the time period also affected their relationship and the common concepts of gender and sexuality which build one’s identity and state of consciousness (Butler, 1997). In fact even when girls began to attend colleges, the mid fifties witnessed a 60 percent dropouts for the purpose of marriage and it was feared that a high educational degree would be a barrier to their marriage prospect. In fact girls had affairs even before teenage and little girls were also depicted in advertisements such that they could also be a part of the “Man-Trap set” (Friedan, 1968, p. 59) Buckley and Fawcett (2002) in this context analyses the “fashionable female body” as an instance for understanding the way feminine consciousness and identity are built. Elizabeth Wilson proposes that fashion is highly dependent on gender and the biological body is connected with the social state of existence while the private life is exposed to the public. Browsing through the fashion information and images in women’s magazines including both the low priced Home Chat and the elite fashion journals like Coming Fashions, The Queen, the Lady’s Newspaper and Court Chronicle and Vogue, one might be able to gauge the cultural level of perception regarding both gender and sexuality. (Poindexter and Meraz, 2008). Fashion was put forth both in terms of costumes and presenting the well-accepted styles in the magazines. For a popular female magazine, such illustrations of fashion were essential and common. It highlighted the differences in the boundaries of the female body in both social and cultural context and in both public and private arenas during the time of social ups and downs. The woman’s body existed as an aesthetic item and they were required to retain the feminine essence along with sharing the economic weight during the wartime crisis (Gimlin, 2006). They had to be feminine along with independent and focused. The body of the woman became a ground of conflict for these opposing expectations. The principle of womanhood believed amongst the upper middle class women pertained to a “decorative, idle and passive” trend. The opposing ideas related to the essence of femininity and the identity of women could be discovered in their representations in different kinds of art, design and literatures over the period of the First World War. The different conflicting definitions of femininity are represented mainly in the wide range of women magazines, both cheap and expensive. The women readers were categorized into target groups and the feminine self was represented as fragmented into different types. The colorful pages of Home Chat revealed suggestions for fashion and stylish looks were promoted. The playful and the realistic views correlated as Camilla and the aristocratic Lady Betty gave their suggestions in the article ‘Easy to Make Fashions’ and with little contradiction that the duty of women was to make herself look pretty and nice even if she is not pondering on fashion. The type of magazines read by boys and girls represented their sex role in the community which draws boys more towards sports, hobby and news magazines while girls towards the screen based and confession magazines before they devote time to magazines like Glamour, and Mademoiselle (Poindexter and Meraz, 2008, p.56). Most fashion magazines illustrates fashion but only end up seeking an appearance or image rather than trying to sell the things they advertise. (Lury, 1999) The manner in which the fashion pictures in magazines attempted to represent the lives and experiences of women can be judged from the broader context of modernity. Being modern signifies being a part of the universe and all rigidities should melt or turn into air according to Marx. Whether one is a man or a woman holds no significance in the Marxist world. This is well reflected by Dorothy Parker who says that “men as well as women, should be regarded as human beings” (de Beauvoir, 1949, p. xx) Instead, it is far more important to see whether one belongs to the upper class or the lower class based on his economic status. It denies any difference based on gender, and refutes any conflict that might be related to what rights a woman can enjoy as compared to her male counterpart. Considering from this angle, a woman has as much rights to wear clothes as a man, irrespective of how much part of her body the clothes might reveal. The relation of women to modernity varied across gender and various social communities. The middle and late nineteenth century found a discord between actual experiences of women and their purpose of playing the “domestic goddess” and this concept as explored in the works of Hollows (2003) has increased the difference between feminists and cooking. Nigella Lawson’s composition of cookery books also reflects an interaction of gender with class especially with respect to her privileged lifestyle. The twentieth century brought out women into several spheres of social and cultural dimensions of life, which described the moments of modernity. The woman’s suffrage movement was a symbolic representation of an assault on the essential concepts of patriarchy in the nineteenth century where women from different social settings came down to the city in aggressive protests carried out against the injustice on grounds of sexual difference. The New Woman was therefore dressed in a more men like costume including cropped jacket, straw boater and short skirt. These women thus challenged the idea of the female being the representations of conventional values. (Buckley and Fawcett, 2002, p.56) Post modernism says that sex is not constructed naturally rather it is a product of the existing language and viewpoints in the society (Benhabib, 1994, pp. 20-21). An essential feature of postmodern feminism is that they accept the binary division of man and woman in the society unlike the other waves of feminism. The postmodern feminists essentially believe in multiple roles multiple truths and diversity as part of existence. Newspapers like Trinidad Guardian and Trinidad Express published women’s magazines in their Sunday edition namely, WomanWise which mostly addressed issues related to fashion, appearance and domestic concerns apart from projecting women in successful professions and strong women who have achieved in their respective fields (Poindester &Meraz, 283). The feminists belonging to the era of postmodernism have made valuable contribution to the feminist theories and also to the other social sciences. The post modernist feminists have argued that the three feminist theories are faulty in nature because they concentrate on the patriarchal and modernist conceptions of feminism. They saw the main reason as to why the early feminist theories are flawed because they are grounded on grand theories like Marxism and absolute social structures like capitalism. The postmodernists feminists argue that gender equality is realizable only if the sexual differences are acknowledged and also if the differences between women are taken into consideration (Gordon, 1996, pp. 26-27). They reject the essentialist feature of being a woman. The postmodernist feminists sees the problems of women as similar to other groups in the sense that even they are excluded from the dominant group of the society just like the Jews, Negros and the homosexuals which are excluded from the major social structure. The idea of women being seen as “a womb” was also rebelled against (de Beauvoir, 1949, p.xix). Rather it can be said that postmodern feminists concentrate on the marginalization which women face in the society. Women have been represented in journals like the Sun and The News of the World in half naked representation emphasizing upon looks rather than substance. In different newspapers and magazines, women are given the sexualised image “served up as body ‘parts’ or in relation to men – as partners, ex-partners, mothers or victims of sex crime” (Poindexter and Meraz, 2008, p.196) Despite the fact that the British magazines largely caters to the women readers there has been an undeniable feeling amongst women that these magazines provided a negative ambience owing to the stereotyped illustration of women. Studies based on specific nation like Turkey can bring out interesting facts about the representations of women in magazines. Most women magazines are oriented towards the female audience, which belong to the economically independent and educated class. The central issues include fashion and beauty apart from physical aesthetics, which rather heighten the attractiveness of women to the male viewer and also epitomizes the fact that “women have always suffered for beauty” and have become the “f-word” (Wolf, 1997, pp.2-3). These versions of media include little or no material on social and political aspects. Advertisements in magazines also have similar theme of attracting the male readers. The images of women are fashioned as per the target audience and the magazines essentially try to sell themselves rather than us (Lury, 1999, p.120). They appear less in professional magazines and more in fashion magazines as a decorative item to lay appeal to the male stare. They are portrayed to complement men even in the working role advertisements (Poindexter and Meraz, 2008, p.212). The common notions of beauty centers on the female being “thin, young and vulnerable”, which leads often to a set back in body image and lack of self-esteem. Women’s magazines are referred as “an invitation to pathology” (Barak, Leighton and Flavin, 2006, p.78). Barak, Leighton and Flavin (2006) observe that in a certain woman’s magazine there were illustrations of rich food items on the front. The item comprised of a cheesecake adorned with delicious cherries and sometimes it would be a large piece of apple pie topped with melting ice cream. The back cover includes a cigarette advertisement implying that smoking made women slimmer. The hazardous products with fat rich food content filled the inner pages and ironically some health related aspects are also included. The concepts of beauty often urge the colored women to undergo surgeries or spend large amounts on beauty products since fairness is also another concept of beauty highlighted in the advertised products. The culture of slimness wrongly generalizes the experience of eating disorder with the colored women (Barak, Leighton and Flavin, 2006, p.78). Hence the concepts of race and representation of the same along with fashion to provide privilege to the black women might have to wait despite their active participation in the liberation movement of women. Hooks talks of Sojourner Truth who at a convention of women’s right movement at Ohio in 1852 spoke about how women were work equals of men and set herself as an example of a woman who gave birth to five children and was not fragile to be assisted by men at all stages requiring manual labor (Hooks, 1997, p. 227). She gave her speech immediately after a white man spoke about the weakness of women and their inferiority to men. The status of black women was both like that of white women and also black men and yet different from both the groups. Black women in teaching faculty often found being challenged by their classroom interactions with white male students who questioned their talent and put their authority at risk (Pittman, 2010, p.188). The research carried out by Marshall (1994) shows black women of the modern day in Britain claim that their sexual invisibility if the prime problem in the nation rather than offensive sexual images (Marshall, 1994, p.117). Some magazines like Half-Century Magazine highlight images of Afro American women who are members of cultural and political aristocracy of the privileged class as classic examples of African American “ladyhood”. However the essence of beauty centers of white bodies, which also represent “fashion proper” (Rooks, 2004, p.63). American women’s magazines taught the women the “art of catching husbands” and provided suggestions how the typical housekeeper should maintain her sexual attraction while washing dishes (de Beauvoir, 1949, pp.433, 526). From the above discussion one might deduce that the representations of women in magazines primarily center on sexuality and their images commoditized to attract the male readers. When targeted for women, the contents comprise of fashion and beauty tips essentially giving high weigh to appearance and good look factor despite the economic and educational progress achieved by the women. Magazines like Heat and Hello portray the cases of women having “bad hair days” and wearing unsuitable clothes (Bradley, 2007, p.161). Plastic surgery has been revealed by magazines like Grazia as a suitable and lucrative option of changing looks and reaching perfection (Bradley, 2007, p.157). The portrayals show that they remain a complement to the men in terms of their sociological role and their identity also centers on looking good whether in feminine clothes or typically male wears. Both working and non-workingwomen are represented with the feminine expectation of playing the secondary role to men or act as their object of attraction. The aspect of color and class also plays a role in terms of deciding the content of the magazine targeted towards a particular audience. Celebrities play a significant role in emphasizing upon class distinctions and the protocol guidance in Hello magazine, which distinguish between classes (Tyler & Bennett, 2010, p.14). Promotion of white beauty directly or indirectly despite launching other black models suggests the racism embedded in the representation of women in magazines. References 1. Buckley, C. & H. Fawcett. (2002), Fashioning the feminine. I.B. Tauris 2. Barak, G. Leighton, P. & J. Flavin. (2006), Class, race, gender and crime, Rowman & Littlefield 3. Chambers, D. Steiner, L. C. Fleming (2004), Women and Journalism, Routledge 4. Dines, G. & J.M. Humez. (2010), Gender, race and class in media. London: SAGE 5. Rooks, N.M. (2004), Ladies’ pages, Rutgers University press 6. Poindexter, P.M. & S. Meraz, (2008), Women, men and news, London: Taylor & Francis 7. Gordon A. (1996). Transforming capitalism and patriarchy: gender and development in Africa. Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers. 8. Byerly C and Ross K. 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