Are Women's Magazines Sending Empowering Or Disempowering Messages To Women Readers - Essay Example

Order #769994 Corse Enter and Roll Number or College December 8, Power to the women Women play a major role in the society. In fact, her existence changes the setup of the entire world; every house, every street and every male in the planet cannot run with a woman. The empowerment given to a woman plays a major role in our society, keeping all the things in track, from schools to house hold chores to the daily life. Everything involves a woman. The image, body, hairstyle, spotless skins, beauty at its peak, all arethe stereotypes portrayed in the vibrant media. The females portrayed, especially in the magazines, depict the stereotype of the society. Kristal (2005) talks about how the “perfection” (portrayed) affects the girls in the society. Such magazines tend to act as a medium for creating negative stereotypes for women. It has been observed that women (portrayed in the magazines and advertisements) are used as objects or as a symbol or sex. Gauntlett (pp. 205-207, 2005) argues that magazines offer a confusing and a contradictory set of ideas on women as on one side they are portraying that they take things seriously and on the other side they actually take things non-seriously. Dingo (pp. 104-143, 2012) talks about the difference between an empowered and a dis-empowered woman and how do they cope and struggle with their environments.Thus women magazines are empowering women readers, guiding and directing them to softnessand practicality. Women magazines are empowering to women readers; they provide information that support thefeminist thoughts, signifying thestrengths and the beautya woman possess. Women-centric magazines not only offer genuine advice, but also provide to the readers empowerment. The contents of women’s magazines (most of the time) have been found to prove helpful in terms of developing their own identity and personality.It has been also observed, in this regard, that by reading such magazines the readers tend to become more glamorous and more fashion following also improving personality, attires and usage of cosmetics. These women’s magazines provide some methods and tips that use a little time to get the great success on their physical outlook.Magazines such as “Instant Tone-Up Tricks” provide strategies to make men fall for the beauty and intelligence of a woman. Such magazines generate and develop an idea in the minds of women and men that womenshould not be a mean of gaining self-pleasure. A woman desires to get respect and admiration from men.The traditional concepts to gain appreciation from men are presently considered to be obsolete. The women magazines titivate the traditional concepts of “looking more gorgeous” in order to attract men. In the present day, the women magazines are providing an increased emphasis in becoming “more liberal” thus maintaining a strong and independent concept. The“women-centric” magazines help to set off the notion that a woman should not wait to find the right guy in her life; instead she should act like a ‘heat seeking missile’ (Gauntlett, 2002, p. 191)which would help men to track the right woman as an appropriate life partner. These magazines stress on the fact that women should stay attractive so that they can successfully target the right men as their ‘eye candy’.(Gauntlett, 2002, p. 191). These magazines underline the fact that women should regulate their life according to their choices. Secondly, women magazines are empowering women readers by making them believe that women should treat men as a sex objects too as they were portrayed in the past. However, in the current scenario, several different women magazines are found to be practicing the same, representing ‘men as sex objects’ (Gauntlett, 2002, p.187).Apart from that, women are being given directions (through these magazines) thatit’s enough and “not any more” or no more treatment the way they had; men should change their attitude towards women and that is why women are being directed and taught about the “empowerment”. For instance, in theSurvival of the Sexiest magazine, the female readers are provided with the opportunity to choose the man whom they wished to be presented as a sex object. Similarly, The More Centrefold magazine provides different photographs of fit men with provocative outfits. These approaches by modern women magazines depict the fact that women should knowingly treat men in the way they traditionally treated women(Gauntlett, 2002, p. 188). More commonly, women want men to carry out whatever they request for. This behavior has been exaggerated with the help of the messages described in the women magazines.The main theme of the women-centric magazines is to show men how and what does it feels like when it comes to “a man” as they had been doing these activities for several years. (This is not the complete picture as it is not focused solely upon the same subject). Some people believe that the women magazines are a disempowerment to the women readers because the magazine contents tend to pose a negative impact on the self-respect and personal understanding of the readers. These magazines create a notion that women should be thin and beautiful in order to be socially acceptable while this is not wholly true. The problem of the women magazines is the aspect of self-pride. The majority content of the magazine is “not empowering” the women, it is just creating hype in the environment. The excessive use of cosmetics, the selection of what to eat and what not to eat, the unnecessary weight loss, the articles intriguing multiple vague thoughts, all this is covered in these magazines. Starting from point one that is to give a confidence to an individual that she can attain that perfect figure and that flawless proportions. This creates a negative impression in the minds of the individuals. They tend to copy such figures and for that they ruin their health and physique.Women magazines significantly contribute towards the self-confidence of readers by representing the perfect models so that women desire to change outlook just like the ones on the paper.The models portrayed in those magazines have quite an attractive figure with perfect skin and proportions. These features define the ultimate form of a normal woman. However, a lot of women will compare themselves between the models thus striving to become like magazine models by eating nothing or other way that harm their health. Those ways of keeping fit will have some bad physical issues such as lower weight. The articles such as “how to find the right guy” or “who is looking for you” or “how to flaunt yourself in front of your guy” arises so many other questions that could not be answered by even those magazines.The articles of women’s magazines also strongly focus on luxurious fashions and the advertisements depicted in the women’s magazines provide information on modern cosmetic products, latest fashions, beauty tips, health suggestions and to be a certain extent about physical relationships. On the contrary, the women magazines are empowering to women readers because women magazines help to highlight the worth of women in maintaining a relationship. These magazines serve as educators for providing step-by-step recommendations to maintain a better life. In modern women magazines, the female population is advised and encouraged to wear fashionable clothes, maintain weights, improve appearances to not only attract men but also to develop self-confidence (as discussed previously). The advertisements (in women magazines) also signify a woman’s actual beauty and how this beauty could beworthy for attracting men. These magazines provide messages that women are (no longer) the objects to make men happy but now is the time to do something or the womanto make herself happy.Women magazines constantly highlight the point that being sexual or being physically attractive gives women the authority and ability to gain control over men. Hence, by showing messages about women’s role in maintaining relationships, the readers are taught that they should have a sexual individuality and they need to attain it and prolongit the adopted way. Magazines such as ‘Cosmopolitan’ encourage women’s active role for achieving physical pleasure and satisfaction for their own purpose, rather than to satisfy men. There are other magazines, for instance ‘Our Bodies, Our Selves’ which provide significant knowledge to women about different ways to attain personal satisfaction. These magazines advocate that the sexual desire of women is natural and it is important that women also have the right to enjoy their own physical pleasure. These magazines also providesuggestions about make-ups and good outlook for women in order to gain their self-confidence, providing information that supports feminist thoughts and makes them realize the significance of their physical beauty. However, these magazines are not to be takentoo seriously, as they just provide some ways for us to question our lives, and most of the points are unrealistic. So we have to be a smart reader while the magazines are going to change our mind. Readers, particularly in a sensitive phase of their life easily fall a victim to the images of the models portrayed in magazines. The women magazines do not promote a healthy lifestyle but (usually) concentrates on attractive appearance, make-up tips and playful information without concentrating on the talents and other issues of life.Female readers have to become a ‘pick and mix’ reader when they are enjoying the magazinesas magazines provide and direct the reader to a certain direction. The women magazines, on the other side, also bring about the awareness when the issues and relationships are discussed along with the lifestyle and personal grooming which is good in all the cases. The women magazine’s editors try to use their articles to make an individual question himselfwhich is a good practice to focus onto different aspects of life. Thus the target audience (women) has to analyze what magazines want to say and pick up the important and useful values instead of going after it blindly. Overall, the magazines are empowering to women by leading them to become successful in life. References Guantlett, D. “Media, Gender and Identity”, Routledge, (2002), pp.191-207. Print. Kristal.S. “Advertising Assault: Women Awaken from Media Induced Slumber”, Retrieved from Web. http://www.feminist.com/resources/artspeech/media/advertisingassault.html [Accessed December 8, 2012]. Dingo. R. “Networking Arguments: Rhetoric, Transnational Feminism, and Public Policy Writing”, University of Pittsburgh Press, (2012), pp. 104-143. Print. Read More