The Invisible War Behind The Magazine Covers

What things promotes gender stereotypes?

Introduction

Magazine cover has been criticized for being sexist for a long time, especially in men’s magazines. Truly, the front cover is the most important part of a magazine, it has to be different from other magazines and recognizable to the target audience.

Therefore, not only man's magazines but also women's magazines, mostly, are based around eroticized images of women-------with a full face of makeup, attractive posture, and of course skinny body size.

Does it mean that only eroticized images can grab target eye-ball?

Absolutely, NO!

In this map, we will discuss the story behind the magazine cover, like why it matters. And how does it affect our conception of gender differences?


3 three research question

  1. What is a gender stereotype?
  2. How does gendered magazine cover shapes our understanding of gender difference?
  3. How do stereotypes affect women?

What is a gender stereotype?

According to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), a gender stereotype "is a generalized view or preconception about attributes or characteristics that are or ought to be possessed by women and men or the roles that are or should be performed by men and women". A gender stereotype is therefore harmful when it limits the capacity of women and men to develop their personal attributes or professional skills and to make decisions about their lives and plans.


How does gendered magazine cover shapes our understanding of gender difference?

Our understanding of gender difference has been shaped from a very early age. Therefore, the misleading from a magazine could barriers teenager’s process of constructing their own understanding of gender before their actually reaching so-called “social norm”, to be extended, such magazine twists their way to construct their understanding of gender, and spontaneously hastened the existence of prejudice among teenager’s mind, which is “gender inequality and privilege”.

Prejudice: to prejudge and involves making premature judgments without adequate information or with inaccurate information.

Moreover, it is much easier for teenagers to adopt prejudice since they don’t have another basis for understanding. For instance, boys/men do not interact on an everyday basis with girls/women. As a result, the way for them to gain accurate information to destabilized oppressive regimes of truth has been broke off, and the stereotypical information from magazines is used instead.

From such cover, there is a strong sense for reader that all girls should be girlish that care about their looking from hair to nail. The publisher force girls into stereotypical roles invisibly as an object that "waiting men's favor". By contrast, the cover of Boy's Life is full of kinds of awesome gear for different professions-doctor, explorer, pilot, chemist, engineer, and the subheading are “here is how to be what you want to be”. How could different gender be treated differently from such young age!

After to critique the publisher are drift with the tide of objection of girls, we could explore the affect from younger reader’s view. When girls agree with the idea from the magazine, like “slay on your first day”, they are step in girl’s norm, then, this magazine could be seen as an inducement. On the other hand, “like a girl” start to become an insult that boys use in boys.

 “what does run like a girl mean”

The answer from a 10 years old girl is

“Run as fast as you can”

What’s your first image that comes to mind?


How do stereotypes affect WOMEN?

Women are particularly vulnerable to the pop-culture preoccupation with their appearance. After such "internalized" magazines, more and more women step into the bias of "ageism", "lookism" and "sizeism". They start to over concerns about age, body size, and looks (looks young and pretty) just as what man concerns with.

Internalization--standards that affect how we feel about our own bodies.

As a result of the pursuit of "ideal beauty", cosmetics surgery becomes a messiah for "unideal women". They spent a lot of money to get face-lift, eye tucks, nose reshaping, collagen injections to plumps up lips, and, of course, breast implants. According to the report from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, more than $11 billion was spent in the U.S in 2012 on cosmetic procedures. We could not deny that appropriate cosmetic surgery does makes people look younger, but there are also many negative examples (don't really want to post pictures here). They lost in the orientation of beauty standard. Moreover, it is easier to ignore that most of us get offered beauty and fashion options constructed by other people (male). The way to achieve success vary among people, then, why the way to be "beauty " has to follow the stereotypical standard?


Conclusion

Most magazines focus on beauty, attracting and satisfying men, self-improvement, and occasionally work. Most of them are emphasize fashion and makeup, or sexuality and relationship with men. In short, pop culture like magazines plays an important role in setting standards of beauty and encouraging certain bodily disciplinary practices. Those magazines as well as cover images objectify women into a stereotypical role which passes the underlying information of "objectified women". 

However, since 87 percent of the magazine industry under the control of men, the Male-dominated industry publishes works from the view of the male-gaze. They reinforce women's disadvantaged role and force women into the "social-norm" which is just constructed by themselves. To be extended, the male has the power to produces normality and shape the truth of bodies, gender roles, desire. Once again, there we have to mention a big topic---gender equality, which is the essential point we want to diminished gender stereotypes.

 


References

Corporativa, I. (n.d.). Ending stereotypes begins in the classroom. Retrieved February 20, 2021, from https://www.iberdrola.com/social-commitment/gender-stereotypes-women

Coughlin, S. (n.d.). The difference between "girls' life" & "boys' life" magazine covers is so infuriating. Retrieved February 20, 2021, from https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2016/09/122114/girls-life-boys-life-magazine-sexist-differences

Berlatsky, N. (2013, March 25). Women's magazines objectify women just as much as men's magazines do. Retrieved February 20, 2021, from https://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/03/womens-magazines-objectify-women-just-as-much-as-mens-magazines-do/274330/

Harris. M. I., (1995) Gender Change and Society. Messages Men Hear – Constructing Masculinities. Taylor & Francis.

Kitch, Carolyn., (2001) The Girl On The Magazine Cover. The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill & London.

Grieco, E. (2020, May 30). Newsroom employees are less diverse than U.S. workers overall. Retrieved February 20, 2021, from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/11/02/newsroom-employees-are-less-diverse-than-u-s-workers-overall/