The Construction of Sexuality in Womens Magazines

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The Construction of Sexuality in Womens Magazines
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Definition of SexualitySex is something people
do, while sexuality has to do with who we are.
Mary Calderone

• Sexuality A fundamental component of our total
  identity, and it encompasses all of the ways we
  think, feel, and behave because we are either
  male or female. It is directly related to genital
  behavior, but it incorporates the crucial and
  complex dynamics of gender identity and gender
  role expectations. (Roffman, 1992)

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Problems with Womens Magazines

• The heavy influence womens magazines have over
  womens perceptions. Because these magazines are
  sometimes viewed as the only sources covering
  womens issues, women are strongly influenced by
  what they have to say. This influence begins at a
  very young age and continues through a lifetime.
   

• The ambiguous message women receive about their
  sexuality from womens magazines.
• We are supposed to be sexy and desirable so
  we can attract men, but at the same time, we are
  responsible for saying no to retain our
  innocence/virginity.  

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Problems continued

• The construction and reinforcement of
  stereotypical gender roles. This stresses both
  the importance of traditional gender roles and
  the importance of heterosexuality and its
  position as the only sexual option.  

• The high amount of influence that men have over
  womens magazines. This influence comes in the
  form of advertising, decision-making, publishing,
  and the male gaze. The high number of women
  editors and writers in womens magazines often
  masks this influence.

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Magazines Studied
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1. Women influenced from a young age
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Media as socialization agent

• Reliance on media to inform and shape our values
  and beliefs
• Media and fashion as the most influential factors
  in exerting pressure to be thin

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• Mainstream media Hard news vs. soft news
• Women issues soft news, less coverage
• Womens magazines as the only source covering
  womens issues

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Early Influence

• Portray girls as neurotic, helpless, and timid
  need men to make sense of their lives
• Reinforce the idea that attracting males by
  beautification is necessary
• Say that young women must discern mens minds to
  attract them

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Slaves to Beauty
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Media Images

• Averted gaze
• Nearly naked
• Restricted, vulnerable

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Desirability
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Female Sexuality coded as

• Needy
• Passive
• Dependent on men

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2. Ambiguous Sexuality Images

• Crotch shotswe like to be watched

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Calvin Kleinsince when are women allowed to sit
like this??
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Thin Ideal

• Thin is sexy
• deny yourself
• food and you will
• be sexy.

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Research

• Richins (1991) found that exposure to idealized
  images lowered subjects' satisfaction with their
  own attractiveness. Stice and Shaw (1994) studied
  subjects' reactions to pictures of thin models in
  magazines. Their results indicated that exposure
  to the thin ideal produced depression, shame,
  guilt, body dissatisfaction, and stress.

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• Thinness has not only come to represent
  attractiveness, but has also come to symbolize
  success, self-control and higher socio-economic
  status. Personal success is measured by
  weight-loss, weight maintenance, as well as
  maintaining a youthful appearance. A clear
  message to women that how you look is who you
  are. (Dittrich, 1997)

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Nudity encouraged
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More Calvin Klein
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• Body Image Procedures that involve going under
  the knife have increased dramatically in the past
  few years. According to the National
  Clearinghouse of Plastic Surgery Statistics the
  number of plastic surgery patients has steadily
  increased 153 from 1992-1998, the overwhelming
  majority of the patients (91) is female.

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Breast Implants

• By a conservative estimate, at least 2 million
  American women have had breast implants in the
  last 25 years. It has been established that small
  amounts of silicone fluid seep from implants,
  even when they are not ruptured. Many women who
  have had silicone leakage have reported symptoms
  ranging from arthritis-like pain, swelling of the
  joints, skin, hands and feet, and hair loss to
  lupus and other immune system diseases
  (Kaz-Cooke, Real Gorgeous, p.129)

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Virtual Pool Video Game
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Contradictory Images Doll or Whore?
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Good at sex, but pure
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Fair Maiden or Femme Fatale
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Victorias Secret Nude Angelic Innocence
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Beauty StandardYouth, Innocence, and Helplessness
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Sexually Active Females Have more fun and get
more boys
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Always readyhopefully shes legal.
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Nicole shoesMixed Messages

• The pair you wear to cooking class will also
  look fabulous at your weight loss seminar.
• Who really believes this girl needs a weight loss
  seminar?
• The mention of cooking and dieting in the same
  sentence is contradictory and aimed at women as
  if eating necessitates dieting and guilt in all
  cases.

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Sexy high heel consequences

• Wearing high heels can cause or encourage the
  development of hammer toes, bunions, corns, lower
  leg and back problems. High heels put two and a
  half times more weight onto some of the bones in
  the foot than if you were barefoot. (Kaz-Cooke
  Real Gorgeous, p.155)

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Women fight over itappearance and beauty
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3. Stereotypical Gender Roles

• Womens magazines emphasize certain aspects of
  femininity such as the perception of gender roles
  (how a woman is supposed to act versus how a man
  is supposed to act)
• Gender-role socialization is the process by
  which children learn the behaviors and attributes
  societally sanctioned for each gender (Peirce,
  Lont p. 80).
• Studies have shown that when doing a content
  analysis of magazines aimed at women and teenage
  girls, the aspects that appear the most are
  issues related to fashion, beauty, romance
  problems and how to catch a man.
• Therefore, the media is constantly telling women
  that they are supposed to act in a certain way
  and that that way is different from men.

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Gender Roles Be sexy at work
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Heterosexuality
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• While womens magazines devote a significant
  amount of copy to relationships, all of these
  relationships are heterosexual.
• In the study by Evans, Rutberg, Sather and Turner
  (1991), they found that articles on
  interpersonal relationships meant male-female
  relationships (Peirce, Lont p. 82).
• Occasionally, there are instances of women
  portrayed as being sexual with other women, but
  this is only found in advertisements, and it is
  obviously done for mens pleasure since these
  same ads are always found in mens magazines as
  well.
• In conclusion, magazines offer only heterosexual
  relationships for women, unless they want to
  participate in the ultimate mens fantasy of
  having two women be together in sexy poses.

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Homosexuality mens pleasure
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More Women on Women
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• Homosexuality is more acceptable for women than
  for men.
• Part of sex role and gender role construction.

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4. Mens influence on Womens magazines
Publishing companies

• Hearst Publications
• Cosmopolitan
• CosmoGirl
• Harpers Bazaar
• Maire Claire
• Redbook
• Oprah Magazine
• Good Housekeeping

• Advance Publications
• Vogue
• Glamour
• Mademoiselle
• Brides
• Self
• Vanity Fair
• Allure
• Jane
• W

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Sample Marie Claire, Cosmo,Vanity Fair,
Mademoiselle
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Men in womens magazines
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What do they say we should be?

• Mass media show women as younger and thinner
  than most women in the American population, less
  outspoken than men, dependent on men,
  incompetent, and primary caregivers (not
  breadwinners).

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Philips Flat TV

• "Introducing a
• television so thin it
• will give regular TVs a
• complex."

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• These publishers know our weaknesses and often
  play on feelings of anxiety, inadequacy, and
  dependence in the advertisements and articles in
  womens magazines. If we buy what they say, look
  how they want, and act as they tell us to, we
  will find and keep a husband. And THAT is the
  ultimate fulfullmentright?

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The Dangers of this Male Gaze

• Some scholars suggest that media normalizes
  violence against women (Russel, 1998)
• Images like these can perpetuate things like
  rape and sexual harassment turning a human being
  into a thing is almost always the first step in
  justifying violence against that person". Jean
  Kilbourne

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Objectification
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Sexual Objects not Subjects
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• Research indicates that exposure to pornography
  increases male subjects' acceptance of violence
  against women, significantly increases men's
  sexual callousness, decreases their compassion
  for women as rape victims, increases their
  propensity to trivialize rape, and increases
  their aggression towards women (Anderson, in "The
  Price We Pay").

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Male gaze advertisementswomen like to be looked
at and grabbed,
right?
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Consequencesviolence against objects, not
subjects
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In summary

• Women are highly affected by womens magazines
  and their images and advice
• Ambiguous messages are common
• Gender and sex role construction occurs
  frequently
• Men make many decisions about womens magazines

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What wed like to see more ofDiversity
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Older Women Mentors
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Women fully clothedmen as sexual subjects
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Progression

• Believe it or not, womens magazines have made
  progress over the last 25 years
• Magazines address
• The active sex lives women have and how to
  maximize sexual pleasure as well as information
  on birth control and encouragement of individual
  self-development
• Gender and racial representation

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Alternative media

• Online Resource
• http//www.about-face.org/

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The End