The Women’s Magazines and its Content
The theme of women's conversations is due to the social role of the speakers: usually it is the education of children, cooking, fashion. Marie Clarie follows this tradition in many ways. The magazine has sections on fashion, self-care, relationships with men, diet and cooking, social events, the lives of celebrities. [5].
The peculiarity of illustrated magazines is that they claim to form the lifestyle of the reader. Unlike specialized magazines devoted to one topic, such as computers, cars, knitting, home interior, these publications cover all spheres of modern life [7].
Since its inception, glossy magazines have played an important role in socialization: they have shaped the way of life, representation of modern women, not so much to meet any needs as forming them. All this remained unchanged. Glossy magazines solve the problem of forming the lifestyle of modern women through the formation of a priori. The main a priori ideas accepted (or "imposed") in modern Western glossy magazines are: beauty, fashion, health, sex, freedom, family and society, individual characteristics [8].
With the development of modern society, the traditional idea of a woman as a fertile, modest wife and mother gave way to the idea of an active, independent, active woman. The beauty of a modern woman lies in her freedom, openness and determination. In modern glossy magazines clearly traced these changes: a priori image of modern beauty includes features capable of independent action of women.
The Men’s Magazines and its Content
The magazine discusses world economic issues, the best of spring fashion, celebrities and rising stars and other issues. All the articles in the magazine are about men and their careers, as bankers, singers and other professions. Another headline says: ‘Can a marriage be saved?’, which discusses how to solve marital problems. The ads advertise fashion, hair and body products, food, services and electrical attributes, such as cell phones and operators.
Men's magazines differ from women's in terms of the topics discussed and the genres presented. The "male" topics include politics, environmental protection, etc. Jokes, ratings and competitions of female beauty are absolutely specific genres of men's magazines, with masculinity positioned as a subject, and femininity, as a rule, is the object - the subject of jokes or evaluation of external data. The genres typical for both groups of the analyzed journals also have their own gender specificity .In particular, the headings of expert advice columns in men's magazines are an incentive to action (Ask the docs, Ask Men's Health, Tell Men's Health (Men's Health), Ask the Fitness Coach, Ask the Head Coach, Ask the Career Coach (Best Life)), while the headings of similar sections of women's magazines are nominative (Love Q&A, Money Q &A).
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Metaphors that conceptualize masculinity emphasize traditional "male" qualities of strength, competitiveness and correlate with archetypal male roles in Patriarchal culture, warrior, player, mechanic, traveler, discoverer:
Use them in your full-scale office offensive. Have your office allies leak that you tanked. Your in-house competitor will let its guard down . Explode a tiny problem into a big issue, then parade out the solution (Men's Health 2006)
Remember, visiting her folks earns points that last all year (Men's Health 2006).
Map your health risks Check your local landscape and the chart below to derail the natural disasters that could be lurking in your backyard (Men's Health 2006).
Lethargy and a lack of sexual desire can be signs of an emptying tank . Low testosterone levels have also been linked to stroke risk, depression, and decreased cognitive function (Men's Journal 2007).
There is no such thing as low maintenance or high maintenance, just a bunch of women hoping for a capable mechanic (Esquire 2006).
Representation of Men and Women in a Mainstream Magazine
How the Magazine Perpetuates Binary Opposite Gender Roles and Stereotypes.
This study will examine the representation of women and men in a mainstream magazines. Focusing on Marie Claire, May 2003 issue and November 2007 issue. This study will discuss the ways in which Marie Claire can be seen to perpetuate binary opposite gender roles and stereotypes. Constructing a sociological analysis on the two front covers of the Marie Claire magazine will determine how they portray men and women. Connotations and denotations will be discussed as part of the semiotic analysis of the front covers of the Marie Claire magazine. ‘Semiology (Semiotics) -the Science of Signs- is concerned primarily with how meaning is generated in “texts” (films, TV, and other works of art) it deals with what signs are and how they function.’[Berger 1991]. This study will use semiotics to analyse the meaning behind the two images on the two front covers of this magazine.
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Below are the covers of the two magazines, with pin pointers that indicate important factors in the page that represent binary opposites between genders. (Figure.1)
Figure.1
1 – Image of Justin Timberlake, shows his as a sex object. The image is ‘there to be looked at by women’ as quoted in the essay, by Dyer. R., (1992) Don’t look now: the male pin up. [26; p.7]
2 – Contains stories about men. ‘Getting inside the mind of a male’.
3 – Feminism gets a makeover. Are women becoming more equal to men?
4 – Cover girl, Billie Piper, portrayed at coy yet confident. An image for women to aspire to.
5 – Open and honest interview with Billie Piper, typical feature in Marie Claire magazine.
6 – ‘The truth about sex with a long-term lover’, portrays men secretive, dishonest and insensitive.
7 – This feature shows in a positive light, it breaks stereotypes and shows men as unshallow, honest and forgiving.
8 – ‘Justin Timberlake Bares his Soul’ again, this breaks the stereotypes and shows men as open and honest. Play on words with the word ‘Bare’ as this is true of the image of Justin Timberlake.
Men and women read magazines for different reasons, women read them for ‘pleasure, escapism and indulgence’[Berger 1991], and could be seen as therapy, a way for them to relax and escape the outside world, whereas men read magazines for information, for example, men’s mainstream magazines contains lots of facts, figures, ‘How To…’ articles and also jokes! The Men’s Health magazine contains a lot of these types of features.
Marie Claire magazine is targeted at women in their mid to late 20’s, typically, ABC1’s, with a professional career, this is shown by the content in the magazine, such as feature subjects, language and images.
The front cover is the most important part of a magazine, it is the selling point, it has to be different from other magazines and recognizable to the target audience. Usually Marie Claire has an image of a famous woman on the cover. On the front cover of the May 2003 edition, is Justin Timberlake, and on the November 2007 edition is Billie Piper. Looking through the archive, the majority of the issues have famous women on the cover, rather than men. ‘The female body recurs more frequently than any other: men often appear as themselves, as individuals, but women appear attest to the identity and value of someone or something else’[7; p. 18].
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When women are featured on the cover of Marie Claire, they appear to be innocent, content and feminine, as well as sexy and free, yet naïve. It is very rare to see women on the Marie Claire cover that are wearing very little or overly confident as this magazine, is aimed at the higher class woman. The story that follows the cover headline always seems to feature a heart warming story, or personal feelings. For example, the headline for Billie Piper’s story is ‘Billie on divorce, marriage and feeling broody.’ Women in Marie Claire are always shown to be confident and honest. The magazine that features Justin Timberlake also shows him to be honest ‘Justin Timberlake Bares His Soul, but the image of him is much different. It has a picture of him half naked, showing him as strong, manly and sexy. Marie Claire claims that this is ‘The Men Issue’. ‘Stereotypes can be positive, negative or mixed, regardless of whether they are positive or negative, they are very dangerous, and tend to be very destructive.’[ Berger 1991] Stereotypes of men in women’s magazines can be very degrading for men, and vice versa. Men’s magazines seem to be very sexist, ‘men could look freely at women, but women could only look back surreptitiously, against the grain of their upbringing’ portraying men as dominating and giving out the message that women are sex objects and that men can do as they please. Some magazines show men as insensitive and dishonest, whilst some female magazines make women feel sorry for males. These are usually magazines with male writers as they know first hand how it feels to be portrayed in this way. ‘Surrounded with expectations about how they, as men, ought to behave, boys have to sift through various demands placed upon them by their culture, their associates, their teachers, their friends, and their family to construct their own gender identities.’[25; p. 5] This tends to make women feel sorry for men, especially as women’s gender roles and identity come much more easily, women have a choice; women ‘negotiate by accepting or rejecting the identities with which they are presented.’ Other mainstream magazines such as Vogue and Vanity Fair show women as powerful, fashionable and attractive to men and they include features for women, telling them how to become more confident , and how to have men desiring them.
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‘A method of analysing the meaning and structure of texts is through the use of binary oppositions, developed by the French anthropologist Levi-Strauss. He argued that many texts are structured by binary conflicts between two qualities and that meaning is generated out of their opposition to each other, or the differences between them.’ Binary opposites that are usually portrayed in women’s magazines are; women are honest and men are liars, as well as women are open and speak freely about personal subjects, whereas men do not express their personal feelings. On the front page of Marie Claire, this generalised stereotype is broken, especially on the cover of the May 2003 edition, as it features an interview with Justin Timberlake where he ‘Bares his Soul’. In every Marie Claire edition there is an interview with a celebrity, usually female, and the interview is usually based around their personal feelings, or personal life.
Denotation is what is in the image, the subject, and connotation is the meaning of what is in the photograph; this is how to read an image, by looking at its connotation. Therefore, the denotation of the image of Justin Timberlake is him, posing topless and the connotation of that would be that his pose is sexy, seductive and shows him as strong, masculine and open, the fact that the framing of the image is a medium shot, suggests that there is a personal relation to the subject of the image, which is true of this image, as the interview is personal. Denotation can also be labelled as non verbal communication that is shown in the image. ‘Images aimed at women, whether star portraits, pin-ups or drawings and paintings of men, are a particularly interesting relation to eye contact patterns. A certain instability is produced, the first or several we encounter when looking at images of men that are offered as sexual spectacle. This is a visual medium, these men are there to be looked at by women’ which is the same as what can be said for images of women in men’s magazines. The women are there to be looked at by men. In both cases this is degrading and somewhat immoral, but it works and it sells magazines.
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