According to Conley, “Western media is charged with glamorizing and perpetuating unrealistic ideals of feminine beauty” (2016:101). This was and still is extremely prominent in media today, specifically in magazines targeted at young women. For the purpose of this essay, the two magazines I chose to analyze were Teen Vogue (editions from Summer 2016 to May 2017) and Seventeen (editions April 2016 to April 2017). In the Seventeen magazine, women were more glamorized and looked at for their beauty; all the ads included some type product that would help the women seem more beautiful. On the contrary, in Teen Vogue women were depicted doing things that men would usually do. I would code the images in Seventeen as “soft” and “submissive,” and I would code the images in Teen Vogue more masculine, terms like “independent” and “strong.” Seventeen is trying to advertise by making the women who read the magazine want to be like the women on the ad, on the other hand, Teen Vogue’s style of advertising seeks to empower women and distance themselves from the typical “woman” in media.
Seventeen is a teenage magazine marketed to thirteen to nineteen-year-old females. It originally began as a magazine that sought to empower women to become model workers and role models, however, soon after its debut Seventeen took a more fashion and girly approach to promote its material. Seventeen publishes only six issues a year as the group they try to market towards are a part of the technology age. The other magazine used is Teen Vogue, which is a sister publication of Vogue. However, Teen Vogue is instead marketed to fourteen to nineteen-year-old females. Originally including stories about fashion and celebrities, it has now expanded its range of content from anything about beauty to anything about politics. Unlike Seventeen, the reason behind Teen Vogue’s cut back on printing was not due to the marketed generation relying on technology but instead, it was due to lack of sales.
In analyzing the first magazine Seventeen, I saw a trend of delicacy in the advertisements. The first image shows a woman posing and sitting with her knee bent, the image has boxes towards the side that describe some workouts that can be done to improve body shape and health. However, the outfit she is wearing hardly suggests that she was working out, in addition all the workouts are geared towards making certain areas of her body better. In the second image/advertisement, seven women are depicted smiling with their bright white teeth shining. However, the poses of the women suggest delicacy yet again. Female hands in ads are depicted differently than male hands, they are usually posed in such a way where they are seen as delicate and superficial. In addition, the advertise is for skin care, the women are smiling because their skin is so bright. Once again, the ad seeks to sell by making the women to read the magazine want to be like the models depicted. In the final image, a woman is depicted laying down and posing, again giving off the sense of delicacy. The theme of delicacy appears about almost every advertisement relating to beauty. Moreover, in all of three these images, the women are depicted holding themselves or touching themselves, and in two of the images they aren’t standing but rather ungrounded. This produces a sense of subordination, and by posing as such, they are seen as submissive along with sexual availability. This theme of subordination and submissive appears quite often in this magazine, upwards of twelve times, give or take a few that can be debated upon. Nonetheless, I would code Seventeen with the words submissive, delicate, and sex object.
Upon analyzing the second magazine Teen Vogue, I found quite the opposite from what I expected. I came in expecting worst glamorization than I found in Seventeen, however I was quite wrong. The advertisements and images in Teen Vogue all seemed to empower women and depicted women doing activities that males would usually do. Moreover, it seems Teen Vogue is trying to break gender stereotypes. In addition, none of the images seem like they were edited to enhance how the women looked. In the first image, there’s a girl skating with other males with the title “one of the boys” and the clothes she’s wearing aren’t specific to girls. Moreover, Peyton Knight, the girl in the image seems comfortable, and she’s not wearing huge amounts of makeup. It’s almost as if the image is saying it’s okay for a girl to be “one of the boys.” The second advertise seeks to advertise Playtex Sports pads, and it depicts a woman skating boarding in the middle of what seems to be a dismount, which is basically when you go up the ramp, grab the top of your skateboard, and pull it out from under you. The woman in the advertise is smiling and although she’s wearing safety gear, it seems like she’s also not afraid to get hurt. The advertisement is for pads, but it’s depicting usually girly activities like shopping but rather it shows a girl doing an activity a guy would usually do. In the third and final image, we see a girl standing and posing for American Eagle Outfitters with the caption “I can create my future.” The way she is standing is a visual representation of how Teen Vogue is trying to break gender stereotype. The pose she has depicts her as independent and although not dominant, she is definitely not submissive. The caption also speaks wonders, the choice and keyword here is “can” she’s independently making a statement, and taking a stand. In all these 3 images, I coded them the themes of independence and activeness, all the women were posed in independent ways, they weren’t leaning nor were they ungrounded. This leans towards a feminist thought train, where feminism is, “a consciousness-raising movement to get people to understand that gender is an organizing principle of life. The underlying belief is that women and men should be accorded equal opportunities and respect” (Conley 2016:279). However, with the themes of activeness and independence these themes appear fewer times than submissive and fragile did in Seventeen, roughly 5-6 times and I believe that’s due to the media still depicting women in a fragile way. Additionally, they were all actively doing something that didn’t reflect society’s norms or rules of conduct that specify appropriate behavior in a given range of social situation. (Harmon Lecture 9/5).
In the magazine Seventeen, the advertisements and images depicted made women seem weak and fragile. They were the opposite of men who are usually coded as dominant, strong, and brace. Structurally, this means that Seventeen is still adhering to society’s norms where women are submissive and advertises them in such a way where young females look at the images and all they want is be beautiful. However, the beauty fits into a pattern. The advertisements suggest that girls aren’t beautiful unless they look like the models do. Interestingly enough, the advertisements that were focused on beauty products did not feature women of color. Rather, they were all white women with either brown or blonde hair, the classic old-time look. On the contrary, in the magazine Teen Vogue the advertisements and images depict the women on them as independent and active. This opposes societal norms and I believe Teen Vogue is trying to move away from that girly-girl type of ads. In the time of 2017, where more and more things that were once considered taboo are being accepted, Teen Vogue is doing a great job moving with the times. The ads really seek to empower young girls and let them know that they can do anything a man do. Even better, they depict women as independent in a way where they might not even need a man in the picture.
Both magazines were targeted towards teens aged thirteen to nineteen, and both have evolved with the times. Each of the magazines have their own unique content and have broaden to include things such as politics and sports. However, the choice of advertisements and images are different in each magazine, respectively. The images in Teen Vogue depict young women as independent and active, which is the exact opposite of the images depicted in Seventeen. Of course, not all the ads are the same, but the images in Seventeen follow a theme of fragileness and submissiveness. This is quite detrimental to society as a whole because young teens who read the magazine are given a false representation of beauty. On the other hand, Teen Vogue readers are exposed to a newer society where women can do anything they want to and don’t have to lean on a man. These themes are quite different from each other, one depicts the female gender as they did back then, and the other depicts the female gender in a way alike the male gender. However, both these magazines are from current time and have changed quite a bit from their early two thousand versions where all the images and advertisements sought to depict women as weak. It seems the further we get into the future; the more women are depicted in an equal way to men.