Magazines are a form of media purchased and read every
minute of every hour of every day. So it’s obvious that the things written,
advertised and shown in these magazines will affect its readers, generally
being teenage girls. The ideas we see in magazines can affect how we think, act
and behave due to the ideas of what we should act like, look like and enjoy
doing.
Crème magazine is a New Zealand made magazine, disbursed
around New Zealand and exported to some parts of Australia. Crème magazine is
marketed and designed to attract the preteen girl (8-12 years) and young teenage
girl audience (13-15) to buy the magazine and enjoy the information/pictures
inside. In order for the magazine to attract this audience, the ideas/images
the editor must decide carefully as to what goes into the magazine.
On the front cover of the magazine we have the cover girl,
20 year old Selena Gomez. Selena is most commonly recognised and associated
with being an actress on Disney programmes and films such as “Wizards of
Waverly Place” and “Princess Protection Program”, being a singer (with the
majority of her songs being played on
Disney channel) and perhaps most widely recognised by teenagers for being the ex-girlfriend
of pop singer ‘Justin Bieber’. Selena is of a Latin background and on the cover has
light-tanned unblemished skin and long straight dark brown hair with
blonde/light brown highlights.
She’s wearing a bright yellow shirt which connotes to fun, youth, happiness, summer and beauty and big colourful jewelry which connotates to glamour, fun, beauty and money.
These ideas, images and connotations attract the pre-teen and young teen girl audience to purchase and read the magazine.
On the cover of the magazine, Selena has been made to look younger than she actually is because younger celebrities will attract the pre-teen/teenage girls more easily to buy the magazine because these girls feel that they can relate more to a younger celebrity and it seems more attainable to be like someone who is closer to your age in comparison to someone who is older.
There is constant repetition of girls with blonde/brunette hair, blue eyes and flawless skin with only slight deviation in the stereotype such as braces. However, these deviations are covered up/fixed through the use of aspects such as heavy make-up, even if the girl being portrayed is supposed to be a pre-teen.
A lot of the main stories (displayed on the front of the magazine) were based around celebrities and music. Advertised are interviews with Selena Gomez, Fall Out Boy and Jamie McDell, posters (which are mainly of singers/bands) and quizzes such as "Which One Direction song is your life?" It is clear from these main stories that Creme magazine are trying to target people who are interested in music, celebrities and what those celebrities are doing in their lives. There is also a main story called "Babe Alert: Austin Butler". Some of the articles and Stories inside Creme magazine can be read and enjoyed by both genders however the majority of the stories in the magazine are gender specific towards females with a lot of makeup and clothes only for girls.
Also, the slogan of the magazine is "a girl's best friend" so it becomes clear that the magazine is targeted at teenage girls rather than teenage boys. Although, this isn't anything to be looked down on because the magazine makes it very clear that it is a magazine for girls. If the magazine had no obvious show that the magazine was uni-sex it would be quite worrying that the majority of the magazine is very girly and feminine but since the slogan explains it very clearly, it isn't too worrying.
Even though there are images of both teenage boys and teenage girls in the magazine, there is a very clear sexual preference with articles about love and relationships talking only about heterosexual relationships. The "Babe of the month" article that appears in every issue of Creme Magazine is always male and so for teenage girls who are bi-sexual or homosexual, this could make them feel very isolated, alone and sad. When we don't see people in the media who we can relate to, it doesn't boost our self esteem in any way at all because we feel as if we are the only one who looks, thinks or acts in this certain way.
Inside the magazine i found that there were approximately 36 advertisements of all different kinds.
The majority of them advertised aspects of make-up, clothing and jewelry in comparison to other categories such as skin care and technology. A lot of the advertisements about beauty were a part of articles called "how to get their look" (advice on how to look like your favorite celebrity) with products that teenage girls can buy (i.e. lipstick, foundation) in order to look like a specific celebrity.
The repetition of such articles and advertisements tells young girls that they should strive to look like these celebrities and strive to meet the latest trends/fashions. This can be quite worrying because it's telling girls that they should be strongly focused on how they look (even at a preteen age) and constantly comparing themselves to celebrities who have lots of money which has allowed them to buy the expensive clothes and have their hair and make-up done everyday. Also, a lot of the celebrities and models in the magazines have been heavily photo shopped and airbrushed to a point where that 'beauty' that they 'possess' is completely unattainable, giving teenage girls the wrong impression that this photo shopped image of a girl is normal and that if you don't look like the girls in the magazines you are abnormal and not beautiful.
If the articles and stories in the magazine weren't about how to look like your favorite celebrity, they were about music stars (and interviews with them), embarrassing moments (sent in by readers of the magazine), how to deal with problems in your life and how to become the best person you can be in terms of your dreams and ambitions. An example of an article inside the magazine is titled "So you wanna write a book". This article gives practical advice for teenage girls who are interested in writing their own novel one day. There is also another article in the same magazine that gives advice to an anonymous reader who asks for help due to the fact that she want's to be a famous singer but she doesn't believe that she can sing very well".
Both of these articles are examples of the many inspirational articles in the magazine which help teenage girls to be the best person that they can be and overcome problems/questions that they have in their lives.
However, it is key to notice that even though writing a book or being a singer are commended careers, there aren't any articles in this magazine, or in any other creme magazines as far as i know that give advice on how to become a doctor, lawyer or politician- careers which are highly commended but are occupied mainly by males rather than females. These type of articles (about doctors, lawyers and politicians) are not found in this magazine because it is not what many young teenage girls aspire to do. Not many young teenage girls believe they have the capacity to strive in a technical career and instead strive to sing, write or dance because it has been shown to them in the media that lots of young girls can be singers, dancers and writers at a very young age, giving readers of the magazine the aspiration of too being young and successful in this career. There is barely any representation of young women in the media with careers such as being a doctor, lawyer or politician, hence why a lot of young teenage girls can't see themselves being successful let alone able to compete in this career against their male counterparts.
The articles in creme magazine are quite light-hearted and positive due to the fact that this magazine is aimed at young girls from the ages of 8-15 years old. They are based on the idea of being the best girl you can be; confident, successful and happy. In other magazines such as Cleo, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire and perhaps even Girlfriend, the articles are targeted at a slightly older teenage audience and therefore are different in context. These articles consist of information about anything from life, success and beauty, to friendships, relationships and sex. Older teenage girls reading these magazines are definitely seeking to find information about these topics rather than what would be found in younger audience targeted magazines such as Creme. These articles are what sells each type of magazine; if the articles in, for example Marie Claire, were all about how to write a book or become a famous singer rather than relationships, sex, beauty e.t.c it would be less likely for the targeted audience to buy the magazine as what is presented doesn't interest the readers at all. As teenage girls get older they are more interested in magazine content about beauty, sex and relationships rather than embarrassing moments, musical stars and advice on how to be a good singer or book writer.
As the target audience's age increases, the messages, images and idea's displayed in the magazine are the same but slightly adapted and more extensive to appeal to the older audience.
The celebrities and models displayed in these magazines are exactly the same ages as the models displayed in magazines targeted for younger audiences such as Creme. However these girls are no longer portrayed to have connotations of youth, fun and summer but instead are portrayed to have connotations such as
There is still the constant repetition of girls with blonde/brunette hair, blue eyes, flawless skin and a very petite body however now the magazines are showing teenage girls that in order to be beautiful, desirable and perfect you must wear minimal and revealing clothing to show of your body to such an extent that there isn't much left to the imagination. The cosmopolitan magazine (above) has the sub-title on the front cover "Sexy at every size" however all of the women portrayed in every single one of their magazines all have the same recognisable and repeated features: thin, blonde/brunette, European and flawless. This is very hypocritical because even though they seem to be promoting individuality and beauty at all sizes, they don't practice what they preach. If the magazine displayed more images of girls of different ethnicities, backgrounds and body shapes/sizes there would be less pressure on teenage girls to try and be what the magazines are constantly omitting.
This constant representation of teenage girls in this way in magazines causes society to believe that all teenage girls act, look and think in this way. This can be very damaging to the overall image of teenage girls in our world today considering that the majority of women in these magazines have been photo-shopped and altered to a point where it is humanly impossible to look even slightly alike to the images.
She’s wearing a bright yellow shirt which connotes to fun, youth, happiness, summer and beauty and big colourful jewelry which connotates to glamour, fun, beauty and money.
These ideas, images and connotations attract the pre-teen and young teen girl audience to purchase and read the magazine.
On the cover of the magazine, Selena has been made to look younger than she actually is because younger celebrities will attract the pre-teen/teenage girls more easily to buy the magazine because these girls feel that they can relate more to a younger celebrity and it seems more attainable to be like someone who is closer to your age in comparison to someone who is older.
There is constant repetition of girls with blonde/brunette hair, blue eyes and flawless skin with only slight deviation in the stereotype such as braces. However, these deviations are covered up/fixed through the use of aspects such as heavy make-up, even if the girl being portrayed is supposed to be a pre-teen.
A lot of the main stories (displayed on the front of the magazine) were based around celebrities and music. Advertised are interviews with Selena Gomez, Fall Out Boy and Jamie McDell, posters (which are mainly of singers/bands) and quizzes such as "Which One Direction song is your life?" It is clear from these main stories that Creme magazine are trying to target people who are interested in music, celebrities and what those celebrities are doing in their lives. There is also a main story called "Babe Alert: Austin Butler". Some of the articles and Stories inside Creme magazine can be read and enjoyed by both genders however the majority of the stories in the magazine are gender specific towards females with a lot of makeup and clothes only for girls.
Also, the slogan of the magazine is "a girl's best friend" so it becomes clear that the magazine is targeted at teenage girls rather than teenage boys. Although, this isn't anything to be looked down on because the magazine makes it very clear that it is a magazine for girls. If the magazine had no obvious show that the magazine was uni-sex it would be quite worrying that the majority of the magazine is very girly and feminine but since the slogan explains it very clearly, it isn't too worrying.
Even though there are images of both teenage boys and teenage girls in the magazine, there is a very clear sexual preference with articles about love and relationships talking only about heterosexual relationships. The "Babe of the month" article that appears in every issue of Creme Magazine is always male and so for teenage girls who are bi-sexual or homosexual, this could make them feel very isolated, alone and sad. When we don't see people in the media who we can relate to, it doesn't boost our self esteem in any way at all because we feel as if we are the only one who looks, thinks or acts in this certain way.
Inside the magazine i found that there were approximately 36 advertisements of all different kinds.
The majority of them advertised aspects of make-up, clothing and jewelry in comparison to other categories such as skin care and technology. A lot of the advertisements about beauty were a part of articles called "how to get their look" (advice on how to look like your favorite celebrity) with products that teenage girls can buy (i.e. lipstick, foundation) in order to look like a specific celebrity.
The repetition of such articles and advertisements tells young girls that they should strive to look like these celebrities and strive to meet the latest trends/fashions. This can be quite worrying because it's telling girls that they should be strongly focused on how they look (even at a preteen age) and constantly comparing themselves to celebrities who have lots of money which has allowed them to buy the expensive clothes and have their hair and make-up done everyday. Also, a lot of the celebrities and models in the magazines have been heavily photo shopped and airbrushed to a point where that 'beauty' that they 'possess' is completely unattainable, giving teenage girls the wrong impression that this photo shopped image of a girl is normal and that if you don't look like the girls in the magazines you are abnormal and not beautiful.
Both of these articles are examples of the many inspirational articles in the magazine which help teenage girls to be the best person that they can be and overcome problems/questions that they have in their lives.
However, it is key to notice that even though writing a book or being a singer are commended careers, there aren't any articles in this magazine, or in any other creme magazines as far as i know that give advice on how to become a doctor, lawyer or politician- careers which are highly commended but are occupied mainly by males rather than females. These type of articles (about doctors, lawyers and politicians) are not found in this magazine because it is not what many young teenage girls aspire to do. Not many young teenage girls believe they have the capacity to strive in a technical career and instead strive to sing, write or dance because it has been shown to them in the media that lots of young girls can be singers, dancers and writers at a very young age, giving readers of the magazine the aspiration of too being young and successful in this career. There is barely any representation of young women in the media with careers such as being a doctor, lawyer or politician, hence why a lot of young teenage girls can't see themselves being successful let alone able to compete in this career against their male counterparts.
The articles in creme magazine are quite light-hearted and positive due to the fact that this magazine is aimed at young girls from the ages of 8-15 years old. They are based on the idea of being the best girl you can be; confident, successful and happy. In other magazines such as Cleo, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire and perhaps even Girlfriend, the articles are targeted at a slightly older teenage audience and therefore are different in context. These articles consist of information about anything from life, success and beauty, to friendships, relationships and sex. Older teenage girls reading these magazines are definitely seeking to find information about these topics rather than what would be found in younger audience targeted magazines such as Creme. These articles are what sells each type of magazine; if the articles in, for example Marie Claire, were all about how to write a book or become a famous singer rather than relationships, sex, beauty e.t.c it would be less likely for the targeted audience to buy the magazine as what is presented doesn't interest the readers at all. As teenage girls get older they are more interested in magazine content about beauty, sex and relationships rather than embarrassing moments, musical stars and advice on how to be a good singer or book writer.
As the target audience's age increases, the messages, images and idea's displayed in the magazine are the same but slightly adapted and more extensive to appeal to the older audience.
The celebrities and models displayed in these magazines are exactly the same ages as the models displayed in magazines targeted for younger audiences such as Creme. However these girls are no longer portrayed to have connotations of youth, fun and summer but instead are portrayed to have connotations such as
There is still the constant repetition of girls with blonde/brunette hair, blue eyes, flawless skin and a very petite body however now the magazines are showing teenage girls that in order to be beautiful, desirable and perfect you must wear minimal and revealing clothing to show of your body to such an extent that there isn't much left to the imagination. The cosmopolitan magazine (above) has the sub-title on the front cover "Sexy at every size" however all of the women portrayed in every single one of their magazines all have the same recognisable and repeated features: thin, blonde/brunette, European and flawless. This is very hypocritical because even though they seem to be promoting individuality and beauty at all sizes, they don't practice what they preach. If the magazine displayed more images of girls of different ethnicities, backgrounds and body shapes/sizes there would be less pressure on teenage girls to try and be what the magazines are constantly omitting.
This constant representation of teenage girls in this way in magazines causes society to believe that all teenage girls act, look and think in this way. This can be very damaging to the overall image of teenage girls in our world today considering that the majority of women in these magazines have been photo-shopped and altered to a point where it is humanly impossible to look even slightly alike to the images.
In the above image, Katy Perry on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine has been photo shopped in more ways than one. The light has been altered, her stomach flattened, skin tone perfected, upper arms thinned, eyes become prominent and breasts enlarged. There was a lot of controversy over this magazine cover alteration to pop singer Katy Perry as in my opinion and the opinions of multiple others, she looks perfectly beautiful in the unedited picture, however the edited picture has been used because that is what sells the magazines and that is what we (as consumers) are used to seeing. When seeing this comparison picture it becomes quite shocking and we are almost outraged at the fact that a magazine could Photoshop a perfectly natural and beautiful woman to look like society's unattainable definition of "beautiful".
However, what a lot of teenage girls don't realize, is that almost every single image in every single magazine has been photo shopped to perfect the image and sell the magazine. The fact that most teenage girls don't know the extent of which images are photo shopped in magazines, it causes them to believe that those girls in the images are normal and beautiful and if you don't look like that then you are not normal or beautiful in any way, shape of form because no one that looks like you is being shown in the media. When we don't see anyone similar to us in magazines i.e. with red hair, round face, frizzy hair e.t.c. we can automatically feel alone, like an outsider, ugly and abnormal. This is a very damaging idea considering that self esteem issues are one of the main causes of self harm.
I also found it interesting to note that Katy is wearing only underwear on the front of a top selling magazine. Katy is adored by millions of young teenage girls who watch her every action, so to think that they would most likely see this magazine cover and want to look/be like Katy is very worrying. No wonder so many young girls are wearing provocative clothes, having self-esteem issues and editing their pictures for social websites such as Facebook.
The effect on society from these photo-shopped and provocative images of girls/women in magazine is also quite large and worrying. When teenage boys see these images of photo-shopped women/girls in magazines with society's definition of perfect/flawless features and wearing provocative and skimpy clothing they automatically get the impression that all girls can look like this and therefore all girls should look like this. This causes teenage boys to become very criticizing towards teenage girls and their appearance, ignoring those girls who don't look like the girls in the magazine and paying attention to those girls who try their best to portray society's definition of beautiful and come reasonably close. The fact of the matter is that no one can look like the images of girls in the magazines. Those images have been photo shopped to an extent where it is humanly impossible to look exactly like them, but still teenage boys and teenage girls get the impression that this is what we (girls) should look like. This can be very damaging for teenage girls who don't fit the stereotype as they might start feeling alone, depressed, ugly, abnormal and insecure just because of unattainable beauty we see in the magazines.
IMAGES FROM:
http://www.nzmagazines.com/images/general/7/creme_june_13__mediumbig.jpg
http://img.xcitefun.net/users/2009/05/67875,xcitefun-h1k5f2p-large.jpg
http://www.fangirlish.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/annasophia-robb-girlfriend-magazine.jpg
https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQrTBWzM19B-EddKNWR4cilFt5MTuaixe7QUxZMoP6Mv8atSi_TcA
http://images4.fanpop.com/image/photos/16500000/Katy-Perry-on-the-Cover-of-the-November-2010-Issue-of-Cosmopolitan-Magazine-katy-perry-16557283-1600-2118.jpg
http://earsucker.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/katy-perry-boobs-photoshopped.jpg
Really good Amelia, I would like to see a little more analysis of the stories in the magazine (as it is a printed text) what sort of things are being discussed (especially for the main stories) what impact might this stories have on teenage girls? Are the stories gender specific? Is anything bein omitted (what isn't being covered in the magazine?
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