Research Investigation: How are women represented in contemporary print media, with particular reference to “GQ” and "Cosmopolitan"?

Thursday, October 20, 2016

2133 words (with quotes), 1864 words (without quotes)
Within this research I have focused on the representation of women within contemporary print media regarding the stereotypes often used to portray women. I have explored how women have been represented in the past compared to contemporary representations and how the audience and creators of print media affect how women are portrayed.
Print media refers to an array of different media texts and formats, for example magazines and billboard advertisement, and the industry has often been a victim of considerable criticism for the way that they represent women, accused of creating unrealistic standards of beauty - as referred to by Naomi Wolf as “the beauty myth” in her 1990 essay of the same title1 - and assisting to enforce sexist gender roles.
I believe that magazines most effectively highlights the general representations of women within contemporary print media. They are heavily imaged based which is arguably in which the most prominent, and in turn damaging, representations are portrayed. According to NRS, 41% of Great British adults aged fifteen and over consume general weekly magazines across print and online, meaning that the audience reach of magazines affects almost half of the British population2.
The magazine industry notoriously attracts criticism for the way that it enforces an unrealistic beauty ideal with the overly edited, manipulated and airbrushed images it uses. For example, The British Fashion Council said that it was writing to the British Society of Magazine Editors, the Periodical Publisher Association and the Advertising Association about the issue3. The industry encourages the idea that all women must look a certain way and possess particular qualities and, similarly, endorses the hypersexualisation of women, using images of women with sexual connotations or depicting them wearing little to no clothing to enforce the concept that women should not be valued for anything other than their sexual appeal. The way that women are represented within these images was referred to as “the male gaze” by feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey. The theory describes how the sexualisation of women exists for the satisfaction and entertainment of a heterosexual male audience:
“In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness.”4
The theory suggests that a female character has no real importance herself and rather that her existence is based on how she makes the male feel; the female only exists in relation to the male. Although the theory originally only referenced film, it is widely considered accurate throughout the media, particularly within print media. Likewise, although the term “the male gaze” was coined in 1973, when Mulvey wrote the essay, and became popular in 1975 when it was published, it is still relevant to contemporary media despite the fact that society’s attitudes have changed in the forty years since the essay was written, with it being more acceptable for women to be in positions of power such as members of parliament and enrolling in the police force. However, in regards to the media industry, management positions are still heavily dominated by men. For example, women still only represent just 5% of the editors of national newspapers which is a 12.4% decline since 20065.
In the modern day, those who work within the media industry have also commented on the concept of the male gaze which suggests that it is still something prominent. For example, photographer and producer Zoe Buckman has said:
“Our society is oversaturated with representations of women as objects, to serve as desire stimulus to male eyes. I believe this to be a massive problem contributing to rape culture, sexism and inequality. The art world abundantly perpetuates the male gaze and its consequent effect on shaping our view of women.”6
Evidence of the modern relevance of the male gaze theory can be found within the magazine “GQ”, a magazine targeted at a male, presumably heterosexual, audience. Within the sexist differences between the magazine’s representation of women and men, the hypersexualisation of women and the evidence of women existing to please men is perfectly illustrated. In October 2012 GQ released five alternating covers for their issue “Man/Woman of the Year”7, four of which presented men as the main image and one which presented a woman. Notably, the images of the four men are greatly different to the image of the woman: the first and perhaps most evident difference is the fact that the four men - James Corden, John Slattery, Tinie Tempah and Robbie Williams - are each clothed in black suits, connoting class, status and importance, whereas the woman - Lana Del Rey - appears nude except for her jewellery. This is a clear example of the sexualisation of women within print media and also of the male gaze; it is likely that a heterosexual male audience will find more pleasure in a naked woman than they will a naked man. The gestures and positioning of the models are also different: each man is stood tall whereas Lana Del Rey is depicted as sat on the floor, pulled into a ball which suggests her vulnerability. The fact that the men are physically stood at a higher level than Lana Del Rey is sat presents the concept that men are more dominant and have power of women.
Just as these images and the sexualisation of women may appear within a men’s magazine because of the audience they are targeting, the content of most media project the ideas and beliefs of the distributors and creators. Regarding GQ, the editor of the magazine fits into the category coined as “the dominant ideology”8 which, in Marxist philosophy, is a term that denotes the attitudes, values and morals shared by the majority of people in a given society. Within the Western society in which GQ is published, the dominant ideology consists of heteroxeual, middle-aged, middle-class, white men as this is arguably the group that has the most control over society - for example, the British government consists of primarily white males and the media - one of society’s greatest influencers - is largely controlled by Rupert Murdoch, also a white male. Jim Nelson, GQ’s editor, fits into this category and the audience of the magazine also fits, with 72% of readers in May 2016 being male with a median age of 36.39. This explains the connotations of many of the images that depict men as being more dominant than women and women existing as objects for their pleasure.
John Berger - an art critic and novelist - writes in his essay, “Ways of Seeing” (1972), about the position of women in society in relation to men and his theories further develop the concept of Mulvey’s male gaze and how women exist to be appreciated by men:
“Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves. The surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object - and most particularly, an object of vision: a sight.”10
Although GQ is a magazine targeted at men and the producers of it fit within the dominant ideology, magazines targeted towards women arguably also objectify and hypersexualise women and perpetuate the concept that women exist for the purpose of men.
An example of this can be taken from the sell-lines that dominate the covers of women’s magazine Cosmopolitan.
July 2012
August 2012
May 2007
On the first cover, from July 2012, the sell-lines all fit within the theme of “sex” and focus on how to please a man sexually: “sex he craves”. Likewise, on the second cover there are similar sell-lines that suggest that it is a woman’s duty to please a man: “turn him on from across the room”; “wow your man with these moves” and in an issue from May 2007 the sell-lines read “10 things guys crave in bed”, “the surprising trait 80% of men find sexy”, “read his dirty mind”. This shows that the theme of sex and enforcing the culture of women existing for and being validated by men has been a recurring theme throughout the years for a magazine which is supposedly aimed at women.
Jean Kilbourne, an author, speaker and filmmaker who is internationally recognised for her work on the image of women in advertising, describes this culture in saying “not only are girls seen as objects by other people, they learn to see [themselves] as objects” whilst speaking within the documentary Miss Representation11.
Former fashion model, Nicole Weider, has campaigned against the magazine Cosmopolitan, writing on her website Project Inspired12 to draw particular reference to the 2012 cover featuring actress Dakota Fanning, 17 at the time of publishing. In an article, Weider writes “Dakota Fanning and Selena Gomez posing on Cosmo[politan] truly will be the catalyst for this social revolution to force Cosmo[politan] to be sold in a non-transparent wrapper. Let’s sell this magazine to adults only so we can to(sic) protect kids from porn tips” as she drives forward the campaign to prevent under 18s from consuming the magazine.
539f814970380_-_cos-dakota-feb-2012-eoayzn-lgn.jpgThe worries regarding underage models being used related to explicit content and such content being sold to minors is often referred to as “The Lolita Effect”, a term derivative from the title of the book “Lolita” by Vladimir Nabokov and used to describe the advertising industry’s exploitation of women at increasingly younger ages which can set unrealistic standards in terms of sex and sexuality for young girls.
M. Gigi Durham, PhD and author of “The Lolitta Effect” in which the term was coined, said within the documentary Miss Representation11 that “under this rhetoric of empowerment, it’s completely disempowering women”, in referencing the sexualisation of female that occurs within the media.
Although it seems that women’s magazines such as Cosmopolitan can be just as objectifying of women as men’s magazines are, there are also magazines targeted towards women that focus on issues that aren’t as shallow as the sex tips that Cosmopolitan have to offer and the imagery used, in turn, is not as sexualising. An example of this can be found within the magazine “oh comely”. The front covers of the magazine still use the convention of a “cover girl” yet they are not posed provocatively or presented in relation to men. Instead, the women used on the covers each possess unique looks, which don’t necessarily abide by the beauty ideal perpetuated by the mainstream media, and are often portrayed as independent.
However, oh comely is an independent magazine and not considered to be mainstream media, so whilst it may offer more positive representations of women, it is not delivered to an audience of the same mass as magazines such as Cosmopolitan and GQ which represent women in more damaging ways.
It is also interesting to note that representations have been altered as attitudes within society have changed over time, yet the principals of the negative representations of women have remained similar: men are superior to women and women exist primarily for the purpose of aiding men, whether this be in a sexual manner – as represented in the present day – or in a domestic sense, which was more apparent in the past when social attitudes were more inclined to restrict women to domestic positions. A key example of this attitude is within the Kenwood Chef advertisement (1961)13 which reads “The Chef does everything but cook - that’s what wives are for!”, enforcing the concept that women exist in relation to men; in this case, to enhance a man’s life.
This stereotype of women being purposeful for domestic work has been displayed less within contemporary media, with focus shifting towards women being sexual objects instead, yet evidence of the stereotype still exists in the present day. The stereotype is presented in the differences between content designed for men and content for women, with men’s magazines mentioning little to nothing about domestic chores whereas women’s magazines often include spreads regarding cooking, for example. An example of this is within Cosmopolitan, in which a headline reads “bring your dinner date to his knees by firing up the grill and feeding him a meal fit for an Argentinian cowboy”14, supporting the concept that women exist for the purpose of pleasing men.
Throughout print media, representations of women are used mostly in a way that oppresses women and seats men on a pedestal. This is likely due to the fact that the media is controlled mostly by men and so the content created is designed to entertain the creators and producers as an audience, reflecting their likes and dislikes. This is largely achieved due to the use of imagery within print media but, arguably, the language used within magazines and advertisements are equally effective in creating these representations and stereotypes.

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