Many serious magazines such as film and television are all aimed at men and all magazines that are aimed at women tend to have something to do with lifestyle and fashion which have no importance to the real world. Society is rearing women to read this instead of wanting to read the 'important' magazines in life, because they are being bombarded with a lot of information. The Marxists theory would agree that this is keeping women in their place, because they are belittling women's ability to do the same things as men.
Glamour magazine - The name of the magazine connotes a large genre that is aimed at women, it involves beauty, fashion and lifestyle which is what the women are being 'told' to focus on which suggests that as a women we are being wanted to have this type of lifestyle instead of being successful. The name could also suggest models which is another type of stereotype that women have however it does create problems as the industry is very hard and can make a lot of people doubt themselves. The price circle does indicate a cheaper cost which could show the people that the magazine is targeting which is generally between 18-25 years old. The colour and shape give a bright and eye catching view. Keira Knightley is posing very sexual on the front cover which suggests that the photo is aiming at men who would want to buy it however they aren't actually aiming the whole magazine at that so the photo pose could be denoted in the controlling and successful women way, it gives a confident and sexual pose which is something that women would also want to relate to. The white dress gives a innocent connotation which also gives us a view on the way that women are wanting to be perceived by men. The colour scheme of the magazine are pale and pastel colour's which could also denote the way in which men belittle women. The headline of '1014 Looks to suit your figure' also shows that women are demanding variety and are all wanting to be different but ending up the same.
Audience Profile for Glamour Magazine -
Female,
18-25 years,
White British (not many other ethnicity's are shown),
C2 - E demographic,
Aspires, Strugglers, Enlightenment,
Interested in materialistic lifestyle,
Interest in fashion,
Want affordable fashion,
Want relationship advice (thinking of the men),
Winship (1987) - offers a feminist application of male gaze theory to women's magazine covers arguing that 'the gaze' between the cover model and women readers marks the complicity between women seeing themselves in the image which the masculine culture has defined. (Simply this means that the men are wanting us to look like the cover model of magazines i.e sexy, thin, good looking and now we are being brain washed in to believing that we are wanted to look like this as well.)
Althusser's (1971) - gives the Marxists idea of the notion of 'Interpellation' which is when people misrecognise themselves and develop the idea that they want to be like the person on the front of the magazines instead. From a Marxist view magazine covers distract us from the inequality in our society, instead of caring about what's important is show that they are more interested in the gossip/fashion/beauty.
By combining the two - Feminist Marxists! Women then begin to see themselves as wanting to be like the cover person, this can lead to anxiety for people who don't necessarily look like the cover people. We begin to compare ourselves with this which can lead to people not having any confidence and 'losing themselves.' Cover images are also tweaked with air brushes and shapes are changed in order to show the ideal women and this is what women aspire to be like. This in turn makes women anxious which can lead to women being put in their place and stopping them being interested in important topics instead of stereotypical topics.
History - Female magazines have been around for a long time to entertain a lot of the women when men have been doing larger jobs for them. Men have been stereotyped to be the hunter gatherer for a long time, and therefore male magazines have never put them down and women have always looks like the weaker gender.
Contemporary - Female magazines are still belittling women in the sense that they are pinning the ideal body image and personality in their magazines but they are also giving information on the topics that women are interested in. However male magazines also lower women as they are degrading women in the whole 'nuts' magazine genre as well as giving men information on topics that they are interested in
Future - because metro sexual is beginning to take over a lot of the industry, men's magazines are becoming larger with a wider variety of sensitive and more 'arty' demand in the industry. In the future there will be more demand on the metro sexual magazine which in turn will change the stereotypical views than male and female magazines have as they will have to develop more of a wide audience so that they can keep their status in the media industry.
WE ARE ONLY INTERESTED IN TOPICS THAT WE HAVE BEEN STEREOTYPICALLY TAUGHT BY THE MEDIA TO BE INTERESTED IN.
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