A gender analysis of the magazine Self
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A gender analysis of the magazine Self shows that it is directed largely at young women both in terms of content and advertising. The magazine is a monthly publication dedicated to questions of health, fitness, and lifestyle, and it is apparent that the magazine would be identified more as a women's publication than a man's based on the various issues addressed and the way these issues are treated. In addition, while the advertising often shows a certain sexual appeal that might seem to be directed at men, most of the products make this doubtful and instead suggest that the young women in the ad are intended to evoke a degree of envy on the part of magazine readers so they would buy the product in an attempt to emulate the young women and in effect become them. This is in keeping with the tone of the whole magazine--it is directed at self-help and self-improvement--and the ads tend to address the same issue from different perspectives. The magazine appeals to young women who feel the need for self-improvement and who want to see how other people are accomplishing this same desire. There is a definite gender bias in the way the magazine is designed, written, marketed, and situated in the marketplace. The magazine has a subheading on the title page pointing to its primary concerns: "The Educated Body, the Independent Mind." The cover image on every magazine is of a young woman, healthy, beautiful, and successful. The three issues analyze
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This is not what being a woman means, no matter what the experts say (Friedan, 1963, 26).
This desperation has been fed throughout history by the practice of keeping women in their place by limiting their options. This was accomplished on one level by preventing women from gaining the sort of education offered to men, and while this has changed to a great extent, there are still inequalities in the opportunities offered to men as opposed to women. Brownmiller (1984) writes:
The sad history of prohibitions on women's learning is too well known to be recorded here. . . In much of the world women are barred from advanced knowledge and technical training (Brownmiller, 1984, 107).
The democratic society founded in the New World was slow to make any change in this attitude, but girls were admitted to the first public school system in Boston in 1789, though they were admitted to primary schools only until 1825. As we enter the 1990s, we can see how much this has finally changed, though inequities still exist:
Since 1970, increasing proportions of women of all races have completed high school, although white women were more likely than either black or Hispanic women to have done so as of 1989 (Ries & Stone, 1992, 279).
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Some common words found in the essay are:
War II, Advertising Content, Ries Stone, Independent Mind, , WOMEN MEDIA, Compulsive Disorder, Family Circle, Fitness Report, Elle MacPherson, directed women, world war ii, women media, content magazines, war ii, featured cover, brownmiller 1984, world war, friedan 1963, skin care, roles women, tips skin care, york ww norton, body independent mind, women's roles society,
Approximate Word count = 3189
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page)
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