I love reading papers I wrote in college.
Lauren Shopp
WSP 362 – Journal 5
“Teen Magazine Instructions to Young Women”
February 22, 2007
A first glimpse at CosmoGirl’s cover was an emotional rollercoaster: “Why Guys Are Laughing At Your MySpace Page” (nervous), “Backstage with Victoria’s Secret Models” (insecure about my body), and “Get An Amazing Bikini Body Fast!” (see previous feeling).
Indeed, teenage girls’ magazines prey on young women’s insecurities about relationships, fashion, and beauty. An unrealistic and unattainable (heterosexual) ideal is set as the norm and agency in relationships with ‘guys’ is rarely addressed. As Garner et. al write, teenage girls “…talked as if each [article or ad] carried an implicit command that one must follow in order to achieve high status…treated the magazine’s content as a ruler for judging the behavior, values, and opinions of themselves and other girls.” For guidance, teens often turn to these magazines’ advice columns.
The March 2007 issue of CosmoGirl dedicated only seven pages to its “Guys” section, but the majority of the magazine was still peppered with references to love, romance, and relationships. The advice column, “Love Doctor,” published this question from a 17-year-old reader in Arkansas:
There’s this guy I’ve been great friends with for a while – he’s my best guy friend. Now I want more, and I think he does, too. Even though we aren’t dating, we talk every night! My family met him, and they really liked him…until they found out he’s five years older than I am. But I don’t think that should matter. He worries what other people will think, but I want him to get past that. What should I do?
The response claimed older guys, “…like younger girls because they feel they have control over them.” While the consent laws were mentioned in the reply, a quick Google search shows that Arkansas’ official age of consent is 16; the reader is 17. While legality could be the easiest way to answer the reader’s question, the advice columnist writes that, “…people might consider him a perv if he were to date you.” While there is truth in society’s negative perceptions of a relationship between a teenage girl and 20-something man, the magazine’s underlying message is an issue referred to in the Ticknell et. al reading –whether or not a 17-year-old is “‘ready’ or ‘not ready’ for sex.” The question posed by the reader, however, was not whether she was ready for this relationship, but how she could convince her guy friend to take it to the next level. The response: Don’t do it, you’re not ready.
When a boy can “have control” over a younger girl, the advice writer addressed another point in the Ticknell reading, that boys are viewed as “almost entirely subject to the sexual desire upon which [their] claim to naturalized autonomous masculinity relies.” This boy is inherently bad due to his being perceived as preying on the innocence of younger girls, but it is not his fault, he is simply living out his masculine role. As Firminger writes, “Males’ high sex drive and interest in superficial appearances are naturalized and left unquestioned in the content of the magazines.” It is the job of the 17-year-old, however, to use her good sense and morals to acknowledge that the relationship is inappropriate. When the advice columnist writes that a 17-year-old needs a guy “who’s closer to [her] age so [they] can experience life together on the same level,” she isn’t talking about love or romance – this is about being with a younger boy just as sexually inexperienced as she. This reader’s determination to make her desire a reality is read, in this case, as a sign of immaturity, and deflates her ability to make wise choices about being ready/not ready for sex.
CosmoGirl might warn of the repercussions of sex, but has no problem contrasting that advice column with a one-page story about the Victoria’s Secret fashion show featured a few pages before the “Love Doctor” column. Pictures of Lolita-like models wearing only underwear and strutting for an audience of older men were accompanied by captions such as: “Supermodel Jessica Stam gives hot rollers a whole new meaning,” and, “If V.S. had a varsity team, its sporty-sexy runway looks would make you want to join!” Lacy, skimpy Victoria’s Secret underwear is not typically worn unless one is expecting a sexual encounter. As Garner et. al writes, “The presumption was that sexual intercourse would happen before marriage. … Magazines told young women to be ready and willing through standard articles and advertisements on ‘sexy outfits’.”
Advertisements within the magazine also framed their products in a sexy manner. The most common ads were for clothing, make-up, hair and skin care, and hygiene products. Even an ad for Stayfree maxi pads used the phrase “Stay closer,” accompanied with a photo of teenage boys and girls literally lying atop one another. Through its articles, CosmoGirl constructs an identity for its readers: fun, flirtatious, carefree, and enthusiastic. Ads within the magazine are mirror images of this imaginary reader, and show that, as Ticknell et al. write, a magazine’s “latent function is to acculturate readers into consumers.”
But while these products might help attract boys, they would not solve the problem of keeping his interest or his ability to have an intimate relationship. CosmoGirl views boys as a problem or a mystery, one that must be solved by the magazine’s teen readers. In the article, “The Dos and Donts of MySpace Profiles,” real guys tell readers what they read from a girl’s Internet profile page. While opinions varied, most guys agreed that either too many friends (“You probably have too much free time on your hands”) or risqué pictures (“Revealing too much shows a guy you aren’t girlfriend material”) were grounds for rejection.
While only a few pages before, models catwalked in frilly underwear, girls are now being told to cover it up to catch a worthy guy. In the end, as Garner et. al write, “…magazines encouraged girls to become what significant others, in particular guys, wanted them to be.” While girls are encouraged to be themselves in teen magazines, too many contradictory ideas of self are presented, and those presented rely primarily upon the ability to attract male attention.
Teen magazines are still best sellers today because they offer one thing school cannot: a manual for handling feelings of love, keeping a boyfriend, and doing the “right” thing. As the Durham article showed, teenage girls circulate the magazines and use advertisements and editorial copy to judge their actions and the problems of their fellow classmates. The fact that many of the girls in the Durham article judged a classmate who had an eating disorder by saying things like “I could never do that!” in public, they privately were critical of their bodies. No doubt, the magazines they read form these contradictions.
