Task 4: Essay Part 2

To what extent should magazines be held responsible for the social ramifications of the representations they offer.

Magazines are one of the main sources of information for people and as we have found out through this coursework there is an extremely wide variety, catering for everyone. An average of 2,600 magazines are sold every minute in the UK that equates as 3.7 million per day. One of the largest genres of magazine is fashion and beauty, they have one of the strongest sets of followers who are dedicated to buying every magazine (E.G. Vogue collectors). This also means that the readers probably believe a lot of what the magazine says.

One side of the story is that yes magazines should be held responsible for their actions. Lots of people, including teens, buy and read them and the magazines know that. Reasons for why people buy them are peer pressure, social and collecting; because many other people buy them we feel that we should as well, they persuade us and tell us how great they are. It is also considered the social norm to buy them just the same ass a newspaper. But if you collect them then you feel pressure from yourself to keep going otherwise it would have been a waste or the collection might not sell.

Most fashion magazines that are published are fake; everything about them is a lie from the models to the articles. On the front covers they use stick thin models, usually celebrities, which bear no resemblance to a real person. Size sixteen is the average size of a British woman with these size zeros in the minority so why are they on the front instead of us. 'LOOK' magazine puts the thin celebs on the front but celebrate size on the inside as if it's something they should be ashamed of. As well as this some companies use extremely young girls, age 12/13, on their magazines but call them twenty. This makes us believe that we should look like that and we are aging too quickly. On top of this magazines have been reported to use Photoshop to adjust the models image. It is used to make them look thinner, toned, tanned and can give them the perfect looking face by thinning your nose, making your face look symmetrical, brightening your skin and much more. So even though you have a model in front of you most of it isn't the real them. Styling with clothes, hair and makeup creates the same effect because it is done by professionals; it is a look that you can not create at home. Even the clothes are pegged on the model so they don't fit you how they were made out to. But as well as images some magazines make up the stories and articles as well by manipulating the interview to suit them or exaggerating the truth.

Magazines can treat their models very badly often putting an extreme amount of pressure on them to do maybe 40+ shows in fashion month. It puts their mind and body through a lot, exhausting them. This can cause them to use drugs just so they can get through it. Some can get hooked and then ruin their career. The fashion industry can also be very provocative and can sexualise children. This is demeaning for woman and creates a certain stereotype; women are presented this way in most media but nobody seems to care. But men are portrayed differently. On male magazines, E.G. GQ, the men are dressed smart, with nothing around them, they look powerful and in control. Surrounding them are a few important, educated article clips. But why are the men presented this way and if a woman's magazine does it nobody would buy it? On the other hand it isn't all their fault, the industry has always been this way. Vogue has been around since 1892, it's just what's always been done; its the norm. The magazines have never evolved to the moving times; they are old fashioned in their ideas. Women do not still need to be just in the kitchen and only caring about clothes and shopping. We are smart and educated as well as everything else. But we are also not stopping them by continuing to buy them. If there was no demand then there would be no supply. Other magazines have tried to create a different genre but they are only small, no one will fund them because they know that the public will not buy it. So we are stuck. Another reason why the magazines should not be held responsible is that designers look at the clothes not the models, they don't realise that they pick thin models. Fashion is about the clothes and they hang better on a slim person. But you can then argue that designers can make clothes look good on a plus sizes. They know they can because of the new plus size ranges in the shops.

In the future I would like to see a big change in all magazines but mostly in teen magazines as they are the most impressionable. They should remove provocative clothing and styles, use less clothing and beauty articles, remove all Photoshoping as it should be all natural plus stop putting body issue articles and 'improvers' on the front. It looks like we should all try and fit a thin box and young teenagers shouldn't be subject to this. They need to use natural models so girls have a better understanding of what a real body shape is. Another thing would be to remove a lot of the love lives section as girls are hung up on the fact that they need a boyfriend to be happy and that it is all fairy tales. The magazine should be more realistic. In terms of articles they need better role models, instead of the Kardashions it should be a strong business woman that has worked hard. The articles should be educational, smart stories that show us about the world. As well as showing girls more of a variety of jobs rather than just in the fashion industry; we need more scientists, historians etc. And in the near future I would love to see the magazine styles merge instead of so segregated.