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feature
The 90s woman and other stories
words and picture by Bruce Legg
The ongoing criticism that women's magazines irresponsibly employ scrawny models came to the fore this year when Swiss watchmaker, Omega, withdrew a series of adverts from Vogue magazine. The company wanted to distance itself from Vogue because it felt Trish Goff and Annie Morton, two models the magazine used, were skeletal in appearance and this encouraged anorexia.
Omega’s claim was valid, though an obvious example of a less apparent problem. The threat is not that people strive to be anorexic. People strive to be acceptable. Anorexia is the effect, not the cause, and women’s magazines, like any popular medium of communication, hold the power in a subversive way to influence the people who come into contact with them. South Africa is no less party to this predicament.
"Elle is aspirational, reflecting a lifestyle its readers would like to live, albeit they’re not necessarily living it at present." - Shona Bagley, Editor Elle SA
In his book Gender Advertisements (1976), Erving Goffman says that people prefer to identify with what they aspire to rather than with what they really are. This is a result of the flood of images that portray people in a standardised way and which guarantee returns on conforming to those specifications. Disinterest in reforming the image of the 90s woman in fashion and women’s magazines effectively puts blinders on both women, in striving for physical beauty, and their potential lovers, in striving for sexual encounters with beautiful women.
"Femina is successful because it affects and represents its target market. Our readers are able to recognise themselves and their aspirations in the profiles and features." - Jane Raphaely, Editor Femina
Desirability is the ultimate marketing tool, so maintaining a need in women to be desirable is important if the magazine wants to generate income. The cosmetics industry, women’s magazines and women who want to be "beautiful" all need one another to be the best they can. Women’s magazines consciously exploit the attributes of "femininity" to appeal to their market. Simultaneously yelping their commitment to equality they have created a dilemma not so much for their readers as for themselves and their critics. The readers move into the positions they are offered by the magazine’s portrayal of women. They reap the returns of diets, cosmetics, step-machines, lipo-suction, cosmetic surgery, hair dyes, tampons, Epiladies and brassieres as the magazine not only provides images of 90s physical perfection but also a step-by-step guide and the necessary products to achieve it. It’s one bloody great recipe and everyone wants the cake to look like the picture. Though we may realise that the proof of the pudding lies in the eating, we seldom stop to consider that these magazines aren’t letting women do the cooking themselves.
"Women’s magazines simply encourage women to be the best they can, physically and mentally." - Shona Bagley, Editor Elle SA
A powerful tool Western culture uses to epitomise the "best" woman is convincing women they constantly risk being "dirty". To be accepted socially a woman shaves her legs and under her arms. Hair and femininity are incompatible, so razors, waxes and electric shavers provide means that help a woman fulfil her role as feminine. From an early age women are also taught that menstruation is something to be ashamed of. Products are sold by marketing menstruation as a problem. By emphasising the need to keep it a secret women are bound to the belief that their bodies’ natural processes are shameful. The advertiser’s nightmare is women coming to terms with these natural occurrences.
"Elle has been approached by several gay and lesbian writers because they regard it as a gay-friendly publication." - Shona Bagley, Editor Elle SA
Women’s magazines also portray the average person as heterosexual. In Cosmopolitan’s May feature on lasting relationships, a gay couple’s account of their nine years together is laid out in a red block, separating it from the rest of the copy. Not only does this draw attention to the couple’s relationship as exceptional but suggests it is surprising the two have been together for such a long time considering they are gay. In its May edition Elle writes about "the new unisex", an interesting example of popular culture’s need to typecast people who don’t glide easily into a stereotype.
"Femina’s market is intelligent women, with families, who hope for a better society." - Deirdre Moyle, Assistant Editor Femina
Femina’s slogan is "The Power of Being a Woman". Of Femina’s May issue 70% was advertising. That is about 85 metres2 of advertising on a total surface space of 121 metres2. -This included a fragrance supplement without which 65% of the magazine is occupied by advertisements. Including advertising, 95 of the magazine’s 172 pages endorsed beauty and home concerns, leaving space for six features, seven editorial pages, 13 health, house and entertainment pages and the remaining advertisements. The reader would be forgiven for thinking the power of being a woman is synonymous with the power of advertising.
"Cosmopolitan is aimed at women who are in that stage of their life when they are able to prioritise themselves - no children’s lift scenes and ballet classes!" - Vannessa Raphaely, Editor Cosmopolitan SA
Besides pressuring women to be beautiful, women’s magazines seem intent on imposing social and economic restrictions upon their readers. After the Second World War the feminist movement in the United States brought about a marked change in the attitude that women belonged in the home, preparing for the return of the hero. The fact that many women had moved into the jobs originally occupied by men brought gender prejudices to the fore but, more importantly, created an awareness that women’s capabilities are comparable to men’s. Cosmopolitan, in theory, recognises that a woman is capable of having a successful career and needn’t be tied down by other people or family by virtue of the fact she is female. Cosmopolitan’s May cover ran four teasers for stories on health and beauty, one on common questions posed to psychologists, one on accidental pregnancy, one on a hip new television show and one for a competition. The emphasis is clearly not on careers or issues affecting women in business spheres and the fact that women’s magazines use "femininity" in itself to market themselves is reason enough to discredit them in any other discipline. Women’s magazines assume the myth that women need to maintain their femininity per se while men maintain their stake as society’s economic and social agents through publications like Newsweek, The Economist and daily newspapers. That’s not to say that these publications are the basis of our enlightenment, but their value in the business sector, a sector in which many of Cosmopolitan’s readers are apparently involved, is greater than that of women’s magazines. They also have more male readers and acquiring female readers is merely a matter of drawing their attention away from striving towards ideal femininity.
"Fair Lady doesn’t want women to feel inadequate if they can’t relate to articles about women’s empowerment."- Di Paice Deputy Editor Fair Lady SA
The editorial collective of Fair Lady deems articles with an overt motive of empowering women threatening to their readership. The logic is that if a woman does not understand an article about female empowerment, or if an article makes her realise she is not empowered, she will be further disempowered. Apparently ignorance is still bliss. Unlike Cosmopolitan, Fair Lady acknowledges that its market is chiefly involved in child-rearing. The assumption that accompanies this fact is that mothers are also housekeepers intent on impressing the PTA with delicious chocolate cakes. The cover of Fair Lady’s May edition screams: SPECIAL OCCASIONS: INSPIRATION FOR ALL YOUR CELEBRATIONS · gift wrap · cakes · clothes · budget · wedding countdown · beauty · and lots of lovely food. With this teaser the cover’s main attraction is Fair Lady’s endorsement of "core values", as Deputy Editor Di Paice puts it. Core values that assume a woman’s role in celebrations is a catering one, not a celebrating one. What makes women’s magazines so appealing to their target market is that they relate to women by identifying common wants and common problems. The magazine assumes the role of "friend"; a forum where women’s issues are made universal. In this way women are moulded into a paradigm where their lives are affected only in certain ways and where importance is attached to specific things only. "Agony Aunt" and other help columns serve to bring problems experienced by women together and establish the publication as a helper in times of need. These columns are central to the magazines’ intention. Rather than just being literature, the magazine is a resource for problem-solving. The perceived authority that help-columns give magazines, creates a sense that their content is equally credible and, further, that the magazine is responsible to its readers.
"If you want life as it is, come around to my place on a Sunday morning - it’s not a magazine." - Vannessa Raphaely, Editor Cosmopolitan SA
The best justification for the status quo is that content caters for a target market. It is the nature of the beast, the editor will tell you; if you want returns on the effort you put into a product, you must ensure its market is as narrow as possible. The responsibility that all editors are trying to avoid, however, is that magazines are more than a product or an unfaithful representation of the reader’s lifestyle. To a large extent they dictate it. Omega replaced its adverts within a day.
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