How the representation affects teenage girls? the reasons/consequences for any differences you notice between the media's representation and reality. what might be the effects of the representation on teenage girls?
Firstly on the cover of this teen magazine we see a picture of Nicole Richie looking very 'hot' and 'sexy'. Not only by this picture do we see her being rather thin but also from other media sections we see Nicole Richie who carrys the conitations and is known for being famous, thin, fashionable been Paris Hiltons friend, Married to Joel, Famous singer and an extreme party girl. Just this simple picture on a front of a magazine can have such a large impact on the readers of the magazine. It is again putting the impression out there on teenage girls that this is what you have to be like to be on the cover of a major magazine, you have to be stunning, incredibly thin, wear those clothes and wear load of make up. This representation of what is good enough to be on the front cover of a magazine is extremely dangerous in its self. This is because many teenage girls whom are repetitively seeing these stick thin models on the front covers of magazines whom seem to have everything going for them can make themselves feel personally 'out casted' as this is what society sees as beautiful and if you do not reach up too the standard of this image you are there fore not good enough. Aslo if girls see this picture of Nichole Richie and then decide they want to be thin like her they could also find pictures like these bellow of her being extremely dangerously thin, this can cause again a girl to have a person like this and see them as a 'role model' and there for can aim to be like them which can cause extreme physical and mental issues potentially being anorexia or bulimia.
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The girls that are seeing images like these in magazines over and over majority of them differ from reality. For example Cleo magazine may 2013 issue has an average of thirty four pages that have models or famous people advertising clothes to purchase. not one of the models wearing any of the clothes would be thought to be 'over weight' all of the models are either very skinny or skinny. The media does this because it makes the clothes look better on a skinny person and it will aslo make the reader possibly like them better to then go and buy them. having all these models in a Cleo magazine is unrealistic as today not everyone is extremely skinny and no one needs to be. The media's perception of a gorgeous women is always a thin women. With the media displaying us with these women always being perfect can have huge consequences and you really ever see a disabled women or teenager in a magazine like Cleo, Dolly, Cosmopolitan and so on, because of this straight edged perfect women we always see can affect mostly those whom are reading the magazine and had a disability. Constantly seeing this representation of a wealthy skinny thin beautiful women spread over the pages of the magazines can cause people with disabilities to not feel accepted or not feel 'normal' enough to ever come close to being in one of those magazines.It can cause teenage girls to have extreme insecurity issues and constantly be upset by the way the look or what disability they may have, when in reality there are allot of people with disabilities and everyone one of them is beautiful in their own way as well as people whom don't have disability. What most teenage girls don't realise when reading these magazines and looking at the gorgeous perfect model is that majority of them are actually photo shopped to look 'perfect'.
Through out this video clip we see stars like Megan Fox, Kim Kardashian and many more of the most beautiful women in the world. In magazines all we see is the Photoshop artists' produced fake image of what is perceived in society's mind as perfection but in reality the pictures before are what is normal, yes they may have light coloured skin or a scar or a freckle but it is still beautiful. This has a massive impact on teen girls lives as all they see is the end result not the beginning which can lead to self hatred due to the way they look. Girlfriend magazine did a survey on 1000 girls that buy the magazine and according to their statistics 25% don't like what they see in the mirror, only 9% are proud of what they look like, 45% have been on a diet, 56% have skipped meals, 35% have cut out a meal group, 19% have thrown up after eating, 32% have over exercised, 45% have known someone who has been diagnosed with an eating disorder and 67% feel bad about themselves when they compare themselves to their friends. These statistics are alarming as the media helps add to this as when teenage girls see models they look up to them and try to live up to their standards that are no were near healthy for young girls which correlates with teen depression and suicide, this is all down to us comparing ourselves to the images we see.
Aslo what is expressed in this magazine is relationships, there is a sector from page 111 to 124 that is called 'love and lust'. The first page with Ryan Gosling on it then more and more articles with the titles 'the girl who can get any girl she wants' 'Relationships sos' and 'after the climax' all of these articles have pictures of a female and a male. Then a 'Rebels with a cause' spread of half naked men with perfect bodies. With these articles there are many things wrong, firstly the fact that all the relationship advice and stories are all to do with male and female. This article being on page 112 is a two page article about relationships with the title being 'relationship sos' this article is about a couple, with a section on what she says and what he says then what the psychologist says. This couple that is seeking relationship advice and explaining how their relationship is going. This can be a big problem with teenage girls because if they are in a relationship then they are likely to compare their relationship and what they think it should be like. This could potentially cause large problems as every relationship is different so there fore the advice that the psychologist is giving doesn't usually apply to all readers but teenage girls whom are reading this may be new or rather nieve to these type of things and not fully understand that they are not applicable to every relationship so there for could cause even more problems in a relationship that they were trying to fix. Also these type of relationship advice articles can show single teenage girls 'what your relationship should and shouldn't be like' this can leave teenage girls searching for the relationship that fits an article criteria getting their values twisted because they will be searching for the wrong thing. This is the media's way of implicating subtly on what relationships should be like when it is clear that same sex relationships are not everyones choice they are portraying what the think is the 'idealogical' relationship. Teenage girls who may be going through a stage of discovering there sexuality and have feelings towards another female may be offended or may be made to feel as though it is not OK for same sex relationships to occur when all they are seeing in these magazines are relationship advice of 'how to get your perfect guy' and so on. It can cause these teenagers to hide who they really are and not feel comfortable in their own lives because they will feel as though they are some type of out cast due to what these magazines portrayal of what a relationship should be like. When New Zealand has legalised same-sex marriage it is obvious to everyone that same sex relationships have become more open and excepted in New Zealand so why are magazines restricting themselves to male and female relationships but not homosexual relationships. The other thing about what the magazine that could have negative effects on teenage girl readers the is protrail of the 'rebles with a cause' males.
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Another article in the magazine is one that is called 'the girl who can get any guy she wants' this article talks about a girl whom is writing about another girl that explains that she can get any guy that she wants the whole full paged article goes on to tell the story of how she got the the guy then has a side bar of 'Adren' tips for picking up' there are 6 different tips like number 5 being 'wear red- it has been proven to increase sexual attraction' this article which is again used omission material to reinforce the message of opposite sex relationships are the correct way to go. Extremely gender specific. This article basically tells you what to do to get the guy this can cause a teenage girl to put these into practice and the writers of this article could not necessarily intended for a 16 or round that aged girl to be reading it they could have intended that it was meant for young adults being 20-24 so there for the content of what they have written about can be influenced incorrectly to an audience of teenage girls but because teenage girls majority of the time like to act older than they are would purchase a Cleo magazine which has articles about sex and life rather than a creme that might be more about not fighting with your friends and so on. This can cause a negative effect because it can teach teenage girls things that they should not yet be too worried about like tips to picking up a guy so therefore can in a sense make the teenage girls grow up faster than they should to live up to the standard of the article in the magazine and live like the girls in the magazine live or to put the tips into practice when in actual fact what is portrayed in the magazines often differs to reality due to the fact not everything works on everyone but they use articles like these to portray these 'perfect' girls lives that seem great from the outside to give the readers false hope that if they put into practice what they have done it will definitely work with you when that is not always the case and that is where teenage girls fall into the trap because they do not understand what is unrealistic to put into practise into their own lives and what is.
Hi Charlotte,
ReplyDeletejust make sure you talk a little more about the articles in the magazine as this is you 'print text' analysis. Also think about who it is who is making these magazines and for what purpose?