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

Media representation is often based around stereotypes, for example young adults displayed on the news, or old people displayed in comedy shows. However, is it now that it is not the stereotypes forming the basis of teenage girls magazines, but that the images/contents of these magazines that are creating the type of teenage girl we see today? Teenage girls magazines conform to the conventions of most other genres, with a notable left third to make the contents and cover lines visible whilst on the shelf.  A mast head is used across the top of the magazine, always in the same font to make it recognisable. The masthead is targeted towards the target audience of young girls, often connoting innocence or age within the name, ‘teen vogue’ ‘seventeen’. Like most magazine covers,, there is a colour theme throughout to make the cover more aesthetically pleasing, and tie all of the contents together, although for this genre the colours tend to be girly, quite pale colours of yellows, pinks and blues. This can connote the youth and brightness of teens, and is sometimes also relevant to the ‘in fashion’ colour, as a lot of the contents is based around fashion and personal image. The main image is always of a well-known, young female celebrity, such as Ashley Tisdale, or Taylor Swift, girls that the target audience will know, and possibly look up too. Direct address is seen, and all are smiling, connoting that to be happy, they should read inside so that they can be like their smiling idols on the cover. There are often starbursts or plugs, making cover lines stand out. Often associated with this is a large number, for expel ‘672 ways to look pretty’ .  This tells the reader how much is inside, making them think that they get more for their money. However, there are many features seen on these front covers that are seen on a regular basis, appearing to be sexualising girls at a younger age. The imagery, content and stereotypes presented issue after issue in magazines such as ‘Sugar and ‘Seventeen’ are thought to be making young girls feel the need to grow up faster, trying to keep up with what these magazines are portraying as normal, and pressurising them into discovering ‘476 ways to be irresistible’. The coverlines for articles portraying the magazine giving general girl advice could really be the issue manipulating young girls into thinking that they have to follow the rules set by image based magazines such as these. The largest cover lines on the page, the headlines if these are not situated around the celebrity on the front, are image based, ‘Fashion Wishlist’ ‘Pretty for Spring’ ‘The Cutest Clothes’, the size and coloured attention on these features make them seem like the most important feature in the magazine, connoting that they should be the most important for that reader. This could put much added pressure on the reader, to be able to financially , mentally and physically keep up with all the new ‘must have’ clothes, make up and styles that seem so important to the creators of these magazines. The smaller coverlines also tend to be image based, ‘toned abs, and a great butt!’. Readers of these magazines are targeted to start at the age of around 12, an age at which how toned your stomach is, and how nice your bum looks should not be an issue. These magazines are destroying the confidence of developing girls, by placing flawlessly beautiful, skinny (airbrushed and edited) women on the front that readers then compare themselves to. They then add to readers comparing themselves to these celebrities by adding coverlines such as ‘get Cheryls hair!’, which will put girls down when it doesn’t look like its been made by a professional like on their cover. Cover lines such as ‘flawless skin now!’ can also be damaging the self esteem of readers, asThey are drawing attention to the fact that not having perfect skin should be seen as a problem. As well as damaging readers by making them notice flaws, and draw attention to image and body shape that they otherwise may not have noticed, the language and focus of these magazines are sexualising young girls far too early, through language, pictures and connotations used. ‘The big boy mate question- to snog or not to snog?’ this is manipulating how girls could be viewing their friends that are male, changing opinions or adding pressure to the relationship, and also creating ‘snogging’ as a social norm. With such young readers, suggested to be starting at the age of 12, the feature could be seen as encouraging this behaviour, or making the reader feel like they should be doing this, as it is what’s seen as normal at this age, and what ‘everyone’s doing’. ‘Instant Turn Offs’, is often a term seen on covers of magazines such as this, which has sexual connotations, implying that rather than turning them off, you should be turning them on. Often, these magazines offer free gifts of lip gloss, fake tan or other cosmetics promoting a brand. The constant promotion and encouraged usage of these products in the magazines, through free gifts, advertising and articles on ‘how to look pretty’, which remain focused on beauty products are creating the view of teenage girls that to be socially accepted and viewed as ‘pretty’,  these products have to be used. Teenage girls are competitive with one another, and so to effectively ‘win’ the boy that these magazines claim are so important, they have to look the best, through the advice given in these magazines. The stereotype of younger girls being covered in make up, wearing shorter/tighter clothes could be down to the way ‘winners’ are represented in the features. On the same note as the competitiveness of keeping up with fashion/style within girls at the age these magazines are targeted at, ‘real life’ articles could be doing similar damage. ‘How to deal with rumours’ articles such as these focusing on the bitchiness of schools, and the rivalry between females can be dragging the idea of competitiveness to younger readers that may not have found it yet. However, the representations presented could not only be influencing female readers, but the stereotypes of males could be having an affect also. ‘Best boy advice ever!’ is talking abut how to act around the whole male genre, and collectively talking about males preferences in clothes and style, and not appreciating individual differences. Female readers are being told how to talk to boys, and act around them, whilst males are being analysed as a genre on the way they act, by young girls, to tell ‘if he likes you’ by normal acts he is unknowingly doing. Overall, the stereotypical representations presented of both genre are damaging young people, and discouraging individuality by the features targeted. On the other hand, these magazines do sometimes offer positive influences towards the target audience. The cover star/main image, sometimes offers inspiration to readers other than how to get hair like them. Last year offered this regularly in the summer of the Olympics, where female sporting stars featured regularly on the cover, encouraging health, sports, positive advice as well as image tips. Also, real life stories from readers or ‘real girls’ and features that are dedicated to real life issues such as eating disorders, how to protect yourself and issues at home. Quite contradictory to a lot of features appearing regularly, they sometimes target self esteem issues, such as self harm. These articles really can help with peoples problems, and lives, and give advice that they may be too scared to ask for help from someone they know. Knowing how to cope with issues such as these is good, however with each issue only mentioned maybe once a year, the majority of content is focused on bettering oneself when many would see that reader as good enough already. With the contents filled with pretty, perfect models of how people should look, the bar for image for young girls has been set high. As well as all of these representations of normal that are included, what about the ones not included such as girls featured with a disability? Rarely are people with a disability included in fashion/teen magazines, implying by doing so that they are not up to a high enough standard to be in a magazine like this. It is alienating these people/issues that are not included as not ‘normal’ or winning, as the magazine has a much less focus on it than how to improve your looks. In conclusion, I as a reader of magazines such as these would like to see raised awareness towards real issues, the inclusion of disabled, inspirational people for girls to look up to, and more people to aspire to be like that don’t include how to look like them. Also, a wider variety of fashion articles, more enthusiasm towards individuality, and this could be achieved by offering a column a week to a reader, giving real girls opinions. There needs also to be a more serious look at the language/focus of some magazines, especially the ones that tend to be sexualising girls more than others, which shockingly, is the magazines more aimed at younger audiences, such as shout and sugar. Teen Vogue refrains from this, taking a more sophisticated approach, not excluded from the indecency of some topics and phrases, but mush less frequent and the magazine itself is aimed at a slightly older, more mature audience. Regular checks need to be made ensuring that the media guidelines are being fulfilled to prevent against the changes and influences they are having on teenage girls, and the representations of them.