I think that magazines are highly responsible for the results of displaying, in such widely read magazines; social ideas that teenage girls do not need to worry about but are forced too by these magazines.
There are many different things that teenage magazines portray that have ramifications on teenage girls’ lives. An example of this is the way that magazines display ‘perfect’ girls. This in a sense means that they are slim and have good health. This could be a positive ramification. The way it could be positive could be that teenage girls would want to eat healthier so that they get slim and look like the ‘perfect’ girl on the front of the magazine. But for many this ends up to be a negative ramification in the way that the girl could develop an eating disorder just because they choose not to eat so that they become slim. This can cause astronomical emotional damage to them. Even without developing an eating disorder the girl could still feel a lot of emotional pain in the way they look because they don’t look like the girl on the cover. This could lead to them feeling left out of different to the world around them. This sort of emotion can spiral into self-hatred and self-harming.
Another consequence on the social lives of teenage girls is how they are exposed to sexual themes at a very young age. This is a very big issue and it has even been raised in the news. Although this is shocking to the parents, it is also in breach of the industry’s editorial code. This issue was first raised on ‘watchdog’ and was then transferred into ‘The Telegraph’ for wider viewing. These sexual themes are being read by girls as young as 11. The fact that these sorts of themes are being read by girls of such a young age could lead to underage sex and maybe underage pregnancy. It could also lead to a few girls feeling like they are not normal if they are not having sex even if their friends are not they probably would keep it to themselves as to not be seen as different because the magazines suggest that they should be doing it. But it is not just the sexual themes that these magazines portray it is just the theme of being in a relationship. By raising this theme it could lead to many girls being forced into a relationship which they feel they are not ready for. Maybe they don’t want to have a boyfriend but at the risk of being different they do it anyway. They would not be alone. This is because everyone else reading the magazine will most likely feel like they have to follow the themes therefore will be in a relationship. But that particular girl may feel all alone because they do not want to be in one but again at the risk of being an outsider or to be considered not normal they stay in that relationship.
Fashion is another big social ramification of the teenage magazines. This is because there are many clothes advertised in these magazines. The fact that they are advertised, not only on their own but with models suggest that they are in fashion so the readers need to buy them. The readers will feel obligated to buy these clothes because they would not want to risk being out of fashion as fashion seems to play such a massive part on the modern teenage girls life.
I think that there should be more of an obvious target audience for teenage magazines. So ones for older ie 16-19 and ones for 13-15 should be considerably different and possibly have an age restriction when buying so that young teens are not exposed to things that are not necessary in their lives. So magazines should either remove items that are not appropriate for young teens or they should add an age restriction of 16 to buy these magazines. Another solution is to add alternatives in the magazines for examples there should say it is okay to not have a boyfriend or suggest possible cheaper alternatives for the clothes that are in fashion.
Here are a couple of links to websites where I found some information about this topic:
Adam, a good attack on the question. One of your links is dated October 29, 2003, so it is an issue that has been around for some considerable time - and is still with us!
ReplyDeleteIt would have been interesting if you had written a paragraph on your personal reaction to the magazines. As a young man how do you see what the girls are being told?