Gender Norms in Women's Magazines

Introduction

Women's magazines currently represent the largest segment of the U.S. consumer magazine industry. The circulations of these magazines range from 500,000 to more than one million (Garner, Sterk, and Adams 59). For many women, these magazines play an important socializing function through the stories they tell in their articles, photographs, and advertisements.

Literature Review

Women's magazines have been the subjects of numerous communications research studies. Scholars have examined topics such as the change in women's magazines over time, the sexual etiquette advice given in magazines for teenage girls, and relationship themes in women's magazines compared to men's magazines.

In 1993 a study concerning the change in relationship advice given in women's magazines in the 1970's and 1980's found that women's magazines consistently promote stereotypical gender behavior. Communications students organized articles in selected women's magazines into topical categories such as platonic relationships, dating, and affairs. The study found that women's magazines promote the idea that a woman's role is to be a wife and mother. The three most popular topics in women's magazines between 1974 and 1990 were resolving conflict, sex, and revitalizing relationships (Prusank, Duran, and DeLillo 311).

A 1998 study examining ways magazines teach teenage girls about sexual behavior found similar themes in magazines aimed at a teenage audience. The study conducted a textual analysis of a variety of magazines, including YM, Teen, and Seventeen. The study found that these magazines encouraged readers to present themselves as sexually desirable, develop the skills of sexual therapy to enhance men's sexual pleasure and performance, and become communication teachers to help men become better relational partners (Gardner, Sterk, and Adams 68).