Conventions of teenage magazines'

 Conventions of teenage magazines’

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

The conventions of a girls teenage magazine is to represent the “perfect girl” which the target audience desire.  They attract there audience by having a large image on the front cover of the superficial thin model which is photo shopped and modified dramatically. This is a example of social ramification as teenage girls will be insipired by the model and will suffer to look like they do, for instance if the model is a size six, if the reader is inspired by the model , she will go on diets or do painful exercises to look they the aspirational model. Another example of social ramifications is the young girl may feel self conscious about her image once she see’s the “perfect girl”.

I chose bliss magazine as it is a perfect example of trying to sexualize young teenage girls who haven’t properly matured. On the front there is a mid shot body photo of Cher Lloyd pulling a pose. You can clearly see several tattoos on her arms. I am not declaring tattoos are unpleasant but I think that the young audience should not be exposed to “adult” beauty accessories as I believe children should remain innocent and pure for as long as possible and shouldn’t be exposed to adult accessories.  There is also other evidence of the magazine cover trying to sexualize young children as there is a pull out quote stating “Why I had a boob job at 16!!”, this instantly sends out a message to young teenagers saying that this action is almost acceptable, and in result making them want a boob job to improve there image when there older. 

I have also chosen the teenage magazine ‘seventeen’, which is a popular in America. However this type of genre of magazine serves as a carrier for stereotypes, usually negative which often develop self –esteem problems, because the reader desires to look like the unrealistically portrayed models on the front cover.  Models in all the magazines I have chosen are mostly underweight and are often the cause of teenage girls becoming anorexic or bulimic which is obviously a serious and dangerous ramification.

As well as having a negative impact on teenage girls, it can also affect a teenage boys representation towards woman or even themselves. For example a teenage boy perception on the ‘average’ teenage girl is removed by the image of a perfect girl, which he has seen in the teenage magazine and it gets in the way of any realistic perception. Therefore the teenage girl feels to get the guy she must look like the models they see in the magazine. The social consequence in this case is once again sexulasing the young girls, as they long for a relationship otherwise they don’t feel as they fit in.

I have also done some background research,  in all the magazine I have chosen, an average of thirty six percent of the magazine is advertisement. The vast majortity of the magazines advertisement are involved with fashion and make up, where only few are dedicatied to serious problems like breast cancer awareness, and don’t talk to strangers ect.

So in conclusion I think typical teenage girl magazines are responsible for social ramification in todays society as the incourage and promote teenage girls to look like underweight models.