C.I

‘How and why do fashion magazines such as Elle and Vogue construct unobtainable representations of beauty? Is this a concern’?

We’ve all heard of phrases such as “beauty is only skin deep”, “seeing is believing” and “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, but have these phrases any meanings or value in contemporary media?

Elle and Vogue are well known and established women’s fashion magazines, sold and read all around the world. Elle Magazine created in France in the 1940’s and Vogue created in 1910 cover issues such as fashion, beauty and health, subsequently the magazines are immensely popular amongst readers and are at the forefront of the advertising industry. This essay will discuss how and why Elle and Vogue magazine construct unobtainable representations of beauty and whether this is a concern for the magazines audience. I will look at how the media has created a ‘beauty myth’ that magazines follow to entice the audience, and how the evolution of technology has changed our perception of the ideal body and face.

The issue of unobtainable representations of beauty has long been debated even when technology had not yet advanced to today’s standards. In the past era before the introduction of Photoshop in 1990, magazines such as Elle and Vogue featured flawless looking models in their magazines using specialist lighting and expensive make up to create a perfectionist look on their models, giving their audience a representation of beauty which is unobtainable. Over the years as technology advanced and the introduction of specialist editing software such as adobe Photoshop, technology has allowed images to be manipulated to the advantage of the magazine companies for their financial gain and status. This issue also came into the limelight of politicians, and the members of the Liberal democrat’s party in 2009 backed proposals to require all photos “‘retouched’ to make them more attractive to be clearly labelled as retouched images. This was because they were “misleading and harmful and had contributed to the rise of eating disorders” . Katy Gordon, the party’s Glasgow north candidate described how even “Marilyn Monroe would be considered fat by today’s standards” , and highlighted the fact that “however good a parent you are, you are up against the might of the beauty industry and the media” .

The media uses images of beauty against women to force an ideology of the ideal women that is impossible to attain, a so called ‘beauty myth’ . This is done by magazines to escalate magazine sales and to help sell third party products advertised in their magazines in order to generate a profit by portraying women as sex objects. Naomi Wolf’s “The Beauty Myth” describes how there is “a secret “underlife” poisoning our freedom: infused with notions of beauty, it is a dark vein of self-hatred, physical obsessions, terror of aging, and dread of lost control” . The ‘beauty myth’ has effected “women in Western culture” as females “are damaged by the pressure to conform to an idealized concept of female beauty” . In July 2010 Elle magazine featured an airbrushed image of the renowned RnB singer Rihanna on its front cover. The image had been digitally enhanced to show the slim singer looking impressively leaner. This manipulation of the celebrity’s image using digital enhancements helped Elle to depict the singer as a sex symbol and hence follow the beauty myth, as the media knows that sex appeal sells to both genders and subsequently featuring the singer in this pose increases magazine sales. In contrast, this process of image manipulation gives rise to the hypodermic syringe model where passive audience are injected with misleading ideologies of beauty which they are likely to believe. In return the audience (usually young women) are led to believe that they are viewing a genuine image of the singer and could possibly attempt to attain a similar figure at all costs, usually by starving or eating and then inducing self vomit to control body weight resulting in eating disorders and illnesses such as bulimia and anorexia.

“Within this universe connotating superficiality and the worshiping of appearances, Photoshop reigns like an emperor” . With the introduction and availability of specialist editing software such as Adobe Photoshop, media has become equipped with a powerful tool that could enable it to manipulate any digital image to its advantage. Supermodels such as German born Heidi Klum who has appeared on the cover of fashion magazines such as Elle and Vogue once said “Hook me up with a great photographer, a clever stylist and an expert retoucher, and together we create a beautiful illusion” . This shows that no one is perfect and how even beautiful women have become dependent on technology, as the increasingly demand to look immaculate grows on image conscious women in society. In order for magazines to sell they must have a unique selling point, so in this case fashion magazines feature airbrushed images of models to attract in the audience and promote sales. Arguably the female consumer is deluded by this and is led to believe that the magazine will guide them to achieve the model look through segments on beauty tips, fashion advice and special diets features, when in fact the truth is that the immaculate look is superficial and unobtainable.

‘The technological development of the medium has undoubtedly made images seem more ‘real’’ . The advancement of technology has allowed the print medium to create their own representation of reality. Using Photoshop tools such as the ‘patch tool’ that is used for eliminating blemishes on images and ‘clone tool’ which is used to duplicate good areas of an imagine to cover flaws along with numerous other image enhancing tools such as liquidfy filter and lighting, the print medium is able to create flawless images of females what they believe to be the ‘ideal women’.

‘Together, the visual images and headlines on a magazine cover offer a complex semiotic system, communication primary and secondary meanings through language, photographs, images, colour and placement’ . Magazines such as Elle and vogue use image enhancing software to retouch images of their models, this is done in order to create an image of the so called ‘ideal women’ ‘By constructing the body as a work zone, women’s magazines encourage women themselves to perpetuate the objectification of their bodies’ . The models are depicted on the cover in a direct mode of address to catch attention and stimulate an interaction with the reader. This along with aspects of non verbal communication e.g. facial expressions, gaze, text and posture of the image is used by the magazine to entice its audience. An example of this is shown in the December 2010 edition of ELLE magazine where an airbrushed image of Anne Hathaway is featured on the front cover. The critically acclaimed actress is depicted in a poised posture, connoting dignity and power. The direct seductive gaze stimulates interaction with each individual reader, while the revealing clothing connotes self confidence. Here, ELLE magazine is conveying an ideology of beauty as seen from its eyes. Together, ELLE’s unique masthead, fonts and texts, layout, puffs and buzz words all contribute to its identity and appeal, while the magazine conveys a fundamental message through its cover lines of how a woman must be beautiful. This is digested by its audience as the magazine is aware that women have obsession with appearance. Informative hints on hair and beauty, diets, fashion, health issues and make up/fashion disasters are some appealing segments covered by the magazines to which all women can identify and relate to.

In June 2009 Elle featured an airbrushed image of Reese Witherspoon (actress) covering the Elle masthead accompanied with a single strapline ‘Reese hearts Jake’ . This strapline used by ELLE magazine highlights how Reese needs to look immaculate in order to attract Jake who happens to be her attractive fiancé. This conveys a message to the reader than only attractive women can be with attractive men and reinforces the ideologies of the beauty myth. This way the magazine is able to persuade and manipulate its female audience as the female audience buy into the concept of love. This layout of the front cover also highlights the importance of the ideal women over the brand name and emphasizes the importance of women’s images indirectly through the reinforced physical beauty on show. Therefore, In Elle and Vogue magazines case, depicting images of unobtainable beauty in their magazines attracts the audience and acts as an inspiration to women as to what they should look like and can become if they were to follow the magazines way of lifestyle. The consumer is then given an impression that the magazines will offer guidance in achieving similar beauty when in fact it is unachievable.

‘Advertisers often emphasize sexuality and the importance of physical attractiveness in an attempt to sell products’ . The majority of advertisers today use airbrushing to enhance images of ordinary looking women; this is because “advertising makes big money from images of flawless women” . Everybody wants to look immaculate as it boosts self esteem and confidence, ‘by presenting an ideal difficult to achieve and maintain, the cosmetic and diet product industries are assured of growth and profits’ therefore seeing perfect beauty in images is pleasing to the eye and it also acts as an inspiration which people are attracted to then follow suit. Advertiser’s use this principle to delude and influence its audience into buying the advertised product, which do not realise that, the portrayed beauty within the advert is really unobtainable. Elle and Vogue understand this psychology, therefore the magazines only select and feature adverts that have been airbrushed along that feature skinny women as this is the demand set by the beauty myth. An example of this is the advert in the Vogue magazine 2007 edition (pg189) which shows an image of a well groomed, immaculate looking woman with big eyes and high cheek bones advertising a Versace perfume. The image has been airbrushed to eradicate blemishes and imperfections. So, here Vogue is following a stereotype of the ideal woman set by the beauty myth. The passive audience in particular female adolescents are vulnerable to these adverts as they are new and inexperienced consumers, who are in the process of learning their values and roles and developing their self concept, therefore are the prime targets of advertisers to sell their product. This way the magazines not only generate revenue from advertisers but also maintain their high status through associating itself with high class brand names, an example being ‘Gucci’ and ‘Louis Vuitton’.

Throughout the Elle and Vogue magazines there is evidence of image manipulation. This is notable through the depiction of slender looking models and flawless beauty on display page after page. “Just 2% of today’s women see themselves as beautiful” , the beauty industry bombards us with images of perfection which fuels a sense of insecurity amongst the ordinary women. The pressures to look like the ideal women that the beauty industry has created make the ordinary women question themselves whether they measure up. This intense pressure on the ordinary women has known to give rise to eating disorders such as Anorexia and Bulimia. Clare Curtis from the Eating Disorders Association highlights, “Sixty-seven percent of girls think they are overweight and six out of 10 girls say they would be happy if they were slimmer," . Magazines such as Elle and Vogue portraying images of the perfect women inject representations of beauty as they see it, which has given rise to the passive audience who are easily influenced and manipulated by what these magazines have put across to them as they believe that ‘photographs represent the real world’ . This reinforces the idea of the cultivation theory which states that the more a person is exposed to a message provided by the media, the more likely that person is to believe the message is real. This is then a concern as young women are tempted to take extreme measures in order to achieve similar beauty, often resulting in dieting heavily, leading to excessive weight loss, malnutrition, depression, and other mental health and physical health problems. The increase in this type of behaviour amongst female gives rise to a moral panic within society as a whole. A recent body image survey found, ‘Girls who were already dissatisfied with their bodies showed more dieting, anxiety and bulimic symptoms after prolonged exposure to fashion and advertising images’ and that ‘”very thin “models made them feel insecure about themselves’ . So to an extent Elle and Vogue magazines convey a message to the ordinary women what they are and what they should be. This pressure put upon women has seen rise in anorexia and bulimia, eating disorders in weight conscious women who has either loss of appetite or indulge in food and then induce vomit in order to control their weight; ‘the anorexic and bulimic body, painfully thin and even emaciated, is the true unruly body, the body that has escaped the control of the mind. For the sufferer, the body ceases to obey instructions’ . This reinforces the idea how the media has the influence to disorientate the mind which could result in bodily turmoil.

To conclude, I think that magazines such as Elle and Vogue have a great control and influence over women in society as they inject ideologies of the ideal women into ordinary women which they are, to an extent, compelled to become. As Elle and Vogue magazines are distributed in many languages and countries, the beauty myth is seen as a worldwide issue and the pressure for women to look immaculate is being spread globally by these magazines. The magazine‘s do not promote the natural beauty of a women, rather they promote what a women should look like.

‘In the age of the airbrush, can we ever really believe our eyes?’ Since the print medium is now in possession of powerful editing software such as ‘Photoshop’, there is no limit as to how extensive an image can be manipulated. Imperfections such as blemishes, spots and wrinkles on images can easily be eliminated from images at a click of a button. So the phase ‘seeing believing’ is indeed obsolete and has no value today in the world of print medium. Elle and Vogue magazines see that sex and beauty sells, so they only feature those adverts in their magazines that have been airbrushed or that feature models in a seductive posture as they fit in to the lifestyle of their magazine. As human beings we are attracted to beautiful people, so the perfection of beauty depicted in these magazines inspires the passive audience who are led to believe that the magazines will offer them advice in obtaining similar beauty and this is what increases the magazine sales as we want to associate ourselves with immaculate looking people.

Elle and Vogue have created their own representation of beauty which makes us ordinary people feel insecure about our body and looks. To measures up to the immaculate images that magazines such as these bombard us with from all angles, we take measurements such as dieting and surgery, which in the long run has a negative effect our physical and mental health. So by featuring images of unobtainable beauty in their magazines, Elle and Vogue are contributing to the insecurity felt in ordinary people about their body and looks. ‘Subordinated groups accept the ideas, values and leadership of the dominant group’ As ordinary women are accepting and following the ideologies of unobtainable beauty set by fashion magazines such as ELLE and Vogue, there are reinforcing the hegemonic system which states that the media is the dominant group. This is a concern in a post-feminist society. “By presenting an ideal difficult to achieve and maintain the cosmetic and diet product industries are assured of growth and profits” . As unobtainable beauty continues to be promoted as a demand and judgement upon women by magazines such as Elle and Vogue the insecurity in ordinary women will remain and the increase of eating disorders such as Bulimia and anorexia are likely to increase especially as these magazines are distributed worldwide leaving a moral panic in a global society.



Work cited

Websites

http://www.libdemvoice.org/real-women-policy-paper-debate-live-blog-ldconf-16203.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beauty_Myth

http://www.masternewmedia.org/news/2006/10/18/media_advertising_reality_and_the.htm

http://www.squidoo.com/photoshop-retouch

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8264640.stm

http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/women_and_girls/women_beauty.cfm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/5074642.stm

http://www.healthyplace.com/eating-disorders/main/eating-disorders-body-image-and-advertising/menu-id-58/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10558258

http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/women_and_girls/women_beauty.cfm

Books

Lacey, Nick. Image and representation: key concepts in media studies. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998. Print.

Gregory, R. L.-Eye and brain: the psychology of seeing-Princeton University Press- 1990

McCracken, E. (1992) Decoding Women’s Magazines. Basingstoke: Macmillan

Wolf, Naomi. The beauty myth: how images of beauty are used against women. New York: W. Morrow, 1991. Print.

Strinati, Dominic (1995), An Introduction to Theories of Popular Culture, Routledge, London and New York.

Macdonald, Myra. Representing women: myths of femininity in the popular media. London: E. Arnold ;, 1995. Print.

Magazines

ELLE Magazine June 2009




Work consulted

Websites

Challenges in the media's representation of beauty
http://daniela09.wordpress.com/2009/10/05/challenges-in-the-medias-representation-of-beauty/

GQ magazine
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/showbiz/2643777.stm

Real Girls, Real Pressure: A National Report on the State of Self-Esteem
http://www.rocketxl.com/dsef/assets/DSEF_KeyFinding.pdf

Rihanna manipulation
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1285468/Rihanna-appears-magazine-cover-impossibly-waist.html

Emily Blunt rejection of manipulation
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1298950/Emily-Blunt-condemns-airbrushing-poses-sexy-photo-shoot-Elle.html

Gabourey Sidibe's manipulation
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/8005734/Elle-magazine-in-Gabourey-Sidibe-skin-lightening-controversy.html

Tina Fey-Scar removal
http://www.examiner.com/celebrity-headlines-in-jacksonville/tina-fey-minus-the-scar-vogue-march-2010-cover-shoot-video

Blake Lively- chest flattened
http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/beauty/huh-vogue-flattens-out-blake-livelys-chest-1458902

Beat- helps females with body image
http://www.b-eat.co.uk/Home

Beauty and advertising
http://hubpages.com/hub/Beauty--Women-in-Advertising

Article on retouching of images over the decade
http://www.newsweek.com/feature/2010/unattainable-beauty.html

Unattainable Beauty - Paying the Price For the Media's Portrayal-
http://ezinearticles.com/?Unattainable-Beauty---Paying-the-Price-For-the-Medias-Portrayal!&id=1540095

Weight and Shape Ideals: Thin Is Dangerously In (Google scholar)
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2000.tb02506.x/abstract

The Influence of Fashion Magazines on the Body Image Satisfaction of College Women: An Exploratory Analysis
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2248/is_n127_v32/ai_20413253/?tag=content;col1
Beauty myth quotes
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/n/naomi_wolf.html

Beauty myth
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2005/oct/18/classics.shopping

Vogue info
http://www.bookrags.com/history/vogue-sjpc-05/

Books

Argyle, Michael-The psychology of interpersonal behaviour-Penguin- 1986

Sullivan, Tim, Brian Dutton, and Philip Rayner. Studying the media: an introduction. London: Arnold, 2003. Print.

Spender, Dale. Feminist theorists: three centuries of women's intellectual traditions. London: Women's Press, 1983. Print.

Bird, Linda. Look gorgeous always: find it, fake it, flaunt it. New York: Penguin Group, 2007. Print.
LeMoncheck, Linda. Loose women, lecherous men a feminist philosophy of sex. New York, N.Y.:
Oxford University Press, 1997. Print.

Mason, Linda. Make up: the art of beauty. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 2007. Print.

Video

Fashion doesn't cause eating disorders.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=d5KcT1HZT6k

Magazines

ELLE magazine December 2010

Vogue 2007

closing title

logo

sound

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wkogdMsCKI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcXXpssBFVM&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svP7soh2kTQ&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cUUEOvMCTM&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oa7UVkVwV7U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PaeWpRaUjA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9haTFoGcvk&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTgK4bNjZxg&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiPP7fA53fM&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrKHN02Xo0E&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25i56AWtFqk&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCzI4_3T6EE&feature=related

Production ideas

advertisement- clothes/cosmetic - non slim girl used in advert- breaks stereotypical conventions

awareness- girls go shopping, one girl has magazine- buys everything in the magazine that advises her. goes home trys to imitate. not achieved. doesn't eat, pukes..

awareness- image manipulation stages- normal girl made into a cover girl. young girl uses as guide, trys to achieve image- looks in mirror etc.

documentary- what people think of these images in magazines. talk to people effected etc

(final idea)
awareness- show what girl who suffers from anorexia goes through, how she suffers and what stages she goes through. vomitting, slimming pills, buying special clothing. use of excessive amounts of make up.