Women and weight: gendered messages on magazine covers

Sex Roles: A Journal of Research,  April, 1999  by Amy R. Malkin,  Kimberlie Wornian,  Joan C. Chrisler

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

Table IV. Examples of Message Positioning that Implies that Changing
Bodily Appearance Will Lead to a Better Life

Text                       next to              Text

"Get the Body You Really Want   "How to Get Your Husband to Really
                                 Listen"

"Tighten Your Butt              "Habits of Confident Women"
"Drop 8 Pounds this Month       "25 Ways to Make Your Marriage Hot
                                Again"

"Get a Really Firm Body in      "5 Ways to Keep Your Husband
30 Days                         Faithful"

"Lose 10 Pounds                 "Ways to Make Your Life Easier,
                                Happier, and Better"

"Stay Skinny                    "What Men Want Most"

In conclusion, it seems that in men's popular magazines the focus is on providing entertainment and improving one's life by expanding knowledge, hobbies, and activities. Women's magazines, however, seem to focus on improving one's life by changing one's appearance, especially by losing weight. It is implied through both images and text that being thin means being happier, sexier, and more lovable. Women's magazines also contain conflicting messages about weight loss strategies and eating behaviors, including the placement of weight loss prescriptions next to recipes and pictures of foods that are extremely high in fat content. The findings from this analysis suggest that women are not only being told that they should focus on obtaining an impossible body shape through dieting and exercising, but they are also being told that they should be able to do so while eating, or at least preparing for others, foods that are high in fat content. These fattening foods, obviously not typical diet foods, may make women think that it is even more impossible for them to obtain the thin ideal that is being presented to them or the ideal life that goes with it. The consequences of striving for these unrealistic ideals may be that an increasing number of women take aggressive means to control and reduce their weight (Wadden, Brown, Foster, & Linowitz, 1991). These dieting efforts can have serious implications, including inadequate nutrition, fatigue, weakness, irritability, depression, social withdrawal, loss of sexual desire, and even sudden death from cardiac arrhythmia (Ciliska, 1990). In addition, dietary restraint increases the likelihood of binge eating, which may initiate the cycle of bulimia in individuals at risk for developing eating disorders (Polivy & Herman, 1985). In short, dieting should never be considered a risk-free activity (Chrisler, 1994). Perhaps editors of popular women's magazines need to be more aware of the implications of gendered messages on magazine covers and the physical and psychological consequences they may have for women.

REFERENCES

Anderson, A. E., & DiDomenico, L. (1992). Diet vs. shape content of popular male and female magazines: A dose-response relationship to the incidence of eating disorders? International Journal of Eating Disorders, 11, 283-287.