What is a woman?
The Ideology of femininity in Women’s magazines
To understand the notion of femininity, one must first understand the social constructions that make the ideal “feminine” woman. Feminists, Simone de Beauvoir and Judith Butler both contend that ‘femininity’ and ‘masculinity’ are created through repeated performances of gender. That is, being womanly, girly, or feminine is learned or acquired through socialization, by repeatedly practicing those attributes, behaviours, mannerisms, roles, and expectations associated with gender. These performances represent the dominant culture that seems to have a persuasive influence on the lives of the women in such society.
Women’s magazines act as a constructive motive to both promote capitalist ideologies of consumption, and define femininity. With a few examples, I examine how the media contributes to the female gender consciousness and experiences, as well as portrayals of femininity vis-à-vis masculinity as it exists in women’s magazines.
To understand how the media contributes to both female and male consciousness, I examined the gender differences in the portrayal of femininity and masculinity in the media environment. Women especially, are constantly feminized to appeal to the mass culture. Femininity embodies a variety of meanings: of course, there are physical features, the ones that visibly differentiate ‘her’ from ‘him’, but there are also certain acceptable feminine attributes that warrant a female’s legibility to be called a woman.
“It would appear, then, that every female human being is not necessarily a woman; to be so considered she must share in that mysterious and threatened reality known as femininity. Is this attribute something secreted by the ovaries? Or is it a Platonic essence, a product of the philosophic imagination?” (Beauvoir, 1949).
So what does it mean to be a woman?
The ideology of femininity is the belief and perception that a female being must embody certain traits (such as gentleness, empathy, and sensitivity, etc.), behaviours, and roles associated with girls and women to attain womanhood. In my quest to understand this language objectivation of femininity, I chose to examine Playboy and Cosmopolitan magazine.
Several studies show that exposure to idealized body image on magazines or to other media tend to affect men and women in similar ways. What is different for women however, is the quantity of female body images in the media, and how they rigorously dictate unrealistically high standards of beauty for women and not men. These women’s magazines suggest that we should dress in a feminine fashion and walk a certain way to attract men. For women, appearance is key, “the girl is intended to be looked at” (McRobbie. A 1978). It was how magazines could make money. The physical appearance (of the woman) reflects the spending power of its readers.
The media not only influences the female gender consciousness and experiences, but also portrayals of femininity vis-à-vis masculinity. For example, the image below shows an ad for Weyenberg Massagic shoes displayed in a popular American magazine, Playboy in 1974 : “keep her where she belongs”.
This message validates Simone de Beauvoir’s stance when she described women as “other”. The other sex, the second person. Beauvoir here points out society’s presumption that “Man can think of himself without woman… She cannot think of herself without man” (Beauvoir, 1949). She is simply the second sex, subordinate to him.
While some may argue that Beauvoir’s ideas are outdated because at the time her book was written, things were different; women were essentially identified as the housewives, the caretakers, etc. Beauvoir’s theory however, still reflects the language and representation of women in today’s supposedly feminist magazines. Why is it that women’s’ magazine contents essentially focus on sex, beauty, and men, rather than business, education and politics? This ideal femininity is what can be described as an “engineered consent” to domination by men, a socially constructed phenomenon.
Magazines like Cosmopolitan and Playboy are a huge part of pop culture. Therefore, the interests of consumers undoubtedly determine the output and focus of the content in the magazine. Women’s magazines still focus mainly on fashion, romance (mainly heterosexual), celebrities gossips and scandals, etc. which presumably interests only the working class rather than magazines like Time or Forbes focusing on issues regarding politics, business, education, etc. which appeals to the upper class. The textual and visual representation of femininity in magazines demonstrate the complexity of gender identification, the male figure represents strength and power while the female figure portrays vulnerability and dependency.
Today, we see a shift in the representation of an ideal feminine women in magazines and other platforms such as social media. A woman’s femininity is no longer only defined by how well she can does in the kitchen, the “possession of a ‘sexy’ body or what she wears . We see women like Chidera Eggerue (@theslumflower) and Florence Given (@florencegiven) who boldy demonstrate that the purpose of a woman isn’t defined by society or traditional constructs of femininity. This message isn’t to diminish feminine symbols or the masculine identity, but to encourage the notion of choices.
Instead of telling women “what not to wear”, women should be encouraged to embrace their beauty in every form; with short hair or long hair, make-up or no make-up. Women now have the freedom of being whomever they want to be. Women deserve the same opportunities as men, but women should also know their rights. Women can attain power and influence, and without the necessity to fit into constricting unrealistic ideas and standards of an ideal woman, a woman like a man can be whomever they choose to be.
REFERENCES
Beauvoir, S. (1949). The second sex
McRobbie, Angela (1978) Jackie: An Ideology of Adolescent Femininity. Discussion Paper. University of Birmingham, Birmingham.
Alexander, T. (2020). From the Stacks: Keep Her Where She Belongs [online] Available at: https://msmagazine.com/2010/04/14/from-the-stacks-keep-her-where-she-belongs/#:~:text=This%20ad%20for%20shoes%20was%20featured%20in%20Playboy,belongs%20naked%20on%20the%20floor%20admiring%20your%20shoes%3F [Accessed 17 September 2020].
