Ideas of what women should look like and how they should act change over time. The size 12 sex goddess of the 1950s who spent her on-screen time breathlessly trying to marry a millionaire may have yielded to the trials and tribulations of the neurotic, ultra-thin professional woman. But not much has really changed—both Ally McBeal and the 1950s sex goddess are consumed by their search for a man.
Many media activists argue that producers should be called to account, and that images of women should be forced to be more realistic.
Some producers have taken the lead. In the late 1990s, cereal giant Kellogg released an ad campaign for Special K which used pictures of older and larger women, and copy such as "the Ashantis of Ghana think a woman's body gets more attractive as she ages. Please contact your travel agent for the next available flight." The ads attracted such positive attention that in 1999 they were followed up by a TV campaign.
Teen magazines are also getting a makeover. Although stories about "The perfect boyfriend—three ways to find him" continue to grace the cover of magazines like Cosmo Girl, the features inside are expanding beyond the requisite beauty tips and fashion spreads. In 2002, the Christian Science Monitor reported that teen mags were running stories about homeless teens, a young female Palestinian suicide bomber, and an actress who refused to lose weight to get a movie role.
Christina Kelly, editor of YM, made headlines when she announced that the magazine would no longer run stories on dieting and would include pictures of bigger models. Media activist Jean Kilbourne applauded the move, saying, "Any magazine that purports to be for girls and young women, dieting has no place in it. This is a step in the right direction... It would be wonderful if some other magazine editors would be equally as courageous."
An Old Friend in a New Hat?
It is difficult to say how far changes will go. Women's networks and alternative magazines that purport to break with stereotypes have been met with ambivalence and disappointment by many commentators.
An old advertiser-smooching, beauty-product-hawking, celebrity-ass-kissing, skinny-model-filled old friend in a new, faux-iconoclastic, hypocritical, self-congratulatory hat.
Source: Andi Zeisler, on Jane
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The magazine Jane was created as an alternative voice for real women's concerns. Although, as Andi Zeisler and Lisa Miya-Jervis note, "It's true you won't find diet plans, calorie breakdowns, or dopey self-discovery quizzes within Jane's heavy, well-designed, matte-finish pages ... in plenty of the ways that count, Jane is just like any other women's magazine"—full of painfully thin models and what Janelle Brown calls, "advice on how to slim our thighs and prepare nutritious snacks for kids while dressed for the catwalk."
Women's networks like Oxygen and Lifetime TV have been criticized for equally mixed messages. Joyce Millman compares one animated show on Oxygen called Fat Girl, which tells the story of a "large-and-in-charge woman who clashes with her mean, stick-figure female boss," with Bitchy Bits, the tale of a woman who grumbles her way through a shopping expedition for a new bathing suit. Millman concludes, "Yes, many women have food and weight issues. But Oxygen's schizo attitude ("It's cool to be fat!"; "I hate myself in a bathing suit!") is doing nobody any favours."
By Girls, For Girls
Andi Zeisler warns that critics may be expecting too much from mainstream women's media, which can "hardly buck the ad-driven culture of women's magazines that literally depends on the product plug for its revenue stream." Not-for-profit ventures and e-zines, on the other hand, have been more successful in providing women and girls with ways to express their own perspectives. The Internet has been a particularly useful venue for empowering girls.
The alternative magazine Teen Voices is written by and for teenaged girls and relies on subscriptions from its 75,000 readers for most of its revenue. The magazine seeks to provide a way to help "high-risk" inner-city girls acquire life skills. Sixteen-year-old contributor Sarah Calvello has learned that, "In Teen Voices, you can say anything—speak out and be heard."
Managing editor Ellyn Ruthstrom agrees. For her, Teen Voices is "about them finding their voices and being confident enough to have a voice. We want these girls to feel that they are important enough to be heard—because they are."
