Maybe the last draft need to go over the grammer

Abstract

This report will cover over a few chapters that would hopefully answer the question on: Do we need sexuailed images to be interested in a product. “ Do the sexualised images put us under pressure?”. This is a very big topic to cover, so the report is going to break it down by focusing on the advertising and editorial content they use in lifestyle magazines. In the report, when it talks about the term “ sexualised” It refers to “the making of a person, group or thing to be seen as sexual in nature or a person to become aware of sexuality”. Some of the areas that the report is going to try to cover are:

• Who are these sexualized images aimed at (who are their target audience),
• Does the use of sexualised image have a different effect on men than it has on woman?
• If the designer didn’t use a sexualised image would the reader still be interested?
• Do these sexualised images put the reader under pressure to mirror the image?

This report will be based upon many experiments and interviews that will be carried out with people from various age groups and with different interests to provide a more substantial base of knowledge. The answers and thoughts provided by people participating will be very useful when trying to come up with the conclusion to the question.

Chapters

LOOKING BACK AT THE HISTORY OF MAGAZINES

This chapter will look through the history on when the emerge of sexualised imagery in magazines first came about, and sets the context of feminism and post-feminism opinions.

The report will look back in history on when sexualised images become such an everyday thing and look at a time if it was not ok to look at sexualised images in magazines. The report look at the opinions of different people who worked in the magazine industry on the views on magazines contents.

Interesting people to look at :

Betty Friedan, female American writer, activist and feminist who wrote for a magazine company call Mc Calls. Friedan work looks for the social definition of women’s role in the pages of women’s magazines, she saw the portrayals of women both editorial and advertising.

Courtney and Lockerets were another two people who analyze how people looked at women, they believed that there are four general stereotypes of women being shown in the 70’s in print advertisement:

Quotations

“ A women’s place is in the home; women do not make important decisions or do important things; women are dependent and need men’s protection; and men regard women primarily as sexual objects” (sex stereotyping in advertising p.10)

¬¬ Pingree, Hawkins, Butler and Paisley developed a scale for sexism and tested it against advertisements during the 1973-1974.

Quotations

“ The most stereotypical level, level one, shows women as sex objects. Level two keeps women in their places by showing them in traditional activities. Level three shows professional women whose first place is in the home. Level four shows the sexes as fully equal and level five shows men and women in individual, nonstereotyed roles”. ” (sex stereotyping in advertising p.10)


Studies show that the attractiveness of the endorsing model provokes positive responses. Nudity and graphic erotic content, while still increasing consumer’s attention, doesn’t really generate positive feelings among viewers but that was not the case 40’s year ago. The media has changed so much over the years, in the late 60’s women in magazine weren’t used as sexual objects but instead their lifestyle of motherhood and the care of the home and husband were splashed over the magazine covers. The report will go through different resources picking out key elements in history, which made an impact of the way magazines portray images of people. Maybe doing a timeline to break down these events down would be easier way to understand all the information.


WHY DO MAGAZINES USE SEXUALISED IMAGES

Advertisers tried to understand and explore the deep unconscious and subconscious factors that motivate people to buy products. Advertisers try to use word triggers and picture trigger to evoke desired responses. The report is going to explore why and if sexualised Images makes people buy things?

Quotations

“The business man’s hunt for sale boosters is leading him into a strange wilderness: the sub-conscious mind.” (Wall street Journal, page 1)

Do magazines use sexualised images as one of their tactics to attract men and to twist their minds into purchasing a particular product. Companies are implementing the same tactics in the advertisements that target women by sending out the message of "Buy (this product) and he will notice you".

COSMOPOLITAN VS NUTS

In this report it will have different comparative analysis of sexualised imagery of both women and men in youth lifestyle magazines. It will then go on to visually deconstruct and comparatively analyse an issue of Cosmopolitan and an issue of Nuts magazines

Experiments
(The period of three issues)

• How many editorial about sexualised topic does cosmopolitan have compare to nuts?
• How many sexualised images do they both use?
• Who are the target audience for these magazine?
• If a designer changed the sexualised image to something different would it have the same affect on the reader?
• Do men and female have different points of views when they look at this sexualised images
• The numbers of men/women featured in each magazine?

ARE WE UNDER PRESSURE?

Do these sexualised images put the reader under pressure to mirror the image? People in advertising say that all they do is hold a mirror up to society, reflecting who we are. So is it a surprise that most of the advert we see has a sexualised nature about them? Sexualised images in advertising has stirred controversy for many years, an advertiser must be careful when incorporating it in a campaign. In the report it tries is to see if majority of magazines reflect reality and that the image of women in advertisements is significant in influencing women’s perception of themselves. Great advertisers consider not only the attention- getting power of an advertisement or commercial, but also what kind of emotional response it provokes in customers.

MAGAZINES FIGHTS BACK

The report will possibly conclude with a series of considerations for magazine editors.

Here are some questions that might be asked them:

• Do you think there is a lot of sexualised imagery in lifestyle magazines?
• Do you think an editorial with a sexualised images will sell better then an editorial without? And why?
• Do you think sexualised imagery put the reader under pressure?

Magazine’s choose carefully when picking images for magazine because for a man some images does not provoke the kind of anxiety that it may do in many women. Does the use of sexualised image have an different effect on men than it has on woman?

Action Plan

• Researching on the history of sexualised images used in lifestyle magazines. Resources: Books, journals, the Internet and magazines. It will be used as a general background and back-up to support my theories.
• Create a timeline of important events that influenced magazines
• Research the demographic of lifestyle magazine
• Research about lifestyle magazines are trying to achieve
• Comparatively analyse an issue of Cosmopolitan and an issue of Nuts magazines. Resources primary research: Experiments, surveys/ questionnaires
• Pure pressure that lifestyle magazines have on society
• Contact Designers who are working in the magazine industry. Possible interviewing methods – face-to-face interview, phone interview and email questionnaire.
• Gathering and analyzing the information.
• Design my report looking at influences like “ creative review, id magazine


Bibliography:

Books

• Designing Pornotopia – Rick Poynor (2006)
• Picture of women sexuality written by Jane Root (1984)
• Channels of Desire written by Stuart and Elizabeth Ewen
• Sex stereotyping in Advertising - Alice E Courtney/ Thomas W. Whipple (1984)
• Female Fetishism – Lorraine Gamman & Merja Makinen (1994)
• Was it good for you, too? 30 years of Cosmopolitan" - Linda Kelsey (Robson Books, 2003)
• Marie Claire
• Nuts
• Cosmopolitan
• Editorial Design – Yolanda Zappaterra (2007)
• Design writing Researching – Ellen Lupton & Abbott Miller (1996)
• The will to knowledge – Michel Foucault (1976)


Websites

• www.google.co.uk/search?q=history+of+sexualised+images+in+magazines&hl=en&client=firefox-a&channel=s&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&sa=G&tbs=tl:1&tbo=1&ei=4x5eStv7B96rjAfhgOXdDQ&oi=timeline_result&ct=title&resnum=11

• BBC NEWS | Health | Sexualisation 'harms' young girls http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6376421.stm

• http://www.idsgn.org/posts/now-and-then-sex-still-sells/

• http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/women_and_girls/upload/article_sexualized_images.pdf

• http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27595678/