Teenage magazine essay

To what extend should magazines be held responsible for the social ramifications of the representations they offer?

There are many questions and arguments flown around about the market of magazines aimed at teenage girls such as, Bliss, Cosmo Girl, More, Blush, Kiss ect. People have different views on what the magazines have to offer, what they contain and the context with in them. The governments consumer 'watchdog' has claimed that teenage magazines, such as the above, are to blame for early sexualisation of their young readers and they are failing to uphold guidelines on their content.

Bliss is one of the many teenage magazines. Outrageously, their website has previously invited girls to send in photographs of themselves to be marked on "looks and pull-ability" in a contest called "How Sexy Am I?" while Sugar(another magazine company) has an annual modelling competition for girls asking: "Want fame, freebies and fit lads?" Grabs and Adds like those are used to grab the readers attention and make them believe they have more to offer than other magazines, tricking them into buying that particular magazine brand rather than another. I think that this is one of the main reasons why the content in which is shown within the magazines, is getting worse and worse. Because the publishers and editors of the magazines want theirs to be the best, so they determine more and more outrageous puffs and plugs, cover lines, images and pull quotes to make sure their magazine is the best seller. 

The Teenage Magazine Arbitration Panel (TMAP), the industry's self-regulatory body whose members include publishers and editors, is supposed to ensure that the sexual content of teenage magazines is presented in a responsible and appropriate manner. However, most people debate against this, and say they don't think that the TMAP are sticking to the guidelines and that the content shown within these particular magazines is increasingly getting far worse.

Sue Palmer, an educational consultant and the author of Toxic Childhood, said: "The reality is that children as young as 10 read these magazines, and what they are being exposed to is often horrific and entirely inappropriate, especially for their age. 

"The very blatantly sexual ethos expressed in them is becoming normalised among young girls. Then we wonder why we have such high teenage pregnancy rates and a booming ladette culture. Everyone can see, magazines are blatantly flouting the guidelines, which need to be tightened up and have a real force of law behind them.

Dr Fleur Fisher, the chairman of TMAP, said: "The magazines should be cross-checking their features with our guidelines, and if they are not, then that is where we come in. "Any complaints we receive from readers are carefully checked against our guidelines, and we respond accordingly. Many of the features within these magazines are written in response to queries they receive from their readers."

Being a young girl myself at the age of 16, in the past I have read teenage magazines. Therefore, I believe, as well as the sexual references and content on that particular topic there are other matters that are raised and displayed within the magazines such as weight loss and dieting. To me, this is one of the biggest issues with teenage magazines, I think the majority of young girls in the age group start strict diets and go crazy about weight, just because the magazines have exploited images of things such as famous people gaining or loosing weight. And making nasty comments. Its ridiculous. Because of how society is today, people look up to the "perfect person" however, nobody's perfect. Its reality. People look up to having the perfect lifestyle and appearance but this is just a set up and staged image created and influenced massively by the media. It can lead to people feeling like a failure and even depressed if they don't succeed this and don't feel good about themselves. This can make people go downhill and loose all self esteem and confidence. Magazines should not have this power! Magazines always expose images to show weight gain/loss. They include puffs and plugs, usually on the front cover, to advertise how to loose weight fast, or get the "perfect summer body". The magazine "Heat" has included cover lines such as "starving to be sexy" and "health at risk for their quest of perfection" but the idea of 'perfection' is only created because of the media, and socialisation nowadays. The magazine "Sugar" included a cover line, ' get sexy, confident and  sorted' insinuating and brainwashing the reader to believe they aren't already. And perhaps the idea they aren't good enough at all, unless they do what the magazine says. Magazines should not have the power and right to do this , especially to the younger generation. This is cruel.

Therefore, i would like to see dieting adds and images removed from magazines, as it really is brainwashing young girls and determining how they think as well as socialise. Also, the topic of sex should not be so explicit. The depth of detail within the magazines is hideous. As a mother,would you like your 14 year old girl to be exposed to as much as they are? The mass majority couldn't disagree more with the content shown. Some say its almost seen as pornographic, which is absolutely shocking for that age band. As well as that, images of nearly naked boys/men should not be included, it just makes young girls believe its a norm to see these things and natural for them to start thinking in a sexual frame of mind. Which is wrong in so many ways. 

In addition, fun quiz's and games inside of magazines are good, it suits the age group well. Dramatic story's or celebrity based gossip should not be shown and explained in so much detail. Maybe magazines should start to include more fun learning games. Also a hidden way of teaching the viewers norms and values, what's good and what's bad. However some may say that defeats the point of a magazine, 'the gossip' is the whole idea. But no one could disagree more than  the editors and publishers, because they would argue that they will loose business and if they include things such as those, the younger generation will loose interest rapidly. I think this is ridiculous, we live in such a mucked up society... and media IS to blame.