The term magazine is generally acknowledged to have come into usage with a publication in the 1730s of ‘The Gentleman’s Magazine’ by Edward Cave. Its aim was to entertain with stories of crime and romance, soon proving popular, not just for sale but for rental in public houses, coffee houses and barber shops. The Lady’s Magazine, a female counterpart, was quickly published, and from then on magazines began to establish themselves as demand for the new style of publication increased.

Traditionally, magazines were written for men by men, the likes of ‘Punch’ and ‘Strand’ are examples of this. Most magazines were written from an opinionated viewpoint, for example the political magazine ‘Punch,’ which sought to provide a “witty and irreverent take on the world” (Punch Ltd, 2004), albeit purely from a male perspective. This like others was a product of its time, and historical events such as women getting the vote changed everything.

We live, now more than ever before, in an ideological society in which the media exploits the image of the ideal to entice readers with images of perfection as ‘the norm.’ Essentially, making them believe that the impossible is possible.  This does seem like a modern day phenomenon, however I have found that the same ‘ideals’ have been represented in both the male and female press from the start. 

Early Ideology of Femininity in Women’s Magazines

Examining the roots of the ‘female press’ development, it is clear that from early on women were established as the primary consumers, which is why there were a broad choice of publications.  However, early publications were written by men, and it wasn’t until the eighteenth century that women began to participate in the public realm of print.

Before this time, there was NO gender equality. Social change aided the development of gender equality, and in parallel the media produced gender stereotypes, which has developed into the social ideology we see in the media today. Social change enabled women to have more freedom; the birth of the women’s lifestyle sector gave women a voice, and enabled women to be represented, for the first time, by their fellow sex.

However it seemed that equality was a rarity in other aspects of the print media. “In 1957 Howard Stick calculated that the ratio of female to male journalists in newspapers as 1:16 and in magazines 1:3” (Delano, 2003, p.273), female participation continued to remain as an insignificant minority within the newspaper industry, until “the expansion of the journalist population in the 1960s” (Delano, 2003, p.284).

Although there were many magazines aimed at men, these were often hobby orientated, and it wasn’t until late in the 20th Century that there was a male answer to the women’s lifestyle sector.

This late arrival of men’s lifestyle magazines could be seen as a result of the gender- commerce link being realised with the expansion of the leisure industry and arrival of the ‘new man’ ideology in the late twentieth century.  Whitehorne points out that “only in the 1980’s did men’s magazines appear that were based on general interest magazines,” before that they had been concentrated on hobbies or interests rather than achieving the ‘personal confidante persona’ that the women’s press had attained long before (2007).

I also recognised that it wasn’t until the end of 1995 that all four major UK consumer publishers, Condé Nast, Natmags, Emap and IPC, owned a men’s lifestyle title. Consequently, the lifestyle division for men was truly established.

When Helen Damon-Moore studied gender construction within men’s magazines, in particular American magazine ‘The Saturday Evening Post,’ she found that they came close to unconscious indoctrination- they “presented patriarchy and male domination as natural” (1994).  Although this study is now slightly dated, references to a patriarchal society are made throughout magazine history, and are even apparent in the female magazines of today, with instances such as the ‘male gaze’ and the over-sexing of female models in the female press.

The female alternative (also American), was the ‘Ladies Home Journal’ in which Damon-Moore found that women’s activities were circumscribed in comparison to the male alternative in which a broader range of activity was endorsed for men. Pastimes such as sewing and cooking were encouraged and it ‘sang the praises of housework as an invigorating and worthwhile pursuit.’ 

Although presented in different ways, both magazines were permeated by images and descriptions of appropriate gender ideals and behaviours, these became stereotypes proving the influence of the media over its consumers. These stereotypes continue to have influence over the readers, as they allow magazines to convey a vast quantity of information relying on few visual clues. This makes them an ideal, yet potentially lethal tool, in the world of journalism because of the ideological influence they have over the more impressionable reader.

So, it seems not much has changed. The ideal woman and the ideal man are still deliberately and unashamedly represented in today’s male and female press. It just so happens that the ‘ideal’ has changed, not the concept behind magazines.