Crucial Advice on how to Get the Guy: The Rhetorical Vision of Power and Seduction in the Teen Magazine YM

Narrative Analysis of Sexual Etiquette in Teenage Magazines

“…We surveyed five magazines aimed at teenaged girls for their advice on sex: YM, 'Teen, and Seventeen aimed at a younger (12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19) audience and Glamour and Mademoiselle, whose audience, although older (18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24) Focusing on the editorial part of the magazines that gave direct sexual or relationship advice to young women, we analyzed health, sex, and relationship columns, as well as any directly related feature articles or stories from the April and October issues of 1974, 1984, and 1994. We selected these years because we wanted to see if the advice changed over time and reflected the impact of AIDS.…”

“…Peirce (1990) also found that traditional socialization messages (such as "finding a man to take care of her") dominated over more feminist messages (such as self-reliance) even when influences from the feminist movement of the late 1960s and 1970s were taken into account. Work by Duffy and Gotcher (1996) argued that YM provided a "rhetorical vision that permeates the magazine lead[ing] the viewer to believe that beauty, costuming, popularity, and romance are the keys to female success" (p. 44). The end result was a "distorted world view ... where success is determined by meeting the needs and expectations of males, and a world view free of consequences for sexual activity" (p. 45).…”

“…The five most popular of these are YM (Young and Modern), 'Teen, Seventeen, Glamour, and Mademoiselle; each with over 1.5 million in circulation (Standard Rate and Data, 1995). Ironically, only a few studies attend specifically to magazines directed at this market (Duffy & Gotcher, 1996;Duke, 1995;Evans, Rutberg, Sather, & Turner, 1991;Frazer, 1987;McCracken, 1993;McRobbie, 1991;Peirce, 1990Peirce, , 1993Peirce, , 1995Pool, 1990). Not surprisingly, these studies, like those for their adult counterparts, found that teen magazines work to shape women into enthusiastic consumers who pump money into capitalistic enterprises.…”

Domestic Violence in Men's and Women's Magazines: Women Are Guilty of Choosing the Wrong Men, Men Are Not Guilty of Hitting Women

“…(Santa Cruz, 1995, pp. 52-53) Popular magazines are dominated by portrayals of women as being primarily interested in beauty, fashion, and heterosexual romantic relationships (Duffy & Gotcher, 1996;Evans, Rutberg, Sather, & Turner, 1991;Ferguson, 1983;Garner et al, 1998;Hermes, 1995;McCracken, 1993;Peirce, 1990Peirce, , 1995Steiner, 1995;Wolf, 1992), including teen magazines, which are essentially focused on promoting heterosexual romance as the central project of a woman's life (Peirce, 1990;Schlenker, Caron, & Halteman, 1998) and establishing men as the dominating force of romantic relationships (Carpenter, 1998;Durham, 1996Durham, , 1998Garner et al, 1998). Duffy and Gotcher find that popularity and romance is emphasized to teens to a degree that creates a ''distorted world view ...where success is determined by meeting the needs and expectations of males '' (1996, p. 45).…”

Feminist Ideals for a Healthy Female Adolescent Sexuality: A Critique

“…In spite of third wave and academic feminists' efforts to undo the binary, the idea of female passivity and the idea that sex is for men live on in women's magazines, "girl talk", and romance narratives (Carpenter 1998;Duffy and Gotcher 1996;Garner and Sterk 1998;Kim and Ward 2004;Tolman 2000;Walkerdine 1990). Thus, a discourse of pleasure, desire, and subjectivity may be needed to counteract notions of female passivity that girls may receive through the media today.…”