The Attractiveness of Magazines as “Open” and “Closed” Texts: Values of Women's Magazines and Their Readers

Mahrt, Merja

doi:10.1080/15205436.2011.635259

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…It is unclear whether the lack of participation of racialised older women in our research is related to the continued underrepresentation of people of colour in most mainstream women's magazines (Covert and Dixon, 2008;Lewis et al, 2011;Hirsch and Cherubini, 2018), but the latter fact alone would suggest that these women's voices need to be heard. Beyond its racially homogeneous sample, another potential limitation of this study relates to the broad and diverse range of titles that can be considered 'women's magazines' (Mahrt, 2012). While many of our participants reported reading the same few high-circulating titles (among others), the overall number of magazines mentioned during the interviews was relatively high and it is unlikely that participants used every one of these magazines in the same way.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Older women using women's magazines: the construction of knowledgeable selves

Sawchuk

2020

Ageing and Society

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Women's magazines are widely read in Canada. The popularity of such magazines is significant because critical gerontologists, primarily drawing on content analyses of the magazines, often argue that these publications convey problematic messages about ageing. This article broaches the subject of women's magazines and ageing from a different vantage point, that of the older woman reader herself. This audience-centred research draws on 21 semi-structured interviews with Canadian women over the age of 55. The study examines what older women say about the ageing-related content of women's magazines, along with what they say about how, when and why they read these magazines. Findings illustrate that participants are aware of the inadequate and unrealistic representations of older women in women's magazines. Nonetheless, they value the publications as a source of practical information on a variety of topics and as a light and undemanding source of entertainment and relaxation. The study reveals how participants assess and deploy magazine contents and characteristics in ways that contribute to, and are informed by, their lives and identities as older women. Against the broader cultural context of ageism, using and talking about women's magazines enables the participants to position themselves as knowledgeable and informed on a variety of topics and in multiple interactions, both in explicit reference to the magazines themselves and more generally in their lives.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Older women using women's magazines: the construction of knowledgeable selves

Sawchuk

2020

Ageing and Society

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“…But some periodicals have the potential to do so, either because they offer value patterns clearcut enough to be perceived concurringly by readers or because their contents are sufficiently open to readers' interpretations and projections" (p. 871). Given the politically charged content of feminist publications as well as their need to reach a wide audience that will have various levels of feminist knowledge, feminist publications, therefore, rely on an open text format so that it may be interpreted by readers from an ideal self and from a reflexive point of view as Yre-Arne (2014) and Mahrt (2012) suggest.…”

Section: ) Merja Mahrt's (2012) Insights On the Differences Betwementioning

confidence: 99%

Celebrity, Sex, Fashion ... and Feminism?: Exploring the Relationship Between Popular Feminist Media Blogs and Perceptions of Feminism

Rajani¹

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This thesis explores the intersections of online media and popular feminist discourse by looking at how young women perceive feminism and are engaging with feminist media blogs-that is, blogs with a focus on women-positive and feminist perspectives that challenge narrow mainstream media messages. Employing a qualitative methodology, this thesis investigates the subjective experiences of young women (18 and 19 years old) who read, and engage with, online feminist media blogs including: Jezebel, Feministing, Racialicious, Ms. Magazine and Bitch Media.As an extension to current research on online feminist media that focus on feminist media websites, my research focuses on the user's experiences and perspectives on the role the medium plays in their everyday lives similar to early research on readers of women's magazines (Budgeon, 1999;Hermes, 1995). The results from the interviews reveal three themes: the role of entertainment and information in feminist media blog content; emerging feminist consciousness of the participants; and, finally, blurred online and offline boundaries. Ultimately, I argue that feminist media blogs can be a transformative space for some young women who have little initial exposure to feminism. Feminist media blogs can disperse the idea that the need for feminism continues despite postfeminist claims to the contrary. I conclude that such sites engender this possibility by virtue of being accessible and entertaining and thus should not be discounted as apolitical and/or ineffective.iii AcknowledgementsThe completion of this thesis involved so many for their continued support and guidance. I would first like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Lara Karaian. Thank you for your encouragement, your mentorship and for pushing me to think and write beyond what I thought I was capable of. Thank you as well to my committee members, Dr. Gurli Woods and Dr. Sheryl Hamilton, for your thoughtful feedback and suggestions on how I can continue to challenge myself in my academic work.Thank you to all of my friends that have provided much appreciated emotional support and long talks over delicious desserts during this entire process.

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Women's Magazines and Women Readers

Alexiou¹

2020

The International Encyclopedia of Gender, Media, and Communication

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This entry provides an introduction to the main works on women's reading practices, and women as readers/consumers of women's magazines. Much of existing research in this field is based on the Victorian fallacy that women are passive consumers of media texts. In contrast, this entry focuses on the small section of existing work that understand women readers as active participants in meaning‐making, specifically concentrating on the pleasures, otherwise termed “uses and gratifications” that women gain through the act of reading magazines. The entry begins with Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory, and then discusses Holland and Sherman's, and Flynn and Schweickart's work on women readers. It then explains that some women readers identify with the messages found in women's magazines, and some do not; yet, they all continue to read women's magazines. Gender‐focused research reveals that women readers obtain a plethora of pleasures though the act of reading/consuming women's magazines and this is one of the reasons that they repeatedly revisit this particular media genre. Other media and communication studies research also confirms that there are a number of motives, urging audiences to repeatedly consume specific media. However, it would be interesting to see an expansion on reader‐response studies of women reading women's magazines, especially through a closer consideration of context, race, class, and sexual orientation.

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The Attractiveness of Magazines as “Open” and “Closed” Texts: Values of Women's Magazines and Their Readers

Cited by 5 publications

References 20 publications

Older women using women's magazines: the construction of knowledgeable selves

Older women using women's magazines: the construction of knowledgeable selves

Celebrity, Sex, Fashion ... and Feminism?: Exploring the Relationship Between Popular Feminist Media Blogs and Perceptions of Feminism

Women's Magazines and Women Readers

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