How do teen magazines promote ideology? Beth Webb

Ideologies Ideologies are a set of ideas that composes a person’s goals, expectations and actions. They are thought to be a way of looking at things or a set of ideas proposed by society. There’s this idea in society that all teenagers want to be a certain way. Girls want to have boyfriends and look stunning and perfect, and Guy’s want to have lots of muscle and get the best looking girlfriend you can get. There is also some ideologies that will have a positive impact on the youth of today such as the ideology that women can go out and get a job while in the past, it was thought that they couldn’t. Some of these positive ideologies just aren’t acknowledged when they should. So what kinds of ideologies are promoted in magazines?

“Get a Great Body!” On nearly every teen magazine I have come across, there is always an article on how to lose weight. Most teen girls may then look at themselves and think, “If there are so many tips on how to lose weight, maybe I’m doing something wrong”. This will lead to teens feeling very low about themselves and have little self confidence which everyone needs to have. In many cases, seeing articles on how to ‘drop a few pounds’, the person will follow the tips to loose the weight they may think they need to loose. Researchers have found that nearly 2 in every 100 secondary school teenage girls will develop an eating disorder in order to lose weight. In a study of girls aged 9-15, more than 50% claimed they exercised to lose weight, nearly 50% claimed they reduced food intake so they wouldn’t gain any more weight, and about 5% claimed to use their parents' diet pill or laxatives in order to lose weight.

“And they lived happily ever after.” In many magazines, there are dating tips. There are so many articles on how to get that guy you like, to get him to notice you or whether or not your guy is the right guy. This supports the ideology that all teen girls want to meet the perfect guy, get married and start the perfect family. But what if a guy thinks you’re the perfect gal? There aren’t any ‘tips’ on how to avoid sticky situations like that. The media seems to promote to girls that they need to have a boyfriend, and they have to be good looking guys. Well what about girls who are attracted to other girls? There isn’t any advice on situations like that is there? No. There is no advice on same sex relationships due to the fact that the ideology says girls want to marry a man and have a child with them. Parts of society still doesn’t agree that same sex relationships are right and they can not start a family due to the fact that they are only one gender together.

“Mirror, mirror on the wall” “Who’s the fairest of them all?” Every girl hopes its them. Or so it seems. On nearly every teen magazine I have come across, there is always beauty tips. From make-up to how to do your hair to keeping your skin clean and healthy, there is always an article on how to be ‘more beautiful’. But this isn’t all fine and dandy. These girls will look at the models used to show how you can look and feel awful just because they aren’t that pretty. This has lead to 40% of teens wanting plastic surgery to changed their appearance. All though there are negative side effects to this, there are also positive ones. Skin needs to be looked after and the articles on how to do just that can leave girls feeling more confident about themselves rather than having negative thoughts. Even though teen magazines promote the ideology that girls have to be pretty, at times it does have its positive effects.

“You wear Louis Vuitton, HG and YSL...” Every girl needs to know the latest fashion, right? All these magazines have the latest clothing ranges, what’s hot and what’s not and many even have competitions to find ‘the best dressed teen’. There are so many fashion magazines aimed towards the whole female population, not just teenagers but before all of these magazines, I’m sure women just wore what they thought was nice and was comfy. Now days you get so many teen girls wearing outfits that to others may seem stupid, just because they saw it in a fashion magazine. Teenage magazines have articles and many pages dedicated to the latest ‘hot clothing’ even though some of the clothing can be just plain horrible. Magazines such as Teen Vogue, Seventeen and Glamour all concentrate on fashion from high street to high fashion to catwalk, all promoting the ideology to teen girls.

Mr Muscle It isn’t just the female population that has ideologies, men have them too. There’s the ideology that men have to be strong and have lots of muscle, but why do they want to look that way? Some say that have more muscle makes them look more masculine which attract women to themselves and to feel ‘butch’. This supposing gives the male more confidence and the need to prove their masculinity. In many teen magazines aimed towards girls, there are pictures of boys who have muscle, and lots of it. This can put a lot of pressure on the boys to look a certain way just so girls will like them. There is also many magazines such as Men’s Health that focus on men and muscles. Boy’s may see these types of magazines and feel that that is what the average man looks like, just because there are many men with unnatural bodies. This gives the wrong impression to teen boys.

BOOOOOOBSSSS! Guys like big boobs. Am I right? Well, for some guys, that would be yes but not all teenage boys care hugely about big breasts, or breasts at all for that matter. A lot of teenage boys think they have to be interested in only pretty girls with big ones, but how many girls really look like that in real life? Not many boys! The number of British teenagers having breast enlargement operations has increased by more than 150% in the past year. Why? Maybe because they feel that teen boys would find them more attractive with bigger breast than smaller ones. Every where they sell magazines, there will always be a huge section dedicated to magazines which have half naked women in them. This can give the wrong impression to the youth of today. Maybe, after seeing all these women they may think that it’s normal and every girl has to be super skinny with large breasts. Well, let’s just say they will be very disappointed if they think it’s the norm.