Examples Of Gender Appropriateness In Fashion Magazines

Sandi Rodriguez
SOC 230 – Perez
Paper #2
Gender Appropriateness in Today’s Fashion Magazines

On the cover of mostly all fashion magazines that are seen today, there is either a beautifully dressed woman with a slim figure and perfect hair and makeup or there is a (sometimes) shirtless man with chiseled abs and a stern look. Now there is not a rule book for how women and men are to be depicted in magazine photos but because of our expectancy that men and women are going to be depicted in what is known as their normal role, we accept the photos that are printed in the magazines and brush them off as no big deal. In fashion magazines, women and men are expected to depict a heterosexual role in the photos they are in. Women are expected
I looked at 15 images from three different magazines, Cosmopolitan, Vogue and Vanity Fair. All three depicted men and women in similar ways and some even had repeats of images that were in other magazines. Of the 15 images, I have 5 images of only women, 5 of only men and 5 of men and women interacting together. All of the images have several things in common no matter who is present in each photo. Women are most commonly seen as dominating the fashion magazines as well as other magazines. Sadly, just because their photos take over the majority of pages in magazines does not mean that women themselves dominate everything; this includes men. Since all five of the images of women came from fashion magazines, they are all wearing expensive clothing though some of the women have less clothing than others. Each image has a single figure and 4 out of the 5 women are Caucasian with the last woman being of Asian descent. In all of the images, there are areas in the photo that according to the movie Codes of Gender, the director Sut Jhally would refer to as the “bashful knee bend” or a woman “signaling submission” and even being “psychologically
In two of the five images, a woman is taking the man’s clothing off; one woman has unbuttoned the jeans of a shirtless man in one photo while in another photo, another woman is slipping her hand down a man’s already unbuttoned shirt. The role is reversed in a different image where a man is tugging at the woman’s dress strap. Male dominance is seen in another photo where the man is face to face with a woman but he has moved so close to her that she has to lean back a bit. It looks as though he is forcing his tough figure against her to show her that he is the stronger of the two and the fact that she is leaning back shows that she is weak and vulnerable. She also has her eyes closed while he is looking at her and his gaze seems to be on her lips. Her closed eyes further prove the point that she is vulnerable and is willing to submit to whatever action he wishes to engage in. The last image does not depict a direct interaction between a man and woman but it does depict the behaviors that were expected. In this image, a woman is walking in a dress and two men are admiring her from behind. One man has a slight smile while looking at the back of her head while the other man appears to be in the motion of getting ready to lick his lips while he is plainly staring at her butt as she walks. Whether the interaction between men and women is direct or indirect, there always seems to be some type of sexual desire