What makes a girl? Unpacking the messages in girls’ magazines

Girls’ mag wrap September-October issues

For many girls, the magazines they read are their lifestyle bibles. How should they look, dress, act and relate? What’s important in life? Who should they look up to? My analysis of the September and October issues of Girlfriend, Dolly, Girlpower, Totalgirl, Disney Girl and Little Angel shows that girls are being delivered a fairly one-dimensional view of girl/young womanhood. The emphasis is on looks, fashion, beauty practices, gossip, celebrity culture and consumerism. While there are a few redeeming features, for example a little more body diversity in Dolly and features on real girls who have overcome difficulties in life to achieve their goals, in Dolly and Girlfriend, overall the message remains normative, limited and limiting.

This review was recently published as a guest blog on the Generation Next website.

October 18th, 2010

One Response to “What makes a girl? Unpacking the messages in girls’ magazines”

The T(w)een factor
October 19th, 2010 at 8:33 pm

I find it incredible that there is a section on sex (in Dolly Mag) and many of the girls interviewed are under age. Not to mention the reader of the month being 13!! This makes it appear to be normal and acceptable behaviour for young girls.

Thank you Melinda for a great review of the ‘diet’ fed to our Youth!

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