To what extent should magazines be held responsible for the social ramifications of the representations they offer?

In magazines aimed at teenage girls such as Bliss, Cosmo Girl, Mizz, Shout and Sugar, which I have analysed in the previous post, there is a lot of talk that they are to blame for social ramifications of teenage girls across the country. I think that some content in these teenage magazines exposes girls to things they are too young to be doing or understand or can make girls very critical of themselves because of what they see in these magazines.

The first thing I think is affected for girls who read these magazines is their body image and self-concept. In every teenage girls magazine is features on celebrities who appear beautiful, skinny and perfect. The truth that the reader doesn't see is that these airbrushed images aren't real. Girls see this perfect image and look at themselves and feel unhappy that their not these ideal people. Really these celebrity images are unrealistic and they don't show images of a celebrity in a bad state because that's not teenage girls are interested in.

I also think girls are introduced to the world of boys and relationships to young because of articles in these magazines. For example girls read articles called 'Kissing Tips' and feel that they should be doing stuff like this when really their a bit young to be doing stuff like this. Also celebrity boys who are popular to teenage girls such as Justin Bieber or JLS are featured and there is a big emphasis on the physical attraction to these boys and they forget about personality. It's quite shallow and will make girls care more about how a boy looks in the future instead of their personality. I personally think this emphasis on boys and boyfriends encourages inappropriate behaviour to young. Also problem pages in these magazines have questions about sex and are asked by girls who are sexually active. This is likely to put pressure on girls who are younger and reading these magazines to do these things because they feel everyone else is doing it when they are probably not. I think sexualisation of girls as young as eleven who are reading these magazines needs to stop.

Celebrities are another huge factor which to quite a big extent should be held responsible for social ramifications. Teenage girls are usually fans of celebrities and the majority aspire to have the lifestyle of these celebrities, although some of what you read in these magazines about celebrities could encourage bad behaviour, such as binge drinking and taking drugs. Because girls want to be like these celebrities they are easily influenced and feel that if they follow the same lifestyle as them they will become like a celebrity. What they don’t realise is the problems celebrities face as a consequence of some of their behaviour as its not printed in teenage magazines. I feel that these problems are not highlighted enough in these magazines.

The last factor which I think is an important issue is the food issues girls develop through the pressure of having a ‘perfect body’ because of certain articles printed. For example if there are tips on having the perfect body and this is portrayed through an image, these girls my feel they have to look like this which would then lead to devastating issues which are sometimes very dangerous such as anorexia, bulimia, body shape issues and size issues. Also if girls are constantly reminded of what is the norm, they may feel scared to admit to things such as their sexuality or careers choice because it’s different to what is talked about in these magazines aimed at teenage girls.

In conclusion I feel that the factors mentioned about are very big reasons as to why teenage girls are growing up to first, not happy with themselves, or having body issues. I think magazines are largely responsible for the social ramifications of teenage girls who these magazines are aimed at.