To what extent should magazine be held responsible for the social ramifications of the representation they offer?

I have chosen 5 different teenage girl magazine covers and from studying them closely and comparing them to each other, I have found similarities and comparisons between them. Alongside this I have found reoccurring conventions between the genre.

The reoccurring theme that stands out the most in the 5 magazines I have chosen is the strong pink theme. It is a commonly known ideology that the colour pink is associated with ‘girly girls’ and a younger generation of girls, therefore by promoting a magazine with these colours the magazine portrays the fact that it is trying to entice and appeal to this audience (young teenage girly girls). Also by using images icons in which young girls idolize such as Vanessa Hudgens and Taylor Swift, they are again aiming to appeal to teenage girls. The fact that the girls have a look of innocence about them makes them more likeable, hence making the magazine more marketable. 

The magazine cover for ‘Bliss’ uses the left third to mention an article titled ‘raped on a beach’. This may show that the content inside the magazine may actually be for a slightly more mature reader as opposed to the young teenage girl it seems to a appear to. This will have a negative affect on the reader as they maybe reading articles that are perhaps to explicit or, as mentioned before, matured for them.  The other main aspect of the cover which will have a negative effect on teenage girls, is how the models on the front seem to be the definition of perfection, the audience (young girls) may begin to idolize the cover model and aspire to replicate their style looks and beauty in their own lives. By doing this the reader may succumb to both emotional and physical problems; although the celebrities and models featured are air-brushed and photo shopped (edited to enhance their beauty) the reader may not be aware of this as they have not reached a certain level of maturity to understand. Problems such as anorexia and low self-esteem in young girls have been caused, to an extent, by aspiring to be like their idol on magazines and television. But is this right?

Publishers are happily enhancing bodies of the girls on their covers then using girl’s self-esteem and weight issues in their articles, it seems as if they are oblivious to the harm they are causing to young girls. Looking at the situation from the audiences’ point of view the company’s publishers should be blamed to a certain extent; my reason being is that if they did not enhance the look of females and praise them for looking like it then the reader will not feel pressured into looking like the girls they have seen.

With reference to personal issues instigated by covers of magazines, there ought to be guidelines and legislations put into practice regarding the enrichments  made to the featured models. By this one means that when there is a niche audience of that of a young teenagers it should be clearly stated somewhere near the images featured that adjustments have been made. This will hopefully re-assure the receiver of the magazine that the girls are not infact perfect and the girls reading do not have to be either.