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I went to urgent care last night for a cough because Virginia only believes in holding office hours during banker's hours, so I spent a lot of time in the waiting room.
I read Seventeen magazine for the first time in about 15 years. I don't remember it being a morality tale.
I get the dillemma of teenage fashion magazine. Adult fashion magazines are free to go with the shamless hedonism, trusting that the adult readers are responsible for themselves, but teenage magazines have a more complex role.
So, instead of sex advice on how to make his toes tingle, there was a story on how to get out of sex when you're being pressured. There was a story on a tatoo going all wrong which ends, of course, with the girl being very sorry she ever considered it. There was a "Are you hot or trashy" article where you look at pictures and draw the line between a flirty micro-mini and a trashy micro-mini. There was, no kidding, a page to tear out and give to your boyfriend on how he should treat you. There were endless pictures of merchendise from Forever 21. There was a section on how to dress for every shape, and, thank heavens, there were real girls in there.
All in all, I approve. I like to think I'm highbrow and I promise that the book on my nightstand is Tess of the D'Ubervilles, but I absolutely love trashy magazines (although the trashiest are kind of stomach-turning. I don't like Cosmo - more like In Style and Glamour). I wish I'd had a subscription to Seventeen or YM as a teenage girl - they are basically "how to be a girl" manuals, and I needed that since I didn't have sisters.
In general I approve of the girls being modeled. I just wonder if their audience minds being preached to - or maybe it goes unnoticed, slipped in between the embarassing stories involving body fluids and the prom hair instructions.
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I subscribed to Seventeen for most of high school. Most of the time it was ok, the cute to important ratio was not overpowering. But sometimes I would get mad at all of the articles about how to date and bad boyfriends.
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The few copies of Seventeen magazine that my daughter received (either as samples or from friends) I did not like or approve of at all.
There was way too much emphasis (in my opinion) on boy-girl relationships; especially for their target age group (most Seventeen readers are younger than 17).
To me, it wasn't so much "how to dress pretty" as it seemed to be "how to dress to get the attention of the guy" thing. And in general, just too much emphasis on appearance in general. As if girls that age aren't already hung up on how they look enough, the mag really promotes trends and stuff that some girls can't afford, or will never look like.
But that is just my opinion, FWIW. And it's not like everything in the magazine was bad - there was some stuff I liked. I just felt it emphasized the wrong things.
posted
I used to love YM for the "Ask Anything" section. The serious questions people used to ask were so much funnier than the "omg I FARTED BY MY BOYFRIEND!!1" stories.
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I recently read Seventeen while waiting for a haircut. It seemed to me that it had a lot fewer substantial articles than it used to when I subscribed (late 80s). Now, please understand that by "substantial" I mean "with more words than pictures," not "thought-provoking."
I liked Sassy much better. Too bad Jane (same editor) is such a disappointment.
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I might be shallow, Farmgirl, but the endless instructions on appearance were exactly what I liked and wish I'd had as a teenager. If it was the only thing girls read I'd be concerned, but for me, I was plenty obsessed with my appearance without outside help, and I wish I'd had the outside help to know what to do with it. I think I might have avoided the bright pink liptick phase.
The magazine was fully 1/2 articles on appearance, but the models were not all super-skinny, there were many normal-looking girls pictured and suggestions given for, and the prom hair instructions were excellent.
As for the endless articles on boys - I wish I had read that. I had only my older brother's and my dad's opinions to go on, and oh-my-stars they were dreadful. Seriously - I didn't enjoy dating until I was 25 because of all the screwed-up expectations I had as a result. It would have been lovely to have had that age guide for guys and tips on how to say no so I could have actually dealt with situations instead of running from them in fear of my own incompetence.
[ January 08, 2008, 03:33 PM: Message edited by: Javert Hugo ]
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Sterling -- That's the point, Seventeen is not really like that. (mostly)
Being exactly the target age myself, I agree that Seventeen is a great magazine. I've read lots of fascinating stories in it. I've also been surprised by very good stories in Vogue.
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Javert Hugo, I once worked with a professor who studied how societal problems were addressed on daytime soap operas. This was back in the late 80s/early 90s, and she was as ivory tower, educated feminist, intellectual snobbish as they came -- and so she expected to find a laughable series of impossible fairy tales divorced from reality. She admitted this up front.
What she found was that the soaps were the only area of mass media dealing with HIV/AIDS in a straightforward, accurate, and substantial way. This was back when the president of the US hadn't yet used either word, and kids were getting kicked out of school, and so on. She was surprised (astonished, flabberghasted) at how sensitively the issue of this illness was dealt with.
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That's interesting, CT. I can believe it, I think. Successful popular culture speaks to people, appeals to something in people. It makes sense that it isn't empty fantasy, because people in general are not empty.
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I subscribed to 17 a while back - gosh, 10 years back when I think about it.
I now read Glamour quite regularly - I had a subscription, and I'm thinking of getting a new one.
And for me, these are international subscriptions (though, with the exchange rate that's becoming a moot point *grin*) - but I have found the Australian magazines much more... shallow. I think both 17 and Glamour are (mostly) sensible magazines. I mean, yes they highlight fashion and beauty, but that's the genre.
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I liked 17 when I was a teen...around 10 years ago. A few years into my 20's I decided that I would give up all of those type magazines (those that talked about appearance so much) because they just make me feel ugly and paranoid. I think in some ways they can make you have low self esteem.
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My sister got me a subscription to YM when I was 14 for my birthday (she bought me a copy of Seventeen and one of YM and asked which one I wanted.) I do think it helped me understand the other girls better-- even though it still did not inspire me to dress or date like them.
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(I distinctly remember that my first exposure to information about FGM in this country and others was through YM, and that they also had a story about a girl who survived a terrorist bombing on a bus in Israel, which was all about forgiveness and letting go of anger. Those stories stuck with me a lot longer than the information on what lipstick color was hot what year and how I should be dressing.)
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