Thinness matters [electronic resource] : the impact of magazine advertising on the contemporary beauty ideal / by Francesca Albani.

• This thesis examines how magazine advertising works to frame thinness as ideal beauty in Vogue, Glamour, and Marie Claire, three of the most popular fashion magazines in Italy and the United States. Utilizing Suzanna Danuta Walters' notion of "Woman as Image", I turn my attention to eight advertisements that appeared in the issues of the aforementioned magazines in late Spring and early Summer 2004. I argue that these advertisements provide evidence of how thinness is part of a sociocultural system of representation in which ideal female beauty is defined in terms of a narrow range of images of women that emphasize the flawless slender body. I examine thinness as the symbol of bodily perfection through which magazine advertising assigns women's bodies an exchange value. I conclude by arguing for a multidimensional approach to advertising based in media literacy education and suggest that this education should highlight women's experiences and draw on interpersonal and social communication as an approach to changing societal and cultural imagery about female beauty. 

Ämnesord

Women in mass media.  (LCSH)

Feminine beauty (Aesthetics)  (LCSH)

Body image in women.  (LCSH)

Women in advertising.  (LCSH)

media and women 

Indexterm och SAB-rubrik

media and women