Magazines the World They Create for Us

¶ … worlds they create for us: The similar yet different worlds of female and male fitness of "Shape" for women and "Men's Health"

In answering the question, what worlds do magazines create for their readership, one must first ask, whom is the readership? In an increasingly niche-specific and targeted market base, through the use of direct mail, the Internet, and a better ability to target specific and desirable segments of the population, it may seem anachronistic to speak of what is simply a women's magazine or a men's magazine. The most fair way thus to compare male and female magazines thus may not be to speciously complain that a magazine such as "Good Housekeeping," targeted at stay-at-home women with children, does not present as many helpful suggested bits of career and 'going out on the town' advice such as "Esquire." Rather, it is to take two parallel magazines, such as "Shape" and "Men's Health," with similar market bases that target women and men with similar interests and from similar lifestyles and age groups and to compare the different ways the magazines conceptualizes its readership and the magazine's advertising attempts to influence the targeting reading populations, despite the mutual parallel between the target audiences in its interests in living a fit lifestyle.

Both magazines discuss fitness, nutrition, going out, and what to wear when working out and going out on a monthly basis, in both male and female incarnations. One of the most pernicious stereotypes that cling to women's magazines, as noted by Mary Kay Blakely, in her essay, "Help or Hindrance? Women's Magazines Offer Readers Little Fear, Failure" is that such women's-targeted magazines as "Shape" are alleged to hinder women's pursuit of independence. Yet "Shape" magazine, and other female fitness magazines of its ilk, all often show women pumping iron, riding mountain bikes in the great outdoors as well as in great gyms, and show examples of women pushing themselves beyond their available limits on the playing courts as well as in terms of weight loss. Although features regarding women who have lost weight are frequent and have a transformational slant to them, these women often are not extremely slender and accomplish their goals through exercise rather than just by dieting. Rather than conforming their physiques to desired shapes envisioned by men as dating subjects, or even male fashion designers, models and real women in "Shape" are shown sculpting and pumping their bodies according to a relatively new and muscular female ideal.

New -- unless one looks at statues of ancient Greece and Rome, one might say, and the muscular forms of Venus and her ilk. New, unless one considers such images still encourage female obsessions with their bodies and obtaining a perfect body as a way of attaining a perfect life, Susan Dudash might allege. Yet it is worthy to remember that feminist or no, one cannot merely ignore the body to enter a state of emotional wholeness. Also, magazines such as "Men's Health" provide valuable reminders that concerns about the body are not purely female in nature. "Men's Health" provides information regarding body building and nutrition for men, and not simply for men who spend all day working out in gyms, as the magazine advertises itself, much like "Shape" as a lifestyle magazine for modern men, with advice upon dating, culture, health, fitness, and style. And lest the concern between beauty and health between the two magazines seem to be too sharp, consider that the magazine of "Men's Health" devotes an entire section to weight loss and another to nutrition and fitness.

There are several notable differences between the two magazines, however. First of all, rather than stressing career and financial advice, "Shape" for women tends to include articles regarding 'de-stressing' from a day of doing too much all day, than getting ahead at work. Although "Shape" does give bits of career advice from time to time, and how one's finances relates to one's well being, it emphasizes a work day that embraces the second shift of child care, housework, and emotional issues as the 'work day,' rather than the male 9 to 5 day shift. This reflects not only women's concerns, but also the way women are more likely to perceive their day and work life, as not existing in purely marketplace terms.

Yet although women may still make less money and have the primary responsibility for child care, the workout clothing and playtime casual clothing of both magazines are of the mid-market prices, perhaps indicating a greater willingness of women to spend a large portion of their budget on clothing. Both magazines have articles that provide advice to the reader as to how to gain the attraction of the opposite sex and to entertain in style. But while the images of the women in "Shape" fashion spreads show women frolicking with attractive dates, sometimes in out door workout settings, "Men's Health" tends to include far more sexualized models of the opposite gender.