Scholarly Articles

Women around the world are becoming obsessed with their bodies. They believe there is a perfect body, portrayed by models in magazine advertisements.

Magazines have become a medium of socialization that portrays several stereotypes and generalizations that have affected body image and the way women see themselves. By portraying thin models as a standard of beauty, advertisements are indirectly pressuring your girls into becoming thin in order to be "beautiful". This has not been the only issue with advertisements, for example, Hong Cheng in collaboration with Katherine T. Frith, have gone in depth in their study on how magazines portray different races as well. It is surprising that more fantasy settings and 'trendy' models were found in Chinese magazine editions than those in the United States. Also magazines in East Asia target more women than men. These magazines do not only affect young girl's eating habit, they also target the way teenagers dress, and every aspect of their physical appearance. Scholarly articles that were reviewed and analyzed also reveal that advertisements are portraying co-existence of traditional and modes beauty types and gender roles in China. It is understandable that advertisement is part of the world's economy however it should not change the way people dress or eat. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder not in the advertisements in magazines.



Cheng, Hong and Frith, Katherine Toland. “Going Global: An Analysis of Global Women's Magazine Ads in China”. Media International Australia, Incorporating Culture & Policy, No. 119, May 2006:
138-151.

Basil G. Englis, Michael R. Solomon and Richard D. Ashmore “Beauty before the Eyes of Beholders:
The Cultural Encoding of Beauty Types in Magazine Advertising and Music Television”
Journal of Advertising , Vol. 23, No. 2 (Jun., 1994) (MRS)

Ford, J. B., P. K. Voli, et al. (1998). "Gender Role Portrayals in Japanese Advertising: A Magazine
Content Analysis." Journal of Advertising 27(1): 113-124.

Xu, X., D. Mellor, et al. (2010). "Body dissatisfaction, engagement in body change behaviors and
sociocultural influences on body image among Chinese adolescents." Body Image 7(2): 156
164.