Feminist editors and the new girl glossies: Fashionable feminism or just another sexist rag?

Keller, Jessalynn (2011) Feminist editors and the new girl glossies: Fashionable feminism or just another sexist rag? Women's Studies International Forum, 34 (1). pp. 1-12. ISSN 0277-5395

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Abstract

Media critics and feminists have long criticized teen magazines for providing limited substance and promoting a traditional view of femininity. This article challenges this assumption by using a critical discourse analysis to examine the production of girl glossies. Through interviews with four New York teen magazine editors, I unpack some of the contradictions embedded in editors’ identifying as feminists while creating a cultural product often deemed anti-feminist. My findings suggest that editors combine practical strategies with a distinctively “third wave ethic” to navigate between corporate and cultural expectations in order to integrate a popular feminism into the magazine content. This third wave ethos however, tends to yield a conception of feminism as primarily a celebration of individual agency, neglecting a larger analysis of structural barriers and power relations. While editors have some success in refocusing teen magazines as sites for individual empowerment, I argue that this is not enough to truly empower teen girls and to challenge inequalities on a societal scale.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	girl's studies,media,popular culture,third wave,post-feminism,sdg 5 - gender equality ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/gender_equality
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Art, Media and American Studies
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	24 Feb 2016 08:08
Last Modified:	06 Sep 2023 11:30
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/57226
DOI:	10.1016/j.wsif.2010.07.004

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