Open AccessWhat a Girl Wants, What a Girl Needs: Analyzing Postfeminist Themes in Girls’ Magazines
Author(s) -
Marieke Boschma,
Serena Daalmans
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
media and communication
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.804
H-Index - 19
ISSN - 2183-2439
DOI - 10.17645/mac.v9i2.3757
Subject(s) - girl , femininity , gender studies , conceptualization , sociology , socialization , empowerment , feminism , human sexuality , psychology , social science , developmental psychology , political science , artificial intelligence , computer science , law
Girls’ magazines play an important role in the maintenance of gender perceptions and the creation of gender by young girls. Due to a recent resurgence within public discussion and mediated content of feminist, postfeminist, and antifeminist repertoires, centered on what femininity entails, young girls are growing up in an environment in which conflicting messages are communicated about their gender. To assess, which shared norms and values related to gender are articulated in girl culture and to what extent these post/anti/feminist repertoires are prevalent in the conceptualization of girlhood, it is important to analyze magazines as vehicles of this culture. The current study analyzes if and how contemporary postfeminist thought is articulated in popular girl’s magazines. To reach this goal, we conducted a thematic analysis of three popular Dutch teenage girls’ magazines (N = 27, from 2018), Fashionchick , Cosmogirl , and Girlz . The results revealed that the magazines incorporate feminist, antifeminist, and as a result, postfeminist discourse in their content. The themes in which these repertoires are articulated are centered around: the body, sex, male–female relationships, female empowerment, and self-reflexivity. The magazines function as a source of gender socialization for teenage girls, where among other gendered messages a large palette of postfeminist themes are part of the magazines’ articulation of what it means to be a girl in contemporary society.