When women unite

As women’s magazines circulation grew, the modern woman of the 20th century was on the move. Or Vice Versa. However, in the very beginning, a housewife’s priorities were not as they are today. A 1930’s Australian woman’s household duties and priorities included cooking, cleaning, raising children and looking lovely. The tricks of the trade were secret women’s business, and a woman’s magazine provided the perfect outlet for sharing. A man wouldn’t be seen dead with their nose in one, and so with Women’s weekly, mass-production of women’s content began in Australia.

Through advertising, access to dress-making patterns, personal hygiene products and household necessities became seemingly enjoyable! Products were in abundance and women now knew where to find everything. And sharing tip and tricks was a no-brainer. Many magazines dedicated pages to discussion and question forums. While these kinds of ads were present in print before women's magazines, they were less specifically targeted, and the success of the literary genre was obvious; women love to discuss anything and everything in extreme detail! 

A look at fashion advertisements . . .

Though women’s magazines have changed over the years, the way fashion is advertised has barely changed at all. Trends have come and gone and come again, but ironically advertising techniques seem to have stayed the same. A popular advertising technique when showcasing the new season’s colours is to show one colour per page or spread. 

This technique emerged following the advent of colour printing and has been popular ever since.Fashion spreads focused on one colour are eye-catching. They also allow for no confusion when it comes to what colours should be filling your wardrobe. Another reoccurring technique is the use of ‘real women’ to model current trends. There is no denying that what we wear is driven by catwalk models and celebrities. But women want to see how these looks can be worn in their day-to-day lives. 

Let’s compare the pair. Women’s Weekly Vol. 1 No. 1 released June 10 1933 and the most recent Dolly.

The use of ‘real women’ has become a common feature of nearly all women’s magazines. Unlike the 1933 Women’s Weekly however, current magazines don’t usually provide information regarding the marital status of their ‘real’ models. “Pauline McDonald, in the lower picture . . . Her engagement to Dick Allen, son of Mrs Herbert Allen, was recently announced.” 

Obviously in 1933 the marital status, holiday patterns and hobbies of Sydney Society were the talk of the town. The writing which accompanies these fashion spreads may have been tweaked over the years, but the ideas behind them have stayed the same.

Author Anna Gough-Yates looks at the influence women had over magazine content in her book ‘Understanding Women’s Magazines: Publishing, Markets and Readerships.’ She focuses on the 1980s, a time when woman desired a life beyond the home and became more prominent in the workforce. These woman needed working girl clothes and therefore became the target market for fashion advertisers. This in turn fuelled a change in women’s magazines. 

Fashion houses buy advertising space in magazines that reach their target audience. But in the 1980s, the majority of women’s magazines were targeted at housewives. Look at the 1993 Women’s Weekly. There is no information on where to shop but rather a “FREE PAPPER PATERN” and “full knitting directions for two unusual jumpers.”

Magazines needed to reflect the changing attitudes of women if they wanted fashion houses to buy advertising space. This meant that magazines like the Women’s Weekly began to reflect the lifestyles and attitudes of all women. Correct me if I’m wrong, but knitting directions are only found in magazines dedicated to knitting. 

Women’s magazines have shifted their focus to suit the times and readership. But fashion advertisements and their focus have remained relatively unchanged. If the past eighty years haven’t altered the advertising techniques of fashion moguls, the next eighty years surely won’t.

Health and Beauty

Let’s face it girls, bikini lines must be dealt with.

 Should you pluck,shave, electrocute it, or just pray for rain? These are the helpful options suggestedin a 1993 edition of Cleo. Accompanied by a very graphic cartoon, it provides demonstrationsfor those of us who are unaware of what a bikini line actually looks like(Thankyou Cleo!)

My first instinct was to laugh feverishly and show anyonewho would listen. Then, after some deep breaths, I decided to investigatewhether this compulsive overshare of information is still seen in Australian women’smedia today.

At risk of sounding uncouth, I’m going to sidetrack towardsthe advance of advertising since the bikini-clad-blonde-beach-babe-on-every-pagedays of the Australian magazine.

The need to describe “waterproof mascara” as “smear and smudgeproof, even in water” I found to be legitimately alarming. Really? TheWaterproof mascara is waterproof? This was furthered on the very next page whichwas branded with the customary description of fake tan: “a luxurious lotionthat bronzes skin to a natural golden colour” girls,  we can all breathe a sigh of relief – the faketan will, in fact, make you FAKE TANNED. Phew.

Not only is itinsulting to the demographic reading the publication, but surely that cannot bea successful marketing technique for Shiseido. Possibly the recent improvementof women’s magazines has relied upon avid editors who help to make theoutsourced aspects of the publication look mildly intellectual (avoiding suchads), however it should be noted that the cognitive ability of the femalegender has become more and more recognised, consciously or not. Thank Goodness.

A more recent edition of Elle features an ad for lipstick,a product as commonplace as mascara I imagine. The difference is that the onlytext on the entire spread “Maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s Maybelline.”Thankyou Maybelline, for dutifully respecting our ability to see and comprehend what your product is.

There are some redeeming qualities about women’s magazines fromthe past though. There are some endearing aspects such as “the mane event”article I came across, suggesting that Australia’s “kiss of the sun can bedeadly for unprotected hair.” Presented with a genuine knowledge of Australia’sharsh climate and respectfully averts from describing the intimate details ofwhat everyday terms mean, apparently an issue for some.

There is also a mention of cosmetic surgery being “lifted toa creative, inspirational form or surgery, capable of recreating bodies andchanging lives.” I think it can go unsaid that this goes to show the differencein common culture and beliefs since even the late the 1900s. Not only isplastic surgery exceedingly more common since this 1981 advertisement but it isdifficult to adhere to such flimsy words when the pages before and after areplastered with heavily botoxed, heavily depressed celebrities who happen tolook neither “creative” nor “inspirational” in their washed-up-child-star state.

So, after trawling the pages of our publications, I havecome to one conclusion. Women have not changed. But the perception of women has.And we are finally being recognised as something other than consumerist, materialistic deadbeats.

Relationships: A social and personal approach to the history of women’s magazines

Relationships as social arrangements are innate, but more importantly, timeless. They have played a pertinent role in each era, culture and situation. As a result, it is only natural that as a hot topic for females, the notion of an intimate relationship between two people has been discussed in women’s magazines for decades as well.

The role of various articles, interviews, personal and often celebrity accounts, published opinion polls and advice columns (to name a few) is an interesting one in terms of how these print features have perpetuated the reality of the male-female relationship.  One of the major impacts that these publications have had on women is empowerment, who historically have been burdened by the social construct of male dominance. From here, women have made a transition in relationships from what was conceived as the submissive, husband-serving housewife to a more dominant position.

Messages began to emerge surrounding the ideas that a woman should enjoy her career and romance, should flirt and have affairs, should expect and accept gifts from men, and should marry a man whose income would support her in comfort and style.

Advice columns began to discuss whether a male’s infidelity was forgivable rather than something to be accepted. Further, sexual desire was something not only associate with men but depicted as a female attribute too. The notion that women had a choice began to seep into the pages of these reads where women were urged to be not only proactive but particular when finding a partner. Articles even went to the extent of endorsing the single women, rejecting the notion of marriage as a means of success. This has influenced marriage figures today with more women opting out of marriage or simply tying the knot later in life.

Cleo (1992) – “The Power of being one” by Judith Sills

It is not to say that print was the starting point, the springboard of female empowerment in relationships. For decades there have been feminist movements and other political activities that have sprung from a wide range of avenues. However it is fair to say that women’s magazines have promoted and fostered the changes we have seen in the social structure of the intimate relationship.

Further, it is important to recognise the mutual dependence that exists between print channels like women’s magazines and society’s activities and changes. Without society, print would have little to report and without the evolution of social arrangements, much of what is contained in artefacts such as the women’s magazine would remain the same. On the other hand, society can be heavily influenced by what and how issues and hot topics are presented (particularly in terms of advice columns) and female reads, as outlined above have the potential to encourage and fuel societal shifts.