Always a Bridesmaid--1

Among the images of brides and bridesmaids, one also Always a Bridesmaid, Never a Bride: finds a common theme or idea as to how we define the “perfect Portrayals of Women of Color in Bridal Magazines bride”—white, thin, and pretty. “Over and over again,” asserts Ingraham (1999) in her book White Weddings: Romancing forthcoming in Media Report to Women (2006) Heterosexuality in Popular Culture, “the icon of the beautiful white bride in the beautiful white bridal gown is replayed and reinforced, sending a clear message to young and old alike that Cynthia M. Frisby what counts as beautiful and marriageable is white” (p. 97). Department of Advertising For women of color, the covert message in bridal 221 Walter Williams magazines and advertisements points to one of assimilation University of Missouri-Columbia and conformity, and reflects the cultural perception of Columbia, MO 65211 whiteness as “a marker of beauty and power,” as noted by (573) 882-6232 (office) Hobson (2005). Female beauty thus has become a significant (573) 882-4823 (FAX) site for political resistance to the dominant culture especially [email protected] for Black women, Hobson further observes, “because in male- dominated culture, all women are judged by their physical Erika Engstrom attractiveness and evaluated in comparison to particular Department of Communication Studies standards of beauty based on white supremacy” (p. 7). University of Nevada, Las Vegas This exploratory study examines the portrayal of African Box 454052 Americans in a bridal magazines, a particular form of mass 4505 Maryland Parkway media that caters specifically to women, and which ideally Las Vegas, NV 89154-4052 would cater to all women who hold traditional views about [email protected] marriage and the wedding. Indeed, the U.S. bridal industry is estimated at between $50 and $70 billion annually. The About the Authors potential for this market is huge: nearly 2.4 million marriages Cynthia M. Frisby, associate professor of advertising at are performed annually (Gibbons, 2003). Considering that the University of Missouri, Columbia, specializes in 2004 U.S. Census Bureau figures show that single-race advertising’s effects on consumers and health organizations’ minorities comprise 30.5% of the U.S. population (U.S. Census communication campaigns for underserved populations. In Bureau, 2006) we want to find out to what extent bridal two recent projects, she explored the sources of American magazines include women of color in their advertisements. viewers' fascination with reality T.V. and the effects of Based on Ingraham’s (1999) survey of Bride’s magazine’s idealized images on perceptions of body esteem among inclusion of African American models during the latter half of African American women. She holds a Ph.D. in mass the 20th century, in which she reported an overwhelming lack communication from the University of Florida. thereof, we sought to determine if portrayals of African Erika Engstrom, associate professor of communication American women as brides in bridal magazines have increased studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, also holds a in the time since she reported those findings in her book. We Ph.D. in mass communication from the University of Florida. place the current inquiry within the context of how African She studies media portrayals of weddings and gender. Americans have been portrayed in advertising in general. We An earlier version of this paper by Frisby was presented at then present findings of a content analysis of three national the 2005 Association for Education in Journalism and Mass bridal magazines and discuss the implications of our findings Communication annual convention in San Antonio, TX. as they relate to the portrayal of minority women in the mass Correspondence concerning this paper may be addressed media. to Frisby at the Department of Advertising, 221 Walter Portrayals of African Americans in Mass Media Williams University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, MO Historically, African Americans have been under- 65211 or [email protected]. represented in mainstream advertising, though some ______improvement has been documented in research years (Entman & Book, 2000; Taylor, Lee, & Stern, 1995; Soley, 1983; Introduction Wilkes & Valencia, 1989; Zinkhan, Qualls, and Biswas, 1990). Along with the romance and the happily-ever-after theme However, this progress must be qualified by advertisers’ found in bridal magazines, one also finds consistent and overt propensity to use light skinned African American models to messages that perpetuate notions of ideal feminine beauty, as cater to a diverse consumer population, which researchers Filak (2002) found in his content analysis of Bride’s magazine consistently have documented (Entman & Book, 2000; Frisby, and its compatriot publication, Glamour. Ads for beauty 2000; Keenan, 1996; Leslie, 1995). This preference for lighter products and dresses made up the bulk of the content, skin holds especially true for African American women, as supporting Gibbons’ (2003) assertion that wedding media tend found by Keenan (1996) and later confirmed by Entman and to promote the materialistic side of weddings over its purpose Book (2000) in their study of television commercials. as a gateway to marriage. That materialism includes the As Hobson (2005) noted, Black female bodies “have been advertising of products that tell women how to be beautiful, widely excluded from dominant culture’s celebration of beauty and, to a great extent, who can be beautiful. and femininity” (p. 7). The resulting beauty paradigm, Always a Bridesmaid-- 2 asserted Hobson, privileges white skin and Euro-based facial African Americans in U.S. society. Here, we seek to update features, as past research shows (Frisby, 2000; Leslie, 1995). Ingraham’s (1999) informal observations concerning diversity Frisby (2000) found that African American women believed in bridal magazines. We approach this investigation with the that the inclusion of actress Halle Berry, who is biracial, in ads perspective that when women of color are symbolically for Revlon cosmetics was just the advertiser’s way of using a annihilated from these popular, widely known and distributed “safe” African American image in its campaign. In sum, most magazines, the resulting message points to the idea that of the studies on African American portrayals in mainstream minorities don’t get married, and that “white” weddings are for media support the idea that while significantly more African white people—that, is white women—as Ingraham (1999) Americans appear in ads, more of these depictions represent asserted and Engstrom (2003) confirmed. the Eurotypic (White and/or Caucasian) facial type (Keith & We posed the research question: How often and in what Herring, 1991). role are African American women represented as brides and The underrepresentation of people of color, even in bridesmaids in advertisements in national bridal magazines stereotypical portrayals, in media serves as evidence of the over the past five years? By conducting this research, we status, or perceived status, of minorities in our society. Being sought to uncover various forms of hidden bias in bridal seen thus becomes equated with existence and value, and being advertisements, and discuss not only the implications of that absent or underrepresented results in "symbolic annihilation," bias on African American women’s sense of identity in our the systematic exclusion of a group by those dominant in the culture, but also how it has the potential to affect efforts culture who control the means of media production (Alwood, toward creating tolerance and acceptance of multiculturalism 1996; Gerbner, 1972; Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorielli, and racial diversity. 1980; Gerbner & Signorielli, 1979; Gross, 1984; Tuchman, Method 1978). According to this framework, the media present a A content analysis of bridal advertisements in Modern social world in which minority groups are consistently ignored, Bride, Elegant Bride, and Bride’s from 2000 through 2004 was trivialized, and devalued in three ways: (1) negative conducted. Of the possible total of 90 issues (with each stereotypes, (2) unrealistic portrayals, or (3) no portrayals at all magazine publishing six issues per year over five years), four (Gerbner, 1972). issues of each magazine per year were randomly selected (to Portrayals of African American Brides address availability concerns) and obtained in bound volumes Fields and Fields (1998), in the book Bridal Gown Guide, from interlibrary loan. Of the 60 total issues, three were observed, “Only white people get married…Just try to find a unavailable, resulting in a total of 57 issues. Issues per bride who’s black Hispanic, or Asian” (p. 15). Ingraham magazine were: Modern Bride 24, Elegant Bride 14, Brides (1999) took the Fieldses up on that offer, and included in her 19. A total of 6,486 advertisements for the five-year period book White Weddings her observations after she surveyed served as the sample. issues of Bride’s, the “flagship” of all bridal magazines, for Four female coders, two African American and two patterns in minority portrayals from 1959 to 1998. She found Caucasian, viewed the advertisements and recorded the that since 1959, “only four covers had women of color as the following items: (1) number of Caucasian brides, (2) number cover brides” (p. 93; Ingraham’s italics), with the first woman- of African American brides, (3) number of bridesmaids ads, (4) of-color bridesmaid appearing in 1972, the first feature story of number of ads in which African American models appeared as an African-American bride appearing in 1976, and the first a bridesmaid, and (5) the number of African American women Black bridal party appearing in 1977. While Ingraham appearing on the cover of each issue. observed that “the presence of women of color is greater today As Entman and Book (2000) contended, coding of than ever in the history of Bride’s magazine,” she found that ethnicity, and especially of skin color, oftentimes proves since 1990, the average percentage of African American brides difficult. Because advertising tends to use light-skinned in each issue of that magazine was 2.4% (p. 94). models, it was often difficult to determine ethnicity of the Though she did not offer detailed statistics, Ingraham bride. In order to code for ethnicity, coders relied on the (1999) reported similar patterns in other national bridal following characteristics: texture of hair, facial features (for magazines, including Modern Bride, Elegant Bride, Bridal example, wide nose, full lips), skin color and tone, and body Guide, For the Bride by Demetrios, and Signature Bride, a type to make the best possible determination. If an ad publication that targets African Americans. Except for contained multiple models of the same color, coders were Signature Bride, Ingraham noted that all the other magazines instructed to identify each as a separate occurrence. “foreground white women as both brides and bridesmaids” (p. In order to achieve agreement on determination of 95). If Black women did appear, they did so at least halfway African-American and Caucasian models appearing in the ads, into each issue, with the typical portrayal being of one Black the coders together viewed every advertisement in which a bridesmaid among a group of several White women. Rarely sole-female image appeared or in which females were did she find any all-minority bridal parties: “Consistent with portrayed in the typical wedding party grouping. Ads that this pattern, nonwhite weddings are almost never portrayed” appeared multiple times in a magazine were included only (p. 95). once in the sample for a given magazine. As “a barometer of cultural change” (Entman & Book, Each magazine ad was content analyzed by the four 2000), advertising can give us an idea of the progress of coders, who were trained in a two-day training session in order

Always a Bridesmaid-- 3 to ensure agreement on the definition of items on the coding With respect to issues of skin tone, in their study of sheet. A pretest was conducted with four issues randomly African Americans in primetime television commercials, selected from the sample of 57 issues to establish intercoder Entman and Book (2000) found that light-skinned Black actors reliability. The coders mainly focused on assessing the appeared in more ads, except for those for athletic items, which number of portrayals of bridal occurrences, bridesmaid featured dark-skinned athletes rather than actors. They occurrences, and cover model occurrences. Reliability concluded that while more African Americans are appearing in coefficients (Cronbach’s alpha) for all reported categories advertising, “They are not randomly distributed in exceeded .85, as recommended by Kassarjiian (1977). commercials, as they would be if the transition to Results colourblindness had been achieved. Instead there are clear Overwhelmingly, the results show that Caucasian models relationships between race and a variety of measures of dominate the bridal magazine scene. Of the more than 6,000 advertising texts” (p. 222). Based on our findings, this holds ads over the last five years, 70 (less than 2%) of the especially true for advertisements for the wedding industry, in advertisements actually featured an African American woman that the term “white wedding” really does mean “white.” as a bride. Means for each coding category by magazine for Though we did not explore the effects of skin tone in this the five-year period in question are presented in Table 1. Of study, research has shown that African American women are the 57 issues selected for this analysis, not one issue used the the ones most debilitated by skin tone distinctions (Entman & image of an African American bride on the cover. Book, 2000; Hall, 1995; Keith & Herring, 1991), even within Discussion African American culture itself (Hobson, 200). Exposure to We examined the overall presentation of African the all-white images ads such as those in the bridal magazines American women appearing in advertisements in national studied here may send the message to African American bridal magazines published between the years 2000 and 2004. women that this society values lighter skin models; this We found that these national bridal magazines overwhelmingly unintended message may reinforce the notion having dark skin used Caucasian women as brides, supporting Ingraham’s carries a stigma. Despite significant improvements in media (1999) and Fields and Fields’ (1997; 1998) comments that the representations of African Americans, images appearing in more popular bridal magazines tend to showcase Caucasian popular bridal magazines are fairly homogeneous, and women as both brides and bridesmaids. contribute to the notion African American women seem to be We discovered that few, if any, African American women socially unimportant in this form of media, providing just were shown on the cover of bridal magazines, and, more often another means to measure media’s propensity for symbolic than not, African American women appeared as bridesmaids in annihilation of minority women. groups as opposed to being presented as a “beautiful bride.” While research shows some advertisers have worried that We believe frequent portrayals of African American women as African Americans in advertising might cause a backlash bridesmaids rather than brides—who are the “stars” of the among potential consumers in the white majority, studies in the wedding, holding the most prominent role and commanding late 1960s and early 1970s show that whites did not respond the most attention—communicate a negative assumption that it negatively to advertisements feature African American models is better for African Americans to stay in background roles as (Soley, 1983; Whittler, 1991; Whittler & DiMeo, 1991). It opposed to positions equal status and power to their White was during the 1970s and 1980s that African Americans counterparts. appeared in mainstream media and advertisements, but often in Though exploratory, implications of the results presented token roles or integrated settings. As Soley (1983) concluded, here point to the possibility that bridal magazines editors and “If African Americans continue to be underrepresented in advertisers assume that the targeted wedding market for bridal advertising portrayals, it can be said that this is an indication of magazines is both white and middle to upper class. However, prejudice on the part of the advertising industry, not based on anecdotal evidence we gathered post-analysis from consumers” (p. 690). Whether bridal industry advertisers and both personal sources and informal queries at a major bridal those who publish bridal magazines believe this or not remains gown retailer, we must note that all three magazines studied to be seen. here are indeed read and consulted by African American References women who plan their weddings, especially traditionally Alwood, E. (1996). Straight news: Gays, lesbians, and minded African American women who desire a formal the news media. New York: Columbia University Press. wedding. Engstrom, E. (2003). Hegemony in reality-based TV The potential for buying power among women of color programming: The world according to A Wedding Story. exists; we think these magazines and others like them that Media Report to Women, 31(1), 10-14. ignore or downplay their minority readers do a disservice to Entman, R. M., & Book, C. L. (2000). Light makes right: themselves and this growing population. The creation of Skin colour and racial hierarchy in television advertising. In special-niche bridal magazines, such as Brides Noir, which R. Andersen & L. Strate (Eds.), Critical studies in media caters exclusively to women of color, might seem on the commercialism (pp. 214-224). New York: Oxford University surface to address this problem of exclusion. However, we Press. believe such demarcation between “White” bridal magazines Fields, D. & Fields, A. (1998). Bridal gown guide. and “Black” magazines only emphasizes segregation of races. Boulder, CO: Windsor Peak Press.

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Table 1 Mean Number of Images in Bridal Magazines, 2000-2004 Bride’s Modern Bride Elegant Bride Mean number of ads in magazine 157.4 119.7 115 Mean number of ads with Caucasian bride 143.9 99.5 45.4 Mean number of ads with African American bride shown alone 1.2 0 0 Mean number of ad featuring bridesmaids 9.1 8.7 3.0 Mean number of ads with African American bridesmaid in a 3.0 7.6 2.0 group of bridesmaids Number of ads with African American model on cover 0 0 0