Manna from the Glossy Pulpit: Food Advertising in Women's Magazines Kira-Lynn Reeves Marquette University
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Marquette University e-Publications@Marquette Master's Theses (2009 -) Dissertations, Theses, and Professional Projects Manna from the Glossy Pulpit: Food Advertising in Women's Magazines Kira-Lynn Reeves Marquette University Recommended Citation Reeves, Kira-Lynn, "Manna from the Glossy Pulpit: Food Advertising in Women's Magazines" (2012). Master's Theses (2009 -). Paper 175. http://epublications.marquette.edu/theses_open/175 MANNA FROM THE GLOSSY PULPIT: FOOD ADVERTISING IN WOMEN’S MAGAZINES by Kira-Lynn Reeves A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate school, Marquette University, in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Milwaukee, Wisconsin December 2012 ABSTRACT MANNA FROM THE GLOSSY PULPIT: FOOD ADVERTISING IN WOMEN’S MAGAZINES Kira-Lynn Reeves Marquette University, 2012 Women’s magazines reach millions of readers each month, and have been the subject of many academic inquires from media effects studies to feminist analyses. While many studies have investigated female readers’ experience with these texts, or examined the advertising content of women’s magazines, little research to date has focused on food advertising. This liberal feminist critique explores the experience of reading the 2011 issues of the three popular women’s magazines, Glamour, SELF, and Family Circle. Using Stern’s (1996) textual analysis method for advertisements, this study examines how food advertisements in women’s magazines encourage women to think about food and eating. Food advertisements tend to align with the overall narrative constructed by the magazine in which they appear: food is accessorized in Glamour advertisements as a means for enhancing one’s life; in SELF, food is presented as both fuel and reward for exercising; and in Family Circle, food represents a mother’s love and a woman’s realm as the family’s grocery shopper, meal planner, and primary cook. Food takes on multiple meanings through advertising and frequently suggests that a woman’s food choices are indicative of her worth, personality, or success as a mother, for example. Possible interpretations and implications of these food advertising observations are explored. i TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1 Background of this Study.........................................................................................3 Statement of the Problem .........................................................................................7 LITERATURE REVIEW .............................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.13 Introduction ............................................................................................................13 Women’s Magazines and Their Readers ...............................................................19 Advertising and Fantasy ........................................................................................23 Women’s Magazines and the Thin-Ideal ...............................................................28 Food Advertising ...................................................................................................31 Summary ................................................................................................................34 METHOD ......................................................................................................................... 37 Research Goals.......................................................................................................37 Research Materials .................................................................................................38 Method of Materials Collection .............................................................................41 Method of Materials Analysis ................................................................................43 INSIDE THE WOMEN’S MAGAZINE .......................................................................... 46 Glamour: Feminism, Fashion, Fairytales, and Food ..............................................48 Finding MySELF ...................................................................................................54 ii Family Circle: Food, Glorious Food!.....................................................................61 Summary: Leaving the Illusion ..............................................................................70 FOOD ADVERTISING ................................................. 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Bookmark not defined.72 Food Advertising in 2011: A Brief Overview and Key Themes ...........................73 Key Themes ......................................................................................................... 76 To Die(t) For ..........................................................................................................77 Guilt and Regret ................................................................................................... 79 Exercise: Another Passport to Eating .................................................................. 83 Food Fantasies .......................................................................................................85 Smoke and Mirrors .............................................................................................. 87 Sex and Love ....................................................................................................... 89 Food, Family, and the Female................................................................................93 Food Glory ........................................................................................................... 96 Grocery Getter ..................................................................................................... 99 Other ....................................................................................................................102 Summary ..............................................................................................................104 CONCLUSIONS............................................................................................................. 108 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 115 1 INTRODUCTION Hunger makes successful women feel like failures (Wolf, 1991, p. 197). Picking up a Friday night Ben & Jerry’s fix at the campus convenience store, my college roommate and I each grabbed a magazine as we passed the gleaming display: Vanity Fair for her, Glamour for me, shimmering under the florescent lights like treasure. We did so swiftly and silently, neither one of us making a comment or thinking twice. Grabbing a magazine was like grabbing a bottle of water: we seemed to do so instinctively, almost catatonically, with both a certain reverence and inherent need. Simultaneously, it felt like a guilty pleasure: indulging in a frivolous purchase was juxtaposed to feelings of urgency and necessity, like answering the magazine’s beckoning call to be apprised of the latest fashion and femme fatale stories within. Back in our dorm room, my roommate and I would cut out the glamorous, fantasy-style photo shoots to decorate our walls. I let out the occasional sigh, but would not say what was on my mind out of embarrassment, feeling weak as I mentally compared my features to the fiercely stunning models in the advertisements. The lithe arms, the tanned and toned legs—so different from my inherited thick inner thighs—shouted at me from the page, pointing out what I am not, declaring what I should be. The ice cream suddenly soured in my mouth, reminding me that foods like this won’t help me look like that. My silence gave credence to the truth of these emotions, deepening the self- consciousness I felt: at 19 years old I was 185 pounds, thighs dimpled with cellulite, calves and arms stocky, undefined, not shapely. Though I miraculously passed through high school without so much as a second thought to my weight or appearance, only 2 vaguely acknowledging the incredible smallness of the many 90-pound girls in the hallway who seemed to attract guys, slowly my eyes were opening. There was a whole skinny world out there: a world of salad-eaters and runners, activities I had previously found repulsive, preferring three hours of swim practice to running a single mile. Now, that skinny world was spreading before me like a giant chasm of hope and health, sexiness and success. It seemed I had no choice but to jump in. Six short years ago, I moved away from home and into the college dorm—a setting both destructive and distracting to many that proved to be a place where I thrived. Academically, emotionally, and physically, I embarked on four years of wonderful change and discovery. I achieved high grades, secured great college jobs and internships, and lost nearly 50 pounds. By graduation, a time to celebrate the pinnacle of all these accomplishments, I was no longer the happy college student, proud and content to look back on what I had done. For reasons unknown to me and alarming to my family, I had become almost compulsive—obsessed—with calories, exercise, and a number other than my GPA: my weight. When I should have been cheering myself on the loudest, I was darkly whispering insidious suggestions about the size of my thighs and the sin of eating those cookies, that ice cream, this sandwich. Unwanted, unbidden, and seemingly uncontrollable, these thoughts pursued me post-college, at times