Magisteruppsats Master´S Programme in Nordic Welfare, 60 Credits
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Magisteruppsats Master´s Programme in Nordic Welfare, 60 credits When girls read A study about women and lifestyle media in the Nordic region Health and Lifestyle, 15 credits Halmstad 2019-09-03 Patricia Svensson Halmstad Högskola VT19 Department: Health and Welfare Course: Thesis 15 hp, HL802 Course Coordinator: Linus Andersson Supervisor: Linus Andersson Examinator: Janicke Andersson When girls read A study about women and lifestyle media in the Nordic region Patricia Svensson Abstract This study sought for the importance and influence of visual text in Lifestyle magazines. The aim was to see the importance of visual text for middle-aged women as well as for the magazines. It also aimed to understand how the reading of these magazines can affect women´s daily life. In the search for these six lifestyle magazines; three Swedish, two Finnish and one Danish, were analysed. There were further six interviews conducted were the Swedish magazines also were shown. What is found is the similarities the magazines pose even though being from different countries. There are some patterns in the visuality that consists. What seemed to be most differently between the magazines was the depiction of women. In the Swedish magazines all women were smiling but for men it seemed optional. The Danish magazine followed this pattern to some extent while the Finnish magazines had full segments of women without even a trace of smile. The six women interviewed all had their reasons for reading lifestyle magazines. Mostly it was to pass time when needed. Although, when reading for fun there had to be some sort of interest in the text or subject to be read. Most important though was that there had to exist recognizability. The women wanted to relate and recognize themselves in the text. This way a meaning was ascribed to the reading. Furthermore, most of them did not reflect on how women were depicted. Still though, when asked all women could give an opinion on how the women in the magazines looked. What was interesting then was that they gave the same description only with different words. Keywords; Lifestyle media, Lifestyle magazines, Visual text, Women, Meaning Table of Content 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................1 2. Background .................................................................................................................................3 2.1. History of media use in the Nordic region .................................................................................3 2.2. The making of women and age ..................................................................................................3 2.2. Previous research .....................................................................................................................5 2.2.1. Women and magazines......................................................................................................5 2.2.2. Conclusion, what is known about the field of research? .....................................................7 2.3. Problem definitions and aims ...................................................................................................8 2.4. Definitions ................................................................................................................................9 3. Theory ........................................................................................................................................9 3.1. Lifestyle media .........................................................................................................................9 3.2. Gender theory ........................................................................................................................ 10 3.3. The reading of signs and meaning .......................................................................................... 11 3.4. Audience theory ..................................................................................................................... 13 3.4.1. Receptions studies ............................................................................................................... 13 3.6. Conclusion of theories ............................................................................................................ 14 4. Methodology ............................................................................................................................ 15 4.1. Material ................................................................................................................................. 15 4.2. Methodology.......................................................................................................................... 16 4.2. Methods used ........................................................................................................................ 18 4.3.1 Visual text analysis ............................................................................................................... 19 4.3.2 The reading of signs and meaning......................................................................................... 20 4.3.3 Interviews ............................................................................................................................ 21 5. Analysis ..................................................................................................................................... 22 5.2. The magazines........................................................................................................................ 23 5.1.1. Amelia (Sweden).............................................................................................................. 23 5.1.2. Feminina (Sweden) .......................................................................................................... 29 5.1.3. Tara (Sweden) ................................................................................................................. 34 5.1.4. Anna (Finland) ................................................................................................................. 41 5.1.5. Menaiset (Finland) ........................................................................................................... 45 5.1.6. Søndag (Denmark) ........................................................................................................... 50 5.1.7. Conclusion of the analysis ................................................................................................ 55 5.2. An in-depth look at the Swedish view of lifestyle magazines. .................................................. 56 5.1.2. Conclusion of the analysis ................................................................................................ 63 6. Discussion ................................................................................................................................. 64 6.1. Visual text ............................................................................................................................... 64 6.2. Women ................................................................................................................................... 66 6.1. What the study says about health, welfare and lifestyle in the Nordic region ...................... 70 6.1. Conclusion.............................................................................................................................. 70 References ........................................................................................................................................ 74 Appendix .......................................................................................................................................... 76 Interview structure ................................................................................................................... 76 Patricia Svensson 1. Introduction The idea of this thesis came to me when I was at the hairdresser. As I was waiting for the colour to set in my hair I got a varied set of magazines to read. Mostly there were magazines about fashion, beauty and celebrities. But, after reading an article about Kim Kardashian and how she now could proudly show herself naked to her husband because she had worked out a lot and was “back in shape” I started thinking of the social pressure women get from their surroundings. Reading further, more articles about women, their behaviour and their looks were scrutinized. With the help of pictures and written text you could understand the message that was supposed to be received. The magazine I read was what I would call a “gossip magazine” where celebrities often are in focus. Fed up with this judging of women I instead started to read magazines directed more towards fashion and lifestyle. While browsing through magazines as Cosmopolitan and Amelia I yet again saw a certain pattern. These magazines were mostly depicted in light colours with smiling women on almost every page. Even the fashion pages had a certain type of depiction. The text is affecting the reader and what I felt I saw was an appeal to women on how they should look and act. I felt included and yet not included cos I am a woman but I´m not that woman. The magazine got me invested with pictures and headlines, but I can´t surely be the only one feeling something when reading this kind of media? So, my interest of lifestyle media began. Messages and advices