"Arts, Faculty of"@en . "Anthropology, Department of"@en . "DSpace"@en . "UBCV"@en . "Takayanagi, Nariko"@en . "2009-01-24T00:00:00"@en . "1995"@en . "Master of Arts - MA"@en . "University of British Columbia"@en . "Western feminists have viewed women's magazines as socializing agencies which\r\nshape women's perspectives of being female. It has been argued that the ideologically\r\nbiased and limited content of women's magazines are obstacles for the achievement for\r\ngender equality and that more positive images of women are needed. Others argue that\r\nwomen's magazines serve to teach women how to be successful in male-oriented society.\r\nThis thesis examines the visual and written messages regarding femininity found in\r\nwomen's magazines for young single working women in both Japan and North America.\r\nBy using both quantitative and qualitative content analyses, the socio-cultural context of\r\nthe role of women's magazines were compared. Results showed that women in both\r\ncultures are given limited positions in the world of women's magazines, although\r\nsignificant cultural differences were also observed. In advertisements, North American\r\nwomen's magazines tend to show both traditionally feminine (sexy and elegant) women\r\nand \"new\" and \"active\" women. The presence of predominantly macho-type male figures\r\nsuggested the persisting subordination of women to men. Japanese women's images are\r\nnarrowly defined, leaving only a few characteristics, such as pretty and cute, for women to\r\nchoose. An examination of Caucasian female models in Japanese advertisements revealed\r\nthat their presence could serve to establish Japanese cultural boundaries of femininity.\r\nThrough the magazine's article content, North American women's magazines tend to have\r\na variety of articles which encourage women to have it all or to become \"superwomen.\"\r\nJapanese women's magazines clearly differentiated their content by the career orientedness\r\nof their targeted readership and most of the articles in the mainstream magazines are\r\nmarriage-related. The overall findings suggest that North American women's magazines\r\nserve as \"survival guides\" for women to succeed in male-oriented society by learning both\r\nmasculinity and femininity. In contrast, the main purpose of Japanese women's magazines\r\napparently is to provide a cultural text for readers to gain femininity as a cultural resource\r\nto be successful as women in their society."@en . "https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/3882?expand=metadata"@en . "23475728 bytes"@en . "application/pdf"@en . "A C R O S S - C U L T U R A L C O M P A R I S O N OF W O M E N ' S M A G A Z I N E S IN J A P A N A N D N O R T H A M E R I C A by N A R I K O T A K A Y A N A G I B . A . , The University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1991 A THESIS S U B M I T T E D IN P A R T I A L F U L F I L L M E N T OF T H E R E Q U I R E M E N T S F O R T H E D E G R E E OF M A S T E R S OF A R T S in T H E F A C U L T Y OF G R A D U A T E STUDIES (Department of Anthropology and Sociology) We accept this thesis as conforming to/the required standard T H E U N I V E R S I T Y OF BRITISH C O L U M B I A J U N E 1995 \u00C2\u00A9 Nariko Takayanagi, 1995 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department The University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada DE-6 (2/88) ii ABSTRACT Western feminists have viewed women's magazines as socializing agencies which shape women's perspectives of being female. It has been argued that the ideologically biased and limited content of women's magazines are obstacles for the achievement for gender equality and that more positive images of women are needed. Others argue that women's magazines serve to teach women how to be successful in male-oriented society. This thesis examines the visual and written messages regarding femininity found in women's magazines for young single working women in both Japan and North America. By using both quantitative and qualitative content analyses, the socio-cultural context of the role of women's magazines were compared. Results showed that women in both cultures are given limited positions in the world of women's magazines, although significant cultural differences were also observed. In advertisements, North American women's magazines tend to show both traditionally feminine (sexy and elegant) women and \"new\" and \"active\" women. The presence of predominantly macho-type male figures suggested the persisting subordination of women to men. Japanese women's images are narrowly defined, leaving only a few characteristics, such as pretty and cute, for women to choose. An examination of Caucasian female models in Japanese advertisements revealed that their presence could serve to establish Japanese cultural boundaries of femininity. Through the magazine's article content, North American women's magazines tend to have a variety of articles which encourage women to have it all or to become \"superwomen.\" Japanese women's magazines clearly differentiated their content by the career orientedness of their targeted readership and most of the articles in the mainstream magazines are marriage-related. The overall findings suggest that North American women's magazines serve as \"survival guides\" for women to succeed in male-oriented society by learning both masculinity and femininity. In contrast, the main purpose of Japanese women's magazines apparently is to provide a cultural text for readers to gain femininity as a cultural resource to be successful as women in their society. TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ii Table of Contents i i i List of Tables v List of Figures v i Acknowledgment vi i Dedication vi i i C H A P T E R O N E I N T R O D U C T I O N : 1 Significance of Studying Women's Magazines 1 Research Questions 2 A Brief History of Japanese and North American Women's Magazines 4 C H A P T E R T W O L I T E R A T U R E R E V I E W : . 10 Women's Magazines in Mass Media Studies 11 Women's Magazines in Cultural Studies 19 Cross-Cultural Studies of Women's Magazines 24 Conclusion 27 C H A P T E R T H R E E M E T H O D O L O G Y : 29 Definition of Content Analysis 29 Advantages of Content Analysis 30 Limitation of Content Analysis 31 Combining Quantitative and Qualitative Content Analysis 32 Sampling Procedure 33 Introduction of the Sampled magazines 34 Choice of Sampled Magazines 38 Coding Procedure for Advertisements 40 Reliability Check for Advertisements 43 Coding Procedure for Article Content 43 Reliability Check for Articles 47 Conclusion 47 iv C H A P T E R F O U R F I N D I N G S A N D I N T E R P R E T A T I O N OF A D V E R T I S E M E N T S : 48 General Patterns of Advertisements 48 Themes of Advertisements 1 52 Female Characteristics 52 The Image of Gaijin Women 56 Female Roles 58 Masculinity & Male Roles 60 Heterosexual Relationship 62 Conclusion 65 C H A P T E R F I V E F I N D I N G S A N D I N T E R P R E T A T I O N S OF A R T I C L E S : 68 , General Pattern of Themes 68 Marriage and Romance , 69 Self-Help 78 Work and Family 83 Social Topic 94 Conclusion 99 C H A P T E R SIX C O N C L U S I O N : 103 Ideology of Women's magazines 104 Women's Magazines as Resource 108 Women's Magazines as Cultural Space 112 The Different Role o f Women's Magazines in Japan and North America 114 Limitation and Concluding Remarks 117 R E F E R E N C E S 120 LIST OF T A B L E S Table 1: Sampled Magazines According to Readers' Career Orientation Table 2: Paired Magazines and Months.of Sampled Issues Table 3: Distribution of Content of Women's Magazine Table 4: Types of Products Advertised In Women's Magazines Table 5: Relationship, Sex & Ethnicity of People in Advertisements Table 6: Themes of Female Characteristic Table 7: Themes of Female Roles Table 8: . Themes of Masculinity and Male Roles Table 9: Themes of Heterosexual Relationships Table 10: Distribution of Main Themes in Japanese Articles Table 11: Distribution of Main Themes in North American Articles Table 12: Themes of Marriage & Romance Table 13: Themes of Self-Help . ,.\" Table 14: Themes of Work & Family Table 15: Theme of Social Topics vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 Estee Lauder, Perfume, Cosmopolitan, October 1993(NA) Figure 2 . Bestform, Underwear, Working Woman, October 1993 (NA) Figure 3 Wing, Underwear, With, October, 1993 (JPN) Figure 4 Kaou, Moisturizer, More, November, 1993 (JPN) Figure 5.1 Cover Girl , Cosmetic, Mademoiselle, November, 1993 (NA) 5.2 Funkel, Cosmetics, More November, 1993 (JPN) Figure 6 De Beers, Diamond, More, November,. 1993 (JPN) Figure 7 Pola, Cosmetics, With, October, 1993 (JPN) Figure 8 . Pola, Underwear, More, November, 1993 (JPN) Figure 9 Shiseido, Cosmetics, Cosmopolitan-Japan, October, 1993 (JPN) Figure 10 T.J. Max, Clothes, New Woman, October, 1993 (NA) Figure 11 Shiseido, Hair Styling, With November, 1993 (JPN) Figure 12 Bijon, Perfume, Cosmopolitan, November,' 1993 (NA) Figure 13 Tough N Tighten, Fat Burning Tablets, New Women, November, 1993 Figure 14.1 Signature Classics, Clothes, Working Woman, October, 1993 14.2 Gap, Clothes, Glamour, October, 1993 (NA) ; ' Figure 15 Calvin Klein, Perfume (for men), Mademoiselle, November, 1993 (NA) Figure 16 Southern Comfort, Alcohol, A^/e/r/r;/.se//e, October, 1993 (NA) Figure 17 Zio, Perfume (for men), Glamour, November, 1993 (NA) Figure 18 Shueisha, Books, More, November, 1993 Figure 19 O M G , Computer Marriage Matching Agency, Cosmopolitan-Japan, November, 1993 (JPN) Figure 20 De Beers, Diamond, Glamour, October, 1993 (NA) Figure 21 Tasaki (De Beers), Diamond, With, October, 1993 (JPN) A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S I have incurred many debts in the process of writing this thesis. I am thankful to the members of my committee, Dr. Gillian Creese and Dr. Millie Creighton for their time and thoughtful advice. I would especially like to thank my adviser, Dr. Dawn Currie, for her continual support and.encouragement in guiding me through this project. My thanks also go to Hiroshi Aoyagi, Steve Heine, and Chihiro Ohtsuka for conducting reliability checks for me. As well, I would like to acknowledge Indira-Natasha Prahst who sometimes puzzled over \"BIG\" sociological questions with me, and gave me a lot of encouragement.. Lastly, I would like to thank Steve for his last-minute proof-reading, as well as for his cross-cultural insights and unwavering support. To my grandmothers, Tama and Nobu who taught, me what it means to live as a woman * and . To my parents, Chieko and Tsunetada' who encouraged me to explore my sociological curiosity. C H A P T E R ONE INTRODUCTION Studying Women's Magazines Women's magazines have received special attention from Western feminist scholars in the past few decades because of their \"cultural leadership\" (McCracken, 1993), that is, their ability to shape the consensual image and definition of femininity. Along with other social institutions, women's magazines can be considered a socializing agency which propagates normative directions for women. In this way, women's magazines are an important source of knowledge and \"survival skills\" for women (Smith, 1990; Winship, 1987). As a medium which is \"for women, by women, and about women,\" women's magazines teach their female readers the current images of femininity, techniques to use new tools and materials to become more \"desirable\" and \"trendy\" women, and strategies to utilize their femininity as cultural and social resources. Yet, in order to attract readers, magazines must be sensitive and responsive to the ongoing social changes which shape and expand the experiences of women. By depicting both changing and persisting social norms, women's magazines have helped to \"shape both a woman's view of herself, and society's view of her\" (Ferguson, 1983: 1). For this reason, women's magazines are good tools to observe historical and current trends of social norms and images of women. However, although women's magazines act as a socializing agency, they are ,. primarily a form of entertainment. As a kind of \"mental chocolate\" (Winship 1987), women's magazines provide readers a fantasy world with multi-layered visual pleasures and an escape from everyday issues such as social inequalities of race, class and gender (McCracken 1993). In this way, women's magazines simultaneously entertain women while shaping their perceptions of society. Topics such as sexuality, gender roles, and marriage are presented as \"common-sense\" matters for readers, thereby enabling researchers to grasp the ideologicalsubtext. Meanwhile, an investigation of what kinds of images women's magazines are likely to present also reveals what they choose not to show. Women's magazines can thus be viewed as a \"means not to know\" (Smith, 1975), that is, the way that certain discourses are excluded while others are highlighted in order to construct a \"social reality\" for readers. As a form of \"gendered\" mass culture that provides a social text to learn femininity (and masculinity), women's magazines are very much associated with femininity and women's culture in a given society. However, as Winship (1986:6) argues, \"men do not have or need magazines for 'a man's world'.\" Moreover, Ferguson argues (1983), \"the fact that they (women's magazines) exist at all makes a statement about the position of women in society as one which requires separate consideration and distinctive treatment\" (1). It is assumed that women have to be taught what femininity is whereas men do not need instruction for the business of being masculine. For example, \"how to\" articles (e.g., \"how to put on makeup,\" or \"how to be good in bed\") provide a socializing process for women to become more feminine, a process which varies according to the age of the readership (Ferguson, 1983:. 8). Women's magazines are an interesting and unique form of media and popular culture in a way that they can be seen as senders of ideological messages as well as cultural resources for women to survive in a men's world. Yet, as Ferguson (1983) states, the topic of women's magazines is an under-researched area and too little is known about the cultural significance of the medium (3). In particular Women's magazines from non-western cultures, especially have not previously been researched much. Thus, a comparative analysis of western and non-western women's magazines could reveal whether women's magazines play similar roles in each society, thereby making an important contribution to studies of women's experiences. Research Questions This study analyzes and compares cultural models represented through advertisements and articles in current women's magazines targeted toward single working women in Japan, and in North America. Based on the assumption that women's magazines have the ideological role of transmitting current socio-cultural norms to their targeted readerships, I examine what kinds of cultural messages, both visual and written, women's magazines attempt to convey to readers. Specifically, I explore similarities and differences in the ways that articles and advertisements in women's magazines in these two cultures portray \"being female.\" By comparing the patterns of culturally defined.femininity, attempts are made to disclose the ideological construction of femininity. Another important issue for this study is the socio-cultural roles for women's magazines for Japanese and North American women. To be more specific, questions such as why certain women's magazines and their messages are appealing (or at least understood as necessary things to know) to certain targeted readers need to be discussed by positioning women's magazines within a larger socio-cultural context. This is because any representation of femininity in women's magazines is ideologically defined and reflects social relations in society. Women are constructed outside the media as well, and it is their marginality in culture, politics, and the economy that contributes to their subordinate position in patriarchal societies. Thus by providing a variety of sampled magazines targeting different kinds of women within a culture, intra-cultural comparison can also be , made to investigate the range of topics and discourses in women's magazines. There are two important reasons to study women's magazines for young working women. First, in both Japan and in North America, this group of females indirectly constitutes the best readership for magazine publishers because they attract sponsorships from certain types of advertising companies. These women are considered to be among the best consumers as they have relatively large disposable incomes, and social norms require them to \"put on appearances\" (Barthel 1988) and become more \"female.\" A magazine with a readership of young, mainly single working women is a good vehicle to advertise certain kinds of products. Hence, there are a large number of magazines aimed at this particular readership. For example, in 1992 in Japan there were 78 women's 4 magazines which had major circulation in Japan. Among them, 50 were targeted at young women in their twenties and early thirties. Half of these magazines were established after 1988, targeting young women's consumption power and material desire in an economically affluent era in Japan (Morohashi, 1992). Another important characteristic of this demographic group is that these women are in a crucial period of their lives. Mainly situated in their twenties and early thirties, they are facing many important decisions which may determine their life courses, related to marriage, family, or career choices. For example, many single working women are at the so-called \"marriageable age,\" and thus readers may be confronted with a barrage of advertisements and articles regarding'marriage. These magazines can transmit social norms relevant to single women's major life decisions: An examination.of the representation.of gender in women's magazines should reveal the images that shape \"cultural models\" in both societies That is; what kinds of cultural messages regarding culturally desirable roles and appearances for women and men are imparted to Japanese and North American women, and what meaning might these messages have? Haw is the content of women's magazines presented to convey an understanding of contemporary society and world events? By asking questions such as these, a pattern of cross-cultural differences of desirable females, social values, and social relationships between women and men can be discussed. A Brief History of Japanese and North American Women's Magazines Both in Japanese and North American societies, women's magazines have provided women with various information and techniques for a long period of time. Among Japanese women's magazines that existed until recently, the five oldest magazines, for example, Fujin no Tomo (Women's Friends), Fujin Koii/on (Women's Public Statement), were published in the early 1900s. These early women's magazines, which were targeted for housewives of an emerging middle class in urban cities early in the twentieth century, were published in order to educate women in the progressive and liberal atmosphere of 5 \"taisho democracy\". Supported by the early stages of the Japanese feminist movement, the articles in these magazines often dealt with gender equality, and women's suffrage rights as well as teaching women how to become good mothers and wives. However, women's magazines are not free from the social and historical settings of their own time. It has been reported that during World War II, as the Japanese government got heavily involved in the Pacific war, the content of the articles changed dramatically from \"women's rights\" to topics that were favorable to war and promoted nationalism. Women's magazines promoted the war, as did other forms of mass media, by presenting images of . \"ideal motherhood and femininity\" for the purpose of raising children to be great soldiers (Watashitachi no Rekishi wo Tsuzuru Kai, 1987). After the war, during the 1950's and ,1960's, many weekly women's magazines were published and became the most popular medium for women. The principle topics were the royal family, fashion, beauty, housework, and relationships (Ochiai, 1990). A great change in the style of women's magazines occurred in the early 1970's. This change was signified more by the publication oiAn-An and Non-No which shaped the basis of the monthly women's magazines that now exist in Japan1 Towards the end of the 1980's, another '\"fad\" of the publication of women's magazines occurred. Almost all but a few \"traditional\" magazines which existed since the early 1900's disappeared at this point. Instead, between 1988 to 1990, 28 new women's magazines were published.. Most of these targeted young women in their 20's and early 30's (Morohashi 1992). As the level of women's education increased, more women started to delay their marriage and stay in the labor force longer. These women have salaries, as well as time to spend for shopping and leisure. Therefore, this group of people is seen as the best targeted, group for the magazine publisher to attract advertisers. ^Inoue (1986) summarizes the characteristics of this new breed as follows. 1) New magazines have a \"cute\" sounding Euro-language title, such as An - An, Non-No, Can Can, Vi Vi, and J J, 2) new magazines are visually-oriented and devote more pages for advertisements than the traditional ones, 3) new magazines do not deal with the royal family, and entertainment (celebrity) as much as the weekly or traditional women's magazines. ' There are some distinctive characteristics of Japanese women's magazines, especially those published after 1970. As Inoue (1989) argues, the new magazines often use pseudo-Euro-languages for the title. Spur, Crea, With, Orange Page, Vegeta, Peach, She's and Ray are good examples. Unlike their American counterparts, which contain some meaning in the title of the magazines, such as New Women,, Ms., Good Housekeeping, these Japanese magazines have titles that do not make sense in any language. This is probably because by using \"foreign\" (in this context,.Euro-American) sounding names for the titles, they can create a kind of exotic and sophisticated atmosphere that Japanese people might not be able to. obtain from Japanese-sounding names. Many of the magazines use Caucasian models for the cover models, probably for the same reasons they use foreign-sounding titles. By eliminating things that are not Japanese from the cover picture, the magazines try to present a fantasy world. Another characteristic of Japanese women's magazines is their diversification and segmentation according to readers' interests (fashion oriented, leisure oriented, home-making Oriented, etc.), age (early 20's, mid 20's and early 30's etc.), and roles (mother, wife, single working women, students etc.). Each large magazine publisher has its magazines lined up according to its targeted readers' ages. For example, Koudan-sha has Vi Vi aimed at the women between 18 and 22, With for women aged 22 to 25, Mine for ages 25 to 30, and Sophia for those over 30 years old (Sliinoda, 1990). This specification is possible because Japanese people tend to follow similar life courses which are established by social norms, such as marrying by the end of their twenties or wearing certain kind of clothes according to their age (Brinton, 1992). In this way, the content that magazines provide, whether it is regarding tips for making certain important life-decisions or choosing the kinds of clothes, to wear, tell readers what they are supposed to want and do at each particular time in their lives. At the same time, specifying the targeted readership makes it easier for the publisher to attract specific advertisements such as cosmetics for single women (but not for housewives), new kinds of kitchen appliances 7 for housewives, and diamond rings for single working women. In other words, the Japanese magazines could have more normative direction than North American women's magazines in terms of shaping readers' perspectives. \u00E2\u0080\u00A2' 1 The principal North American women's magazines were called the \"seven sisters\" by the industry, before a serious drop.in advertising volume in 1981. These traditional magazines included Ladies Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, McCalls (which have all existed since the nineteenth century), Family Circle, Women's Day, Better Homes and Gardens, and Redbook (which were established by the 1940's). These magazines mainly targeted housewives, presenting information on domestic skills, new products for houses, and information regarding becoming ideal wives and motherhood (McCracken, 1993). However, with over half of the population of women in the paid workforce by 1980, the readership of these traditional housekeeping-oriented magazines declined drastically, due to the changing interests of readers from homemaking to more publicly oriented lifestyle. The feminist movement also criticized traditional sex roles and women's exploitation under the free household labor system, and fostered contempt toward the traditional women's magazines such as the \"seven sisters\". Similar to the changes in the early 1970's in Japan, the \"new breed\" of American women's magazines were published one after another. New magazines such as New Woman, Working Woman, Savvy, Self, along with the already existing Glamour, Mademoiselle, and Cosmopolitan all targeted working women. As well,'Ms., the first widely circulated feminist magazine in North America, was published in 1972 largely due to the women's movement. Essence, the first largely circulated minority (black) women's magazine, emphasizing socio-cultural and political issues specifically affecting black women, was also published in 1970. Both in Japan and in North America, a few large corporations own most of the mass-circulated women's magazines. In North America, however, the distinction among each magazine is not as clear as it is in Japan. In other words, post-teenage women's magazines are read by one large group of women between the ages of 18 to 34 . For 8 example, New Woman targets a wide range of women (married or single) between the ages of 18 to 52 (McCracken, 1993). The range of readership is somewhat loose and the topics must be compatible to fit into this wide readership. It should be noted that the shift from \"traditional\" women's magazines to \"new\" women's magazines took place in both societies at around the same time, that is, during the early 1970's. However, the primary cause of the change seems different in the two countries. In North American society, in addition to women's entry into the labor force, the women's movement and the civil rights movement had a certain degree of influence on the content of women's magazines. From such social changes and movements, magazines like Ms., Essence,- and Working Woman came into being. For Japanese magazines, the influence of industrialization and economic growth at that time brought young women into the workplace and gave them spending power. Thus, the publication of magazines was due to the new consumer status of young single women in economically booming Japan. In fact, although the atmosphere of the magazines became somewhat \"modernized\" and \"sophisticated\" by using foreign sounding names and visual images, the content of the magazines, especially regarding gender roles, remained almost unchanged compared with the traditional magazines (Inoue, 1989). This thesis compares, across cultures, the messages in women's magazines which targeted women of a similar age group and status (single and young working women) and analyzes the roles women's magazines have in each society. In Chapter Two, the findings of previous research on women's magazines are discussed from the perspectives of Mass Media studies and Cultural Studies. Chapter Three introduces the methodology (cross-cultural content analysis) I employed in the current research. The categories of advertisements and articles for the thematic analyses employed in this study are provided in this chapter. Results and their interpretations are discussed in Chapter Four for the advertisements, and Chapter Five for the article content. The final chapter discusses the implications of women's magazines in the two societies by contextuaiizing the findings within their respective socio-cultural environments. 10 CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW Past research on the content of women's magazines can be categorized into two paradigms that differ by their theoretical orientation, use of methods, and focus of analysis. The first paradigm, which can be seen to relate to mass media studies, can be characterized as \"image\" approaches because their primary focus is descriptions of the manifest content of women's magazines: Assuming that media representations of women are somewhat monolithic and that readers passively accept the meaning of cultural forms in the way that they are apparently presented, this paradigm can detect both current and historical patterns of the representations of women. By employing a quantitative content analysis as the primary tool, these studies are designed to reveal the kinds of sex roles and stereotypical images of women that are shown in women's magazines. However, in this paradigm questions such as how these images have come into being, and how images are constructed'and presented, are not dealt with extensively. In other words, this paradigm's assumption that women's magazines can be read only in the ways that the magazines superficially present, undermines the social relations and ideological forces.that create the cultural images'and meanings that readers might receive. The second paradigm, cultural studies, does, not suffer from the drawbacks of \"image representation\" that plague mass media studies. In culture studies, which originated in the Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) in Birmingham, researchers tend to emphasize the latent meaning of cultural objects by analyzing the processes of their construction. Specifically, the way that meanings are produced and reproduced is emphasized. Texts are considered to be multi-layered, non-monolithic structures of meaning that are open to negotiation. Readers are seen to be actively involved in producing the meanings and interpretations of the cultural objects, instead of passively-accepting their supposed manifest meanings. . \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 - , , ,11 Because of the assumptions of possible multiple meanings of cultural products and the audiences' active role of producing their own meanings, the methods that are primarily used are qualitative ones such as ethnography, semiotic.analysis, psychoanalysis, and hermeneutics. In short, mass media studies is interested mwhai kinds of images of women are shown in magazines. In contrast, cultural studies examines how the images of women are structured, and how meanings of femininity are constructed and reconstructed in women's magazines. I will first introduce studies within the paradigm of mass media studies. Women's Magazines In Mass-Media Studies In her ground-breaking book, The Feminine Mystique, which marked the start of the second wave of feminism, Betty Friedan (1963) criticizes women's magazines for creating and perpetuating ideal standards of femininity. By examining the way women's magazines in the forties and fifties portrayed women's goals, their aspirations,.and their \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 lifestyles, her conclusion is that the content of women's magazines both reflected and perpetuated the limited lifestyles of American women. Following Friedan's examination of the role that women's magazines play in influencing the social definition of women, much research has been conducted on this subject and the medium of women's magazines has been recognized as a powerful socializing agent for women. By the early seventies, the issue of gender-role stereotyping in the mass media became a central research question. Throughout the 1970's, the general findings suggest that, whether visual or written, the images of women in the mass media generally and women's magazines in particular, are \"negative,\" \"limited,\" somewhat \"distorted\" and reinforce traditional norms and values relating to women's role in society (Courtney & Lockeretz 1971; Franzwa 1975; Tuchman, 1978; Wagner & Banos, 1973 and Weybell, 1977). . \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 \" ' Others argue that the portrayals of women in women's magazines are catching up to the changing roles of women. For example, Tuchman (1979) states that the image'of women in women's magazines is somewhat more responsive to changes in society than images presented on television even though the range of portrayal is limited. In her study of how women are reflected in Canadian magazines, Wilson (1981) also finds that magazines reinforce aspects of both stability and change of the societal norms for women.' . For example, Wilson finds that the employment rates of magazine heroines increased, as did the employment rate for Canadian women, but not to the same extent. Although some researchers report \"improvements\" in the ways that women have been depicted over the years, researchers of early studies mainly argued that such changes in women's magazines did not reflect the considerable social changes and that mass media perpetuated out-of-date gender stereotypes (Bartos 1982). As the above studies indicate, traditionally mass media researchers are interested in detecting how accurately women are reflected in mass media. Typical assumptions in early mass media studies can be found in the conclusion of a study by Newark (1977) who states that \"it would be desirable for all magazines to strive for an accurate and more balanced presentation of today's woman\" (82). ' ; ' In his landmark work, Erving Goffman (1979) introduces a unique way of examining the visual imagery of gender in advertisements in general periodicals. He explores how physical positioning and bodily poses of models act as cues for the transmission of gender stereotypes. He uses the parent/child relationship as an analogy for explaining the representation of gender in ads. According to Goffman, it is often the case^ that men are shown in the role of the parent and women are shown in the role of the child. For example, women are often portrayed proportionally much smaller than men, they are situated lower than men, and tend to look vulnerable and in heed of protection by the men who are likely to be situated in a dominant position. As readers, we take this imagery for granted because it looks natural to us. He argues that this tendency is because the ' depiction of gender in ads is the representation of \"gender display\". \"Gender display\" is understood .as a commonsensical portrayal of culturally and socially established gender 13 relations. In this sense, Goffman suggests that gender displays in ads can be interpreted as rituals which shape people's perspectives and provide them with shared cultural meanings. Although he argues that \"gender displays\" tend to be \"hyper-ritualizations\" because of their emphasis on certain subtle gestures and body positioning as signs of femininity and masculinity, the basic premise is that gender displays in ads reflect everyday interactions in society. More recent research on women's magazines has shifted from the previous \"mere reflection\" assumption and has paid more attention to the ideological construction of \"social reality\" that women's magazines try to convey to their readers: Nett (1991) investigates the visual as well as the written representation of middle-aged women in a Canadian women's magazine. She finds that middle-age women are not shown in the covers nor in the fashion and beauty sections, they are underrepresented in advertisements, and overrepresented in fiction. She argues that the way in which middle-aged women are. positioned in these magazines reflects an ideological construction of an ideal femininity which emphasizes youth and beauty. As many more women entered the labor market, magazines started to introduce the lifestyle of \"new women\" gaining economic independence through their work outside the home. A number of researchers pay attention to this new portrayal of women. For example, Glazer (1980) examines the representation of employed women in Working Woman. She finds that women are depicted as either \"sociological males\" or as \"superwomen'.' in the work place. At the same time, working women are portrayed as also having domestic responsibilities or as somebody'that had to give up the possibilities for marriage and/or motherhood because of their career. Rather than suggesting that \"the double day\" issues facing women is socially created, Working Woman presents it as an individual woman's problem. In turn, women are shown to solve their problems by hiring domestic help or through other personal means. In this way, the women's magazines offer little or no challenge to the existing.social relations in either the public or private sphere. L4 In her analysis of seven women's magazines from 1975 to 1982, Henry (1984) argues that the charges against women's magazines for perpetuating the myth of the superwoman are only partially supported. Many problems of combining job and family have been recognized, although nearly one-third of the 64 articles in her sample show working' women's \"double day\" and few articles actually offered solutions or realistic alternatives for these situations. Not many changes are found over the eight year period. Viewing women's magazines as moral guides, Keller (1992) conducts a qualitative analysis of the development of ideologies for the changing middle class. She argues that women's magazines have played a part in the justification of emerging \"new women's\" lifestyles, as well as in defending traditional ones, because these magazines are read by both.working women and housewives. The magazines have attempted to justify both lifestyles and offer no solutions for the issues of combining work and family. Keller shows how magazines ideologically construct a \"social reality\" for woman readers and transmit it as a social norm by not showing alternative ways of dealing with problems (such as asking husbands to share the housework or criticizing the patriarchal social staicture which give women a double burden). . -Using content analysis, Ruggiero and Weston (1985) explore how \"established\" magazines and \"new\" magazines differed in their socialization messages about work options for women during the 1970's. Their analysis reveals that some changes are evident in both types of magazines but that more changes are apparent in the new magazines: The working women profiled in established magazines are less likely to perceive themselves as having responsibility and power or influence than those in the new magazines. Whereas working women profiled in new magazines occupy nontraditional jobs, they have full-time jobs and more often careers. They have more responsibilities and power, such as supervising subordinates, having control over their work, and influencing other people's decision-making. Moreover, the core of the socialization messages in new women's magazines' is that working for pay is integral to a woman's self-esteem. 15 Supplementing purely quantitative methods, thematic analysis utilizes quasi-qualitative aspects in content analysis. Geise (1979) compares the themes in nonfiction articles in two women's magazines between 1949 and 1984, Ladies Home Journal and Redbook. She analyzes 136 different value statements and classifies them into 12 issues, (e.g., \"Women's Goals arid Interests,\" \"Sex Roles in Marriage, \"\"Marriage & Career,\" \"Female Role Models\"). She finds that love, marriage, and family are the overriding themes of female goals in the early period, and the idea that a career could be equally important is supported more in the later period. Moreover, traditional sex roles are no longer considered to be the best in both magazines in the later period.. Fox (1990) conducts a thematic analysis of the ads for household appliances appearing in the Ladies Home Journal between 1909 and 1980. By examining household technology in advertising in the women's magazine, she investigates how the magazine produced a specific ideology for American housewives: She delineates 1 5 types of messages in advertisements for household products that appealed to housewives and shows how ideology regarding domestic work has changed over several decades. She finds that themes such as \"women's role as household worker\" and \"housework as service to the family\" frequently appeared over the time. Moreover, she argues that by addressing the housewife as a consumer and affirming housekeeping as work, advertisers also shape a traditional ideology about gender identity and encourage women's dedication to domestic life. She concludes that advertisements confine women to unpaid and low-paid work. Another thematic analysis that compares ads for American and British women's magazines is conducted by Monk-Turner (1990). Advertisements in Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Options, and Women's Journal are categorized by seven themes: Beauty, Efficiency, New and Better, Traditional .Women-Is Role, Taste, and Miscellaneous. She . finds that the different lifestyles of targeted young working women in these countries are reflected in the different themes which appeared most frequently in them. In the United States, magazines readers are assumed to be independent working women having 16 economic resources to buy fashionable things. In Britain, since the majority of readers are assumed to live with their families, ads are geared to household products and food, indicating that taking care of family member is central to the lives of the majority of women readers of British magazines.. Examining selected advertisements from more than 2000 copies of the popular press from 1900 to the present, Dispenza (1975) described the cultural standards of femininity for American women. By identifying cultural assumptions about men and women in advertisements, he analyzed the cultural conditioning of gender roles and advertisements' influence on attitudes toward women. In order to detect images predominantly reinforced by ads, he conducted a thematic analysis of the ads. He came up with several themes: facial beauty, women's roles in the household, romance and courtship through engagement, marriage, motherhood, fashion, and weight reduction. In her book, Forever Feminine: Women's Magazines and the Cult of Femininity, Ferguson (1983) conducts an historical analysis of the themes of articles in three major English women's magazines between the 1950's and 1980's. The uniqueness of Ferguson's argument is that she considers women's magazines to be a social institution that serves to perpetuate a cult of femininity. Regarding editors as high priestesses and agenda-setters, and the women readers as followers who engage in required rituals, she views femininity ' as a cult: This cult is manifested both as a social group to which all those born female can belong, and as a set of practices and beliefs: riles and rituals, sacrifices and ceremonies, whose periodic performance reaffirms a common femininity and shared group membership. In promoting a cult of femininity these journals are not merely reflecting the female role in society; they are also supplying one source of definitions of, and socialization into, that \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 role. (Ferguson 1983:185) By drawing upon a combination of various sources and methods, such as qualitative and quantitative content analyses, interviews, observations, documentation, statistical data and her prior experiences as a journalist for women's magazines, Ferguson identifies the pattern of messages that women's magazines are sending to readers over 17 time. Ferguson finds that the most repeated messages in the sampled British women's magazines from 1949 to 1974 are \"Love and marriage\", with \"Self-Help\" the second most repeated message. Ferguson first explores the social, economic and demographic changes in England between 1970 to 1980 as well as women's changing attitudes towards themselves. She notes that \"self-help: overcoming misfortune\" became the most frequent dominant theme for the \"new\" women. Together with \"self-help, achieving perfection\", these two themes make up almost half of the dominant themes. She argues that these values, which emphasize self-determination, are related to Calvinism and Puritanism, as well as Victorian individualism. \"Romantic love,\" which accounted for 59% of dominant themes in the 1960s, accounted for only 12% in the 1980s. However, \"romantic love\" is still dominant in sub-themes (second-order messages) and is still considered an important aspect of the cult of femininity. Thus Ferguson argues that this juxtaposition of two messages, that is, \"self-help\" and \"romantic love\" indicates the dualistic and contradictory nature of femininity. Women have to be autonomous and happy as individuals, yet this happiness is not possible without a romantic love partner. Ferguson concludes that women's magazines offer women a cheap and accessible source of positive evaluation as well as practical directions to-fulfill their potential as members of the cult of femininity. In particular, the editors try to promote a female \"social reality,\" that is, a world of women where a set of shared meanings and social bonds among females are presented. The contradictory messages of self-help and romance mean that women must learn to be successfully feminine in, order to be able to catch suitable men. Replicating Ferguson's work on the thematic analysis of British magazines, Peirce (1985) conducts a historical comparison of the themes found in Cosmopolitan U.S.A. between the years 1965 to 1985 Claiming that Cosmopolitan is \"a representative of one of the most significant yet least studied American social institutions\" (2), she examines 18 how Cosmopolitan presents the cultural processes which define the position of women in society. She argues that Cosmopolitan can be distinguished from other women's magazines in that it promotes \"entrepreneurial femininity\". \"Entrepreneurial femininity\" is a developed skill which enables a woman to get and do what she wants. In this sense Peirce calls Cosmopolitan a \"woman's owner's manual, the magazine that 'instructs' the reader in how to make it in a man's world.\" (5) Peirce discusses the particular world view that Cosmopolitan projects for woman readers, as well as its changes over time. She found that despite the social changes that took place during the 1960's and 1970s, Cosmopolitan continued to reinforce traditional role expectations in most aspects of women's lives, right up until the present. Cosmopolitan does not demand any great changes in American men or in American society, but simply asks women to make more effort to achieve their goals. Cosmopolitan does offer an inexpensive and accessible source of coping strategies for women to make decisions in their lives. Women are asked to be self-assured, independent, beautiful and have successful careers and desirable women without changing their traditional feminine roles. Although the overt emphasis, over the past few decades, changed from \"Getting Men\" to \"Achieving Perfection through Self-Help,\" covertly women are still being asked to pursue \"desirable men.\" The goal that Cosmopolitan presents to readers still remains the same; that is, to preserve traditional sexual roles. In'general, \"traditional\" research in mass media studies has tended-to focus on the depiction of women at a manifest level: that is, the roles and images that are communicated by magazines and debates concern whether these \"accurately\" reflect social reality^ The mass media paradigm prefers quantitative methods to measure and verify patterns of images of women. However, visual images such as advertisements often contain multi-layered and non-monolithic structures of meaning which readers are expected to decode. Moreover, assuming that readers passively accept only manifest 19 meanings and images of text, mass media studies neglect audience involvement in producing their own meanings. Another problem of this perspective is that it confuses or fails to distinguish between the representation of women and women who actually exist in society. In other words, there has not been a clear recognition of the notion that the images do not merely reflect reality but are ideologically constructed. This issue of the representation of women in mass media research has undergone severe criticism. Walters (1992:63) argues that \"the image perspective,\" the dominant analysis of women's magazines in mass media studies, assumes that \"meaning is perceived as readily apparent and judged in terms of its sexist, or non-sexist, content and characterization.\" Thus, the mass media perspective is both \"limited politically by its liberal assumptions, and intellectually by its reflection model of cultural production and consumption\" (63). Similarly,, Janus (1977) and Steeves (1987) argue that the liberal feminist focus represented by the assumptions of quantitative analyses of sex roles naively supports the notion that more women, and especially more non-traditional vyomen, in the media will bring about gender equality. The problem is that this strategy does not challenge the existing social and economic staicture. The ways the media reinforce ideologies about the family, class, race, capitalism, and the oppression of women should also be examined. In order to detect how the system of mass media and the creation of femininity works, we should not be focusing only on the images of women but we should also view women as signifiers in an ideological discourse (Betterton, 1987). Thus, analyses that elaborate theoretically the meaning of stereotypical portrayals of women are needed. Content analysis by itself does not account for the ideology of women's secondary status in society. Women's Magazines in Cultural Studies The paradigm of cultural studies emerged as an attempt to overcome the weaknesses inherent in mass media studies Although different theorists tend to focus on particular areas of the popular cultural landscape, one of the characteristics of cultural \u00E2\u0080\u00A220 studies is recognition of the political and ideological functions of popular culture. Pointing out this tendency of the cultural studies paradigm, Carey (1989) states that \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 British Cultural Studies could be described just as easily and perhaps more accurately as ideological studies.\" (97) The cultural studies paradigm sees cultural texts as presenting particular images of the world and as attempting to win readers', consensual views of the world. Moreover, the cultural studies paradigm assumes that cultural objects, such as the images of women and cultural messages in women's magazines, have multiple meanings and that there is room for the readers to actively interpret the meanings of these images and \" \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 messages. Accordingly, research methods in this paradigm tend to be qualitative in order to have a close analysis of texts and audiences. Taking the similar, view of the ideological function of texts as well as audiences' . active roles in popular culture, McRobbie (1992) examines the ideology of adolescent . femininity in her study of the teen-age girl's magazine Jackie. Rejecting the view of mass media as worthless and of readers as manipulated, she considers that pop-culture and pop music are meaningful activities. She argues that the teen-age girls who read Jackie are not cultural dopes of the text, but are actively involved in using the magazines as social and cultural resources. She regards Jackie as \"a system of messages, a signifying system and a bearer of a certain ideology, an ideology which deals with the construction of teen-age '\u00E2\u0080\u00A2\u00E2\u0080\u00A2 femininity\" (81 -82) Because of the magazine's emphasis on the codes of fashion and beauty, personal life, pop music, and romance, MacRobbie argues that Jackie sets up the primary focus of the world of teen-age girls and defines femininity for them. MacRobbie also claims that \"understanding media messages as structured wholes and combinations of structures\" should be given more significance than their mere numerative existence (91). Thus, instead of using content analysis which is only concerned with the numerical appearance of the content, she employs the \"approaches associated with semiology, the science of signs\" (91) to analyze Jackie. In this way McRobbie draws attention to how 21 cultural hegemony is operated iri the sphere of .private and personal life. It is at the cultural level that magazines like Jackie become a site of staiggle as girls are \"subjected to an explicit attempt to win consent of the dominant order\" (87), through categories such as femininity. \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 '\u00E2\u0080\u00A2 \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 . - \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 \u00E2\u0080\u00A2\u00E2\u0080\u00A2 Janice Winship (1986) qualitatively examines the content of British women's magazines in her book, Inside Women's Magazines. She argues that these magazines are not merely entertainment but also' serve as a survival guide for women living in a patriarchal culture. Winship argues that this function can be problematic because the ideal femininity that magazines advise readers to aspire towards is always constructed around mythical women who exist outside of powerful socio-cultural structures and constraints. In this way women's magazines are simultaneously acting as survival guides as well as . shaping and limiting women's perceptions of society. Moreover; Winship discusses how the ideological content of women's magazines limits the scope of women's perspectives. She argues that women's magazines appear profoundly committed.to the \"individual solution.\" That is, they present articles such as \"triumph over, tragedy.\" stories or personal problem pages which highlight\" how women should solve their own problems individually, while failing to address the societal and cultural causes. As she claims, such personal solutions'to the problems cannot change women's disadvantaged position in.society. Paying attention to women's magazines as a producer of a discourse of modern womanhood and/or femininity, Ballaster, Beetham, Frazer and Hebron (1991) closely examine women's magazines since the eighteenth century in an attempt to understand this historical and ideological significance and its social function. They reject the idea that ideology acts as a determining force that shapes people's beliefs, values and actions into the form that best serves the interests of the dominant class. Based on interviews with British readers, they argue that readers are clearly capable of negotiating the complexity of 22 the representations and messages they read, see and hear, and are aware of the normative and ideological effects of these magazines: B y conducting textual analyses of women's magazines over the decades, Ballaster et al. demonstrate that especially since 1988 the women's magazines they sampled, have continuity in their thematic emphasis; that is sexuality, domesticity, politics, beautification, etc. are emphasized, At the same time, they argue that the contradictory nature of magazines' representations of masculinity and femininity has become more noticeable than ever. It is evident in the messages that, Cosmopolitan, for example, sends to its readers. Specifically, Cosmopolitan \"constructs women as independent salary-earners with sexual existence, yet prioritizing the heterosexual relationship as the determining force in their social existence\" (6). Women'.s magazines take advantage of the contradicting nature o f femininity. Because the femininity they portray is unobtainable, women's magazines which mediate femininity can never fully satisfy readers but keeps them wanting more tips and different models of femininity. Ballaster et al. conclude that \"women's magazine must be understood as a cultural form in which, since its inception, definitions and understandings of gender differences have been negotiated and contested rather than taken for granted or imposed\" (176). In this sense, although women's magazines are published for profit, the format does offer women a privileged space within which they can search for their female self. , In Decoding Women's Magazines, McCracken (1993) pays close attention to women's magazines' visual and verbal systems. Noting that women's magazines \"exert a cultural leadership to shape consensus in which highly pleasurable codes work to naturalize social relations of power\"(3), she uses semiotics to analyze how advertisements and article content present a cultural hegemony over the construction of femininity. McCracken claims that the editorial material in women's magazines is part of a cultural continuum which includes the advertising texts, a continuum based on the financial necessity of magazine enterprises.. The cover picture, overt (pure) advertisements, 23 advertorials (editorial looking advertisements) as well as editorial features, are all structurally interconnected and channel women's desires into consumerism as a temporary resolution of their problems and pleasure. She concludes pessimistically that even i f readers could develop an oppositional interpretation and a negotiated meaning of the text which resists representations in magazines, the negotiated meaning is still unlikely to bring about radical changes in the structure of.eapitalist society. As mentioned above, a characteristic of cultural studies is its rejection of a positivistic approach. Particularly for visual analysis, semiotics is often employed as a \"system of signification\". Semiotic methods are usually used in order to disclose the relations among the parts of messages of communication systems. Those who apply semiotics assert that \"it is only through the interaction of component parts that meaning is formed\" (Leiss et a l , 1986: 198). Thus semiotics is considered useful to understand multiple, not fixed nor readily apparent, meanings of cultural objects, especially visual images such as advertisements and movies. As a result, many critics of advertisements use this method (see Dyer, 1982; Goldman, 1992; Leiss et al., 1986 and Willamson, 1978). While semiotics is insightful and imaginative in its conceptual framework, its applications to specific cases tends to lapse into vague generalities. Due to the close analysis of cultural objects and representations, semiotics has been criticized for failing to adequately include social and historical contexts (Walter, 1992) or the holistic picture of a cultural object. Moreover, as Leiss et al. (1986) argue, semiology cannot be applied to the same extent to any kind of advertisement. Instead of randomly choosing the advertisements, semioticians carefully select specific advertisements and then apply semiology to illustrate structural relationships. Because of the danger of self-confirming results, conclusions are only applicable to the particular ad and cannot necessarily be generalized to the entire range of advertisements. The close examination of small samples does not lend itself to an overall sense of the constructed meanings. 24 Moreover, cultural studies are derived from European cultural and social theoretical developments. There has not yet been any analyses of comparative or non-western cultural objects. For this reason the question remains whether the paradigm of cultural studies might be applicable only to the Euro-American socio-cultural context (see McGuigan; 1992). Cross-Cultural Comparisons of Women's Magazines Because of the comparative nature of the current study, it is necessary to identify a generalized cultural pattern of femininity within each culture by quantitatively examining a large number of messages. A reliance solely on qualitative and semiotics approaches will not provide adequate information. Nonetheless, the presupposition of cultural studies, that is, the ideological construction of popular culture and meaning, is a great benefit in directing research and contextualizing data in a cross-cultural manner. Thus methods which utilize both quantitative and qualitative approaches should be developed. One of the advantages of conducting research on material such as magazines is that it is possible to compare the content historically and culturally. By using content analysis, one can see the extent to which certain aspects of the content have changed or remained unchanged over time or across cultures. As previously mentioned, content analysis frequently has been used for historical comparisons. However, thus far, there have been very few cross-cultural comparisons of women's magazines. One exception is a study conducted by Flora (1979). Based on her belief that many general assumptions about women are based on examinations of North American culture and middle-class women, she compares the fiction of middle-class and working class women's magazines in the United States and in Latin America. She finds more pronounced cross-cultural differences than class differences in female dependence. Middle-class stories portrayed more female dependency than did working-class stories. In particular, American working-class fiction is the least likely to stress the non-traditional image of passive womanhood. However, in most of the sampled articles men exercised 25 authority whereas very few women are presented as acting in the public realm. Flora concludes that the presentation of female passivity is found in both societies and across social class, although the degree of the passivity varied across culture and class. Comparing women's magazines from three different countries (Mexico, Japan and United States), Inoue (1989) conducts quantitative content analyses of both advertisements and article contents. She finds that Japanese women's magazines carry more advertisements and advertorials than articles, whereas American women's magazines have a lot of advertisements and articles but not as many advertorials. In Mexico, women's magazines do not have as many advertisements, but the advertisements they carry are likely to be from multinational corporations selling Western products. Inoue does not conduct systematic quantitative or qualitative analyses on the themes of advertisements, but through impressionistic visual techniques, she finds clear differences among these three countries. With respect to models, Japanese female models tend to look \"cute,\" \"childlike\" \"coquettish\" and \"harmless\". In contrast', American and Mexican models emphasized their \"sexiness\",\" maturity\", \"strength\" and \"seductiveness\", whereas males are portrayed as \"father figures\" or \"aggressive guys\" who are often holding women from behind or in front. In the sampled American magazines 95% of models shown in advertisements for cosmetics are Caucasian, which is an overrepresentation of their actual demographic ratio. In Mexican and Japanese women's magazines the majority of models are Caucasian and/or Caucasian looking women (those who have lighter skin texture). In general Inoue finds that these women's magazines from the three countries emphasize \"youth\" and \"whiteness\" as the standards of beauty. ' ' . With respect to the content of articles, the most frequent topics in women's magazines in the three countries are about \"Fashion & Beauty\". Japanese magazines in general spent more pages on fashion whereas American and Mexican magazines have more beauty pages: Inoue (1989) also finds that Japanese women's magazines focus on the topic of \"Romance & Marriage\" more than the others, and that themes of \"how to 26 catch guys\" are especially noticeable in Japanese magazines for single women. In Japan the magazines have a very distinctive readership such as married women or young single women. Thus depending on the readership, the themes of articles tend to be different from one another, whereas this is not always the case for American women's magazines. In contrast, \"Career & Work\" and.\"Sexuality\" related articles are hardly mentioned in any of the three countries, especially when compared to the 1970's. Aside from a few magazines, \"SocialTssues,\" especially \"politics, economics and society\" related articles are virtually absent in all three countries. Inoue concludes that over the years women's magazines transmit unchanging gender roles to.readers and that there are not many differences in the content among these three cultures. Moreover, women's magazines serve as a means of \"cultural imperialism\" for non-Caucasian people. However these cross-cultural studies did not provide sufficient interpretations for their data withinhistorical, cultural and social contexts. Overall, she ends up providing a mere numerical description of aspects of women's magazines. Thus, special attention should be paid to include the socio-cultural context when data are interpreted, as well as ideological constructions of \"reality\" that each magazine tries to convey. In' studying Japanese women's magazines, the issue of the prevalence of Caucasian models in advertisements is very important with respect to the constaiction of Japanese national-cultural identity. Observing advertisements in a few mainstream Japanese women's magazines since,the 1950's, Ochiai (1990) finds that around the,1960's the American standard of beauty began to appear in Japanese women's magazines. This frequency suggests that American economic and political power also brought the image of \"sexy women\" to Japan and influenced the construction of Japanese femininity. Ochiai finds that Caucasian models looked more overtly \"erotic\" with their mouth half open, whereas Japanese models tended to have big cheerful smiles with their teeth showing. Although the dichotomy of this erotic-beauty of Caucasian women and the healthy-looking beauty of Japanese women had existed in magazines during the 1940's, these 27 images left a tremendous impact on Japanese women's formation of sexuality in the post-war era. During the 1970's there was a heavy exposure to, Caucasian models as well as Japanese women trying to become more like Caucasian women by exposing their.body and wearing heavy makeup: However, by the late 70's and early 80's a shift away from Caucasian models became evident. Although Caucasian models are still present, more and more Japanese-looking models (both Japanese and half Japanese) started appearing. The presence of Japanese female models suggests.that Japanese femininity finally reached the' image of \"Japanese\" woman. Ochiai concludes that the changing image of Japanese women has been greatly influenced by the shift of Japan's economic power which brought confidence in establishing national gender identity. Conclusion Although mass media studies tend to simplify the structure of the system of cultural products, it is also true that they are useful in developing an understanding of the, kinds of social values, norms and expectations communicated by these magazines. Speaking about mass media in general, Tuchman (1978) argues that the very under \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 representation of women,'including their stereotypical portrayal, may symbolically capture their lower power position in American society or their \"symbolic annihilation.\" She suggests that it is also useful to discuss the media and media content as \"myths\" rather than \"images.\" Considering women in magazines as myth is to investigate the ideological construction of such myth-making. It is a way of seeing the world that is constructed by particular ideology through mass media, instead of thinking of mass media as a mere reflection of social reality. Such an attempt to reveal the mythical or ideological construction of women has been incorporated by qualitative content analysis as well as thematic analysis mentioned above (e.g., Dispenza, 1975; Fox, 1990;Glazer, 1980; Wilson, 1981). Meanwhile, historical comparisons of women's magazines clearly show changing social norms, values and attitudes towards women in women's magazines in response to wider social changes 28 (see Ferguson: 1983, Geise : 1991).. By placing the data in historical and social contexts, these studies have deepened our understanding of the \"ways of seeing\" that are provided by the mass media. Previous research on women's magazines has shown that the representation of women in magazines does not passively mirror social norms and values, but actively constructs and reconstructs \"reality\" and transmits hegemonic ideology. At the same time, advertisements and women's magazines must be sensitive to changes in societal attitudes \ and perceptions in order to capture the current values and norms of their targeted consumers/readers. Because of their nature, these media might reinforce or redirect social changes in order to sell their products. Thus, women's magazines provide an important means for depicting socially-constructed cultural models of women. The analysis should focus on the kinds of ideological social reality that are mediated in the women's magazines, as well as why one particular version of the \"ideal female\" is presented over another. In this sense, I believe that it is useful to conduct a cross-cultural content analysis. By revealing a certain cultural pattern, one can gain a perspective towards cultural models as ideological and arbitrary constructions, just as historical comparisons of femininity make it easier to demystify the image of women. 29 C H A P T E R T H R E E M E T H O D O L O G Y Definition of Content Analysis In this chapter, the methods and procedure of the current study are discussed: Content analysis is selected as the method for the present study. This method uses a set of procedures to make valid inferences from text (Weber, 1991: 9). However expressing a more detailed: definition of content analysis is difficult because diverse definitions have existed since the 1950's, ranging from strictly quantitative approaches to qualitatively-oriented analyses. One of the earlier, content analysts, Berelson (1952), defines this method as \"a research for the objective, systematic and quantitative description of the manifest content of communication\" (cited by Ball & Smith, 1990: 20). This definition is expanded collaboratively by Stone et al. (1966) and Holsti (1969) who describe the content analysis as a technique to make inferences by objectively and systematically identifying specified characteristics of messages. Holsti (1969: 11) argues that content analysis should employ both qualitative and quantitative methods to supplement each other so that investigators can gain more insight into the meaning of the data. Moreover, unlike Berelson, he supports analyzing both manifest (utterly and explicitly expressed) and latent (unintentionally and unconsciously expressed) content. He argues that at the stage where researchers interpret data, one should analyze the messages at the latent level by using one's imagination and intuition to draw meaningful conclusions. Krippendorff (1980: 21) states that \"content analysis is a research technique for making replicable and valid inferences from data to their context.\" His.emphasis on the relationship between context of data in texts and their cultural and social contexts is crucial and implies that content analysis needs to be conducted not only at the manifest level but also at the interpretative latent level. Thus, he suggests that \"content analysis could be characterized as a method of inquiry into symbolic meaning of messages\" (22). . 30 To be more specific, qualitative content analysis is concerned with content, as a mediator or reflection of less manifest, more latent cultural phenomena. Thus, qualitative content analysis allows the investigator to examine more complex themes, which are not easily categorized or quantified. Kracauer (1952) defines qualitative content analysis as \"the selection and rational organization of such categories as condense the substantive meanings of the given text, with a view to testing pertinent assumptions and hypotheses. These categories may or may not invite frequency counts\" (cited by Ball and Smith, 1992: 29). He argues that the use of primary established categories for manifest content may not necessarily be adequate or appropriate for shedding light on nuances which could have significant meaning. In contrast, qualitative content analysis can pick up such subtle nuances (Ball and Smith, 1992). Given the diversity of the definitions of content analysis, many contemporary content analysts simply insist on the requirements of objectivity and prefer to treat the issue of manifest or latent content case by case, insisting on the need for replicability. The text classification should be done systematically and consistently so that it brings \"objectivity\" and high intercoder reliability. Content classification should produce the same results when the same text is coded by more than one coder. At the same time, it can be argued that it is impossible to conduct completely \"objective\" research. All research is conducted with some kind of theoretical purpose in mind, for without theoretical insight, there would be no data interpretation or agenda-setting. Theoretical viewpoints and research design hypotheses are all based on the ideological perspectives of researchers, and thus can never be completely \"objective.\" They all influence the results of content analysis to a certain degree. Advantages of Content Analysis One of the major advantages of content analysis is that it can provide an \"objective, analysis\" of the data, because the rules of counting are transparent, although the term \"objective\" in this context may mean nothing more than \"satisfactory intercoder 31 reliability\". Researchers can determine whether there is an acceptable level of agreement among different analysts regarding how to interpret certain samples of text by using reliability checks. This means that independent coders who analyze data should each come up with the same descriptive classification, within an allowable range of error. This, method allows researchers to treat qualitative data (such as images) in quantitative terms (such as frequency and percentages) and thus helps the research transcend mere individual and impressionistic interpretations ( Leiss et al., 1986: 223). Content analysis is particularly beneficial when the samples are large and the findings are usually expressed in numerical terms. This method can have such a broad and encompassing sample that it helps to detect cultural patterns. Many researchers agree that content analysis is most useful when the research has a \"historic or comparative dimension\" (Berger, 1991: 94) because it can \"reflect cultural patterns of groups, institutions, or societies\" (Weber,' 1990: 9). Content analysis is also an economical method, both in terms of time and money. The employment of content analysis techniques is an inexpensive way of getting information about people and cultures. The printed materials which are used tend to be inexpensive and relatively easy to obtain. This method also allows researchers to deal with current subjects since we can analyze the most recent visual texts or printed materials. Researchers are thus given a means to study phenomena such as fads, fashion, and social movements as they develop. Another strength of content analysis is that it can be an unobtrusive or non reactive research technique. Since the presence of aresearcher is not likely to affect what one is studying, compared to other methods, the researcher might not necessarily have to be concerned with the possibility that he or she is changing or influencing the results in the research process (Berger, .1991). Limitations of Content Analysis However useful, the limitations of content analysis-deserve comment. The first problem is the issue of the representativeness of the samples. To get around this problem, 32 . ... . . ^ content analysis should only be used with a large number of samples. However, the issue of determining suitable sample size and a reasonable way of sampling them still remains.. Thus, the. rationalization of the choice of samples must be theoretically and explicitly described. Another problem of content analysis is that researchers do not know how audiences respond to the materials. That is, content analysis is a study of,the mediated communication and not specifically the behavior of people. Similarly, it can be argued that the measure of frequency does not always determine the significance of the messages for the audience. \"It is not the significance of repetition that is important but the repetition of significance\" (Summer, 1979: 69, cited by Leiss, Kline, and Jhally, 1986: 223) and content analysis is unable to say anything about the audience's interpretations or the effects messages have on the audience. Although content analysis cannot tell how audiences \"read\" the messages or the preferred meaning, the method is able to indicate what makes up the pattern of the messages. Finally, traditional (quantitative) content analysis methods have been accused of \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 simply providing'a numerical description of the manifest content without offering explanations for the ideological or latent meanings of the content (Leiss et al., 1986). Such an exclusion of social and political contexts has been considered to be a major disadvantage for the advancement of theory. In order to overcome these disadvantages, content analysis needs to incorporate more critical and qualitative approaches, instead of seeking to conduct purely descriptive and numerative research. Combining Quantitative and Qualitative Content Analysis Qualitative insight is especially useful in conducting cross-cultural research. Woodrum (1984: 2) argues that content analysis can be a technique for studying culture because it focuses on \"natural language sets, laden with symbolic meanings\" without being solely qualitative as in hermeheutics or literary interpretations. Thus in order to study culture using content analysis, it is.essential to use qualitative content analyses which can 33 detect latent cultural nuances and phenomena, such as the meanings of symbols, customs and social norms. For example, given the cultural complexity and societal meanings that accompany a system of marriage, a question such as how the system of marriage is portrayed in women's magazines in Japan and North America may not be fully answered by merely counting the number of related articles. Qualitative analysis, in contrast, can provide detailed descriptions and analyses of .the data. If this method is coupled with quantified data, it can supplement our comprehension of social relations, as well as more complex themes such as social norms. In support of this, Weber (1990: 10) claimed that the best content analysis are those that use both qualitative and quantitative operations on texts. . ; In the present study quantitative content analysis methods were used to examine the frequency ofdominant themes in magazines by counting related articles and advertisements. Qualitative methods were used to provide in-depth analyses of selected samples as examples of the latent cultural messages. By situating the data in a larger socio-cultural context, more detailed comparative accounts can be given. Although content analysis is not able to conduct as intensive investigations of deep and symbolic meaning of texts as semiotic analyses can, for the purpose of this study systematic standardized observation supplemented by qualitative description is most appropriate. Sampling Procedure For the samples of Japanese women's magazines, six issues from each of five monthly women's magazines; More, With, Cosmopolitan-Japan, Nikkei Woman, and Say were selected. Similarly, for the North American sample, six issues from each of five monthly women magazines, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, New Woman, Working Woman and Mademoiselle were collected. In total 60 magazines (30 magazines for each of the North American and Japanese samples) were analyzed. Due to the difficulty of obtaining Japanese magazines in Canada, the sampled magazines do not perfectly match in terms of the period of collection. However, I arranged and matched each magazine from the two 34 samples in a way that minimizes potential biases. This issue of the period of the samples will be discussed in detail later in this section. The content of both advertisements and articles appearing in these women's magazines is examined. The rationale for choosing these 10 specific magazines are as follows: they are widely-circulated commercially successful \"mainstream\" monthly magazines that are easy to obtain in both societies, (2) they target mostly single and working women between the ages of 18 and 34 (McCracken, 1993 and Morohashi, 1992), (3) they are not special interest magazines such as fashion magazines or sports magazines, but instead contain a general and wide range of articles and advertisements, and (4) they have been previously used in the study of women's.magazines. In conducting content analyses it is important to assess the representativeness of the samples. In addition to satisfying the above four criteria, a number of these magazines were selected because of their different targeted readerships among working women. Because this study focuses on'ideological messages of magazines for young, single working women, it is important to take into account what kind of working women each magazine is targeting. Depending upon who the \"constructed readers\" are, for example career-oriented women or single women in general, the content of the messages might be different. Thus samples should include magazines of different kinds of readership in order to sample a broad cross-section of representation of women in each culture. Introduction of the Selected Magazines (A). Japanese Magazines , I. More \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 Circulation: 850,0002 As a \"Quality Life Magazine\" (sic), More was first published in 1977. Since then this magazine has had the highest circulation figure.among \"general\" (non-special) \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 woman's magazines for young single woman in their late twenties. According to the Circulation.figures ol* Japanese magazines came {mmMedia-risaachi kalarogu 1993 (Media Research Catalog 1993). The North American figures came from Ulricli'.s: International Periodicals Directory 1994/95. ' \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 35 Media Research Catalog in .1993, 74 % ofMore's readership consists of single working, woman (mainly OLs) in their mid to late twenties3. Before Cosmopolitan-Japan was published in 1980, More was partially affiliated with Cosmopolitan-USA, and advocated ideas and keywords such as \"New Lifestyle\", \"Independence of Woman\", and \"Career \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 Woman\" during the late 70's. In the 1990's, More's editorial policy is still \"to find a new way of life for women\" but most of the content is devoted to beauty and fashion and only occasionally deals with woman-related social issues. ' 2. With Circulation: 800,000 First published in 1981 by the rival publisher of More, With, describes itself as a \"Culture Magazine for Your Life \"(sic). It has also been one of the most popular magazines among young single women. According to Media Research Catalog, in 1993 86 % of the readership of With are single working woman (mostly OLs) in their mid-to late twenties. Although similarly designed, compared to More, With tends to be more mainstream and traditional in terms of the topics for their articles. 3. Say Circulation: 590,000 First published in 1983, Say refers to itself as an \"Informative Magazine for Y o u to Talk and Think About 4\". Say devotes considerable space for its \"constructed readers\" to interact by asking readers to provide solutions and opinions for other readers' personal problems. This magazine is aimed especially at non-career-oriented OLs between the ages of 19 and 27-\ The content deals with mainly male-female romantic relationships, marriage, fashion and beauty, with almost no references to career development, Say is one of the most \"traditional\" magazines for single working woman. 3 O L (Office Ladies) is a Japanized English lenn referring lo woman who work for a company al the clerical level. Many of their jobs involves making copies for bosses and male colleagues and serving tea. An equivalent English term would be pink color jobs, but in Japan the majority of working woman in white collar organizations are confined to this level. Usually they do not expect promotions and they are expected to quit working after several years to raise their families, hi this thesis. I will use the word working woman to refer to both OLs and other professional /career oriented women, and will use'lhe terms OL and career/professional woman when it is necessary to make the distinction. . 4 A l l Japanese -English translation in this thesis is mine. -60 % of their readership is in their early twenties. 36 . 4. Cosmopolitan-Japan Circulation: 320,000 Cosmopolitan-Japan was first published in 1980 as the Japanese edition of Cosmopolitan magazine. Most of the articles in this magazine are provided exclusively for the Japanese edition, but sometimes Cosmopolitan-Japan contains translated articles from '\u00E2\u0080\u00A2\u00E2\u0080\u00A2 other Cosmopolitan editions from all over the world, especially from the Untied States. According to one editor, Cosmopolitan's readers are \"the Japanese who do not only live with the Japanese mind\" but \"are eager to know what is going on in other parts of the world\" (Yamada, 1982). Its targeted readers are working women in their mid to late twenties who want-to have everything (e.g., success, money, men). 5. Nikkei Woman Circulation: 240,000 Nikkei Woman was first published in 1988 as Japan's first magazine about women and work (the copy on the cover reads \"Informative magazine for working women\") Since it is published-by the Japan Economic (Nikkei) Newspaper Inc., articles on money and investment are also featured. Its targeted readership is single and married working .. women who have career aspirations and/or are raising a family. The age o f its readership ranges from women in their mid-twenties to late thirties' (B) North American Magazines 1. Cosmopolitan Circulation: 3,000,000 After Helen Brown took over the editorship in the mid-sixties and modified the .. magazine which had existed since 1901, Cosmopolitan became such a successful magazine that 19 international editions have been published to date. The readership.is single working women (between the ages of 18 and 34) who are devoted to looking for men, being sexually attractive, and becoming rich and successful (but probably not in seeking professional careers). '\u00E2\u0080\u00A2- \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 '. *\u00E2\u0080\u00A2 37 2. Glamour Circulation: 2,08 1,212 First published in 1939, Glamour also changed its content to fit with the contemporary young women's demographic characteristic6. In 1983, the publisher (Conde Nast Publication) announced that this magazine (which was aimed at working women between the ages of 18 to 34) needed a more serious image and advocated that Glamour should also take on social issues in addition to its historical emphasis on fashion and beauty (McCracken, 1993: 151). As a result Glamour started to offer articles regarding . women-related social issues (e.g., feminism, abortion, and sexual violence against women etc.), although, career-related articles are rarely seen. 3. Mademoiselle Circulation 1,219,159 Mademoiselle (first published in 1935) has also changed and updated the editorial content as women's lives changed in the 1970's and 1980's Today the majority of the readership of this magazine is post-adolescent women and working women who are not in career or professional fields. A large proportion of its pages are devoted to beauty (McCracken, 1993: 148). 4. Nen> Woman Circulation 1,300,000 One of the \"New Wave\" women's magazines, New Woman was first published in 1971, and targets a readership of working women in general between the ages of 18 and 54. .New Woman tends to aim for a safe, middle-of-the-road position as well as offering both modern and traditional viewpoints in order to attract a wide range of readership (McCracken, 1993: 218). Every month this magazine offers a broad range of contents which include career, money, self-discovery, love, sex, health, relationships, fashion, beauty and food. 5. Working Woman Circulation: 900,000 \"According to Inoue (1989), 80% of the readership are working women and 75% of them are college educated woman. . ' 38 First published in 1976, Working Woman has been the most successful women's magazine that is devoted solely to the issue of women and. work (McCracken, 1993). This \u00E2\u0080\u00A2magazine first tried to attract all working women but then narrowed its focus to professional and career women (McCracken, 1993). The targeted readership probably has a wider and older range of age than the other four magazines that were sampled. Working Woman is aimed at both married and single working women. Choice of Sampled Magazines In this analysis of women's magazines, I examine and compare cross-cultural differences in magazine content. In addition, I am interested in cross-occupational and class differences within each culture. That is, I explore how \"career-oriented working women's magazines \" transmit and promote different kinds of messages and images of femininity compared to other women's magazines The following figure shows the sampled women's magazines based on the relative degree of career aspirations of their constructed readerships. Table 1: Sampled Magazines According to Readers' Career Orientation Career-Oriented Non-Career-Oriented Japan : Nikkei Cosmo-Jpn More With Say Woman N-America Working New woman Glamour Cosmopolitan Mademoiselle Woman Due to the difficulties of collecting the Japanese samples in Canada, the period of sampled magazines could not be completely matched, although comparability was ensured by pairing suitable magazines. I first paired magazines between countries according to targeted readership, popularity and general contents. As Table I shows, five pairs emerged: Working Woman and Nikkei Woman, New Woman and Cosmopolitan-Japan; 39 Glamour and More; Cosmopolitan and With, and Mademoiselle and Say. Within the two magazines in each pair, I tried to minimize the difference of the selection of the issues. \ Table 2: Paired Magazines and Months of Sampled Issues7 . 1) Working Woman: 8 9 10 . 1 1 12 1 Nikkei Woman: , 8 9 10 11 12 1 2) New Woman: 10 ' 11 12 1 2 3 Cosmopolitan-Japan: 10 11 12 1 2 3 5)(ilamour: . 9 10 1 1 1 2 1 2 More: 7 8 . 9 1 0 11 12 4)Cosmopolit(in: 10 11 12 1 2 3 With: \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 .9';- 10 11 12 I 3 ^Mademoiselle: 8 10 .11 12 1 2 A7i y: \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 8 1 1 1 2 1 2 . 3 It would have been best to obtain issues from exactly the same period, since the mismatched issues introduce potential biases. For example, North American samples have two more issues of February; this over-sampling of February might cause some biases ;. towards romantic relationship articles since February is the Valentine Month and it can be expected that many women's magazines might have more features articles.on romance. However, other holiday-related issues (such as Christmas and New Years) or special interest issues (such as June-brides) were matched, minimizing other biases. 7Numbers represent months of the year (e.g.. S.= August). 40 Coding Procedure for Advertisements In the present analysis advertisements were included if they showed females and/or ' males and were at least one full page and no more than five pages in length. For the sake of expedience, advertisements were taken only from a sub-sample of the larger sample. The sub-sample consists of three monthly issues (October, November and December) from each magazine (in total 30 issues)8. A thematic analysis was conducted to produce/a quantitative base for the qualitative analysis: A theme is defined as a primary idea or single unit of thought (Budd, et. al., 1967) and can be categorized numerically - Specifically, advertisements were classified with respect to the recurring and dominant images and themes which explain ' being female and male in each society. Pictures as well as written parts of advertisements were considered. The percentage of each theme was calculated to show how gender is represented in each magazine At this point, the level of analysis operates at the surface and manifest level. Attention was also paid to the use of Caucasian models (hereafter gaijin9) in Japanese samples as well as the use of non-Caucasian modelsin North American samples. ' In content analysis, it is important to be clear about the operationalization of concepts or subjects under investigation. That is, definitions and the way the concept is to be measured or counted must be described (Berger, 1991: 27). The following are the categorical definitions for the analysis of advertisements. Themes are partially based on those used by previous research, especially that of Monk-Turner (1990) and Inoue (1989). However, most of the categories emerged as I preexamined a smaller sample. All definitions of the categories are developed by the author. 8 A single exception is Say magazine for which 1 was unable to obtain the October issue. 1 used the January .issue instead. ' . \" 9Gaijin, literary meaning \"outside people,\" refers to foreigners in Japanese. It is often the case that Japanese advertisements use Caucasian models, but 'non-Caucasian models are hardly seen. In this study in order to establish a pattern of the-different function of Japanese and Caucasian models in Japanese advertisement, gaijin refers to only Caucasian models. The discussion of the use of gaijin in Japanese advertisement will be concluded in the later chapters -Categories of Themes in Advertisements (A)Beauty Standards 1. Sexy0 Sexy refers to an emphasis on sexual attraction by overt facial and body expression. -The definitions of sexy could include words such as provocative, seductive, lustful, nude, erotic, voluptuous, suggestive, sexually available, actively inviting, etc. For example, facial expressions such as closed eyes and an unnaturally half-open mouth erotically indicate sexual invitation. Ads that show female models gazing lustfully and seductively into the camera are another typical example. Women and men may be shown as engaging in sexy gestures, such as lying down on a bed and reclining. Pictures that present women who expose full or parts of their bodies (i.e., thigh, shoulders, legs, breast, etc.) for the purpose of arousing male sexual desire are also typical examples of the sexy category. 2. Pretty In the \"pretty\" category, women promote a sense of beauty and attractiveness but lesser use of sexual cues and appeal than \"sexy\" women. Compared to the \"sexy\" ads, women's bodies and facial expressions are not used as much for the purpose of actively sexually arousing the male. Women are typically portrayed with a \"natural\" smile. This category includes ads in which women are portrayed as lovely, attractive and pleasant. Cute/Girlish In the \"cute/girlish\" category, women are presented as coquettish, cheerful, friendly, charming and happy. These ads also present women as playful, innocent, pure and defenseless. The typical ad shows women engaging in movements that are childlike (such as jumping around, making funny faces and gesture etc.,) 4. Elegant In the \"elegant\" category, women are set in sophisticated, graceful, and classy atmospheres.. Women with mature images are typical and facial expressions tend to be firm and blunt. (B) Female Roles 5. Female Friendship The \"female friend\".category is for ads where there are only women friends presented in a picture. \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 . l 0Because beauty standards such as \"sexiness\" are always culturally constructed, these definitions can never be \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 culturally neutral. It is possible to argue that sexiness in Japan and North America are different. However, there are \u00E2\u0080\u00A2no indigenous Japanese words for what I defined aboveas \"sexy.\" Japanese use the Japanized-foreign word \"sekushii\" to express an erotic', sexually suggestive manner. Hence, in this context, Japanese \"sekushii\" and North American \"sexy\" mean the same thing. Thus, 1 use \"sexy\" as defined by North American culture to contrast each of the themes in the beauty standard category. 42 6. New Women In the \"new woman\",category, women are shown with non-traditional characteristics, such as being strong, independent, and confident women or women who try to look like men by wearing men's clothes and copying men's behavior. 7. Active Women The \"active women\" category shows women engaging in something active and energetic (such as jogging, dancing, exercising, playing sports). 8. Working Women \"Working women\" portrays women working at jobs outside of the household 9. Mother/Wife The \"mother/wife\" category involving women playing therole of mother and/or wife and taking care of men and the family. (C) Heterosexual Relationships: 10. Marriage The \"marriage\" category includes courtship, engagement and ceremony, such as a, woman wearing a wedding dress or receiving an engagement ring. The portrayal of husband and wife is also counted as marriage. 11. Romantic Love Heterosexual couples who are portrayed in romantic relationships which do not indicate a marriage are included in the \"romantic love\" category. For example, scenes in which women and men are kissing, hugging, and holding one another in romantic ways were included in this category. 12. Male-Female Friendship The male-female friendship category contains friendship between a male and a female or within a mixed sex group. Unlike the \"romantic love\" category, in this category there is no romantic physical touching between men and women. (D) Masculinity and Male roles 13. Macho Men The \"macho man\" category refers to traditional masculinity, that is, presenting men as rugged, tough, aggressive, powerful, and authoritarian. Men are portrayed in charge, in the dominant position and relatively bigger in size than women. 43 14. Sexy Men In the \"sexy men\" category, men appear sexually available and are seducing women. Typical \"sexy men\" ads expose parts of men's.body (such as the chest and shoulders) in order to suggest that they are actively inviting women. 15. Gentle/Nice Men The \"gentle/nice men\" category includes ads with men that are less-macho and less-assertive. Men are shown as gentle and harmless, and non-authoritarian. A typical portrayal of \"nice men\" is of men smiling warmly and pleasantly. 16. Cute/Funny Men The \"cute/funny men\" category includes men who appear comical, silly or childlike. 17. Father/Husband The \"father/husband\" category includes men who play the role of husband or father and are taking care of the house or children. Based on the above quantitative content analysis, I further analyzed selected advertisements from each category of themes A close analysis of advertisements allows one to examine more complex phenomena, such as how advertisements and their products are used to reinforce the images of desired femininity and certain cultural norms and values. In this way, more subtle and complex cultural differences in the images of femininity can be detected and illuminated. Reliability Check for Advertisements A reliability check was conducted for the analysis of advertisements by a bilingual (Japanese and English) coder. Themes in randomly selected advertisements (50 each from Japanese and North American samples) were coded independently by a coder and compared with the coding previously done by the author. The results of the inter-rater reliability check was 78% for the Japanese sample and 8.3% for the North American sample. Both of these results are in the accepted range of reliability. Coding Procedure for Article Content In the analysis of the content of articles, the frameworks which Ferguson (1983) and Peirce (1985) developed to analyze British women's magazines and American 44 Cosmopolitan magazine respectively were employed with modifications to fit this study. The articles sampled include editorial features, articles, and regular columns which explain \"being female\" and gender roles which are at least one full page. Sections such as fiction stories, horoscopes, Question & Answer, readers' participation pages (where readers write their experiences etc.), and letters to the editors were excluded because of possible multiple themes per page and, because some of the Japanese women's magazines do not carry such sections. Specialist departments such as cookery and decorating, as well as beauty and fashion, were also excluded because of its less normative content. AJ1 six monthly issues from each of the 10 magazines were analyzed. The content of articles was analyzed by dominant themes and gender roles which appear in the sampled magazines. Following the previous literature on the content analysis of women's magazines in North America, three dominant topics were chosen as the framework for the analyses: Love and Marriage, Self-Help and Improvement, and Work and Family (Ferguson, 1983;Geise, 1979; Inoue, 1986; and Peirce, 1985). Since these categories have broad definitions, I set up sub-themes on the basis of a preliminary examination of a smaller portion of the sample. The article content was then measured according to the sub-themes in order to assess the frequency and diversity of topics. Categories of Themes in Articles (A). Heterosexual Romance and Marriage 1. Finding and Keeping a Desirable Man to Marry This category communicates the finding that a man is of primary importance in a woman's life. Typical articles include ones that teach women techniques to catch and keep desirable men for either romance or marriage, (e.g., how to figure out if he is husband material?, when a man decides to many?, where can we find men?). 2. Understand More about Men This theme sends out messages that women should know and be familiar with men's opinions of women and ways of thinking, (e.g., what kind of woman do men want 45 to marry?; why don't men want to make commitments?,.how men and women think differently), 3. Avoid Problematic Relationships and Men This category refers to themes .that offer tips to readers to protect themselves from getting into a bad relationship with men. (e.g., how to get out of a bad relationship, how to detect a wrong man to marry). 4. Relationship Improvements In this category, women are encouraged to fix their relationships and are provided with techniques to improve them, (e.g., how to keep a good marriage, how to change the man you love). \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 5. Sexual Activity This category deals with sexual activity with men (e.g., how to have fulfilling and gratifying sex, how to improve your sex life, how having sex changes the relationship). (B) Self-Help 6. Self-Growth and Fulfillment This category sends messages that encourage readers to achieve more, to perfect their inner-self and to obtain healthier self-images and positive attitudes, (e.g., how to be happy, how to have high self-esteem). \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 7. Better Self-Presentation This category contains messages to encourage readers to seek to improve their self-presentation and related social skills, (e.g., how to handle interpersonal communication at work, acquiring feminine manners, how to be a successful public speaker, how to have more self-control). 8. Overcoming Misfortune . This category shows readers that women's physical and emotional disasters, tragedy and misfortunes can be overcome by making effort, having courage and perseverance, (e.g., 1 survived breast cancer, women coping with AIDS). (C) . Work and Family 9. Surviving and Competing at the Workplace This category sends messages to readers that although working women face many kinds of obstacles at the workplace, they need to break the barriers to compete, (e.g., how to be competitive and efficient at work). 46 10. Learn from Successful Working Women \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 This category deals with success stories of working women in many fields and encourages readers to become like them, (e.g., top career.women talk about their career, entrepreneur women talk about their businesses). 11. Career Strategies This category teaches women specific ways.to be competent workers and to develop their careers, (e.g., how to make yourself marketable, how to influence others). 12. Juggling Work and Family This category transmits the idea that working mothers have a hard time balancing their work and child-rearing but somehow manage it, (e.g.,-working mother's guilty. . feeling, tips on how to balance work and family). 13. Importance of Motherhood and Wifehood This category provides blissful images of women who take care of their families and devote themselves to their work at home. This also includes themes which emphasize' the importance and responsibilities of mothers,-'(e.g., how to-find-a good daycare and baby sitter, the role of the mother as an important function-.of the childs' development). 14. Family Life and Ties This is a category that discusses the relationships among family members, such as parents and children, siblings, grandparents and so on, (e.g.; mother-daughter relationships). , ; : ' (D) Social Topics 15. Know More about Gener