Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 9, 1993 TAG: 9303090176
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO I{ILLUSTRATION}
SOURCE: DONNA KATO KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
AND YOU THOUGHT WOMEN'S MAGAZINES WERE YOUR FRIENDS
The cover blurbs promise women "Surprising Tips for Sharpening Your Lovemaking Skills" and "Great Places to Meet a Mate." They herald "The Latest, Truest Update on What to Eat and Avoid," luring women who worry about their weight.Readers snap up more than 7 million copies a month of magazines with headlines like those.
Yet what those circulation figures don't reveal is how women feel after reading publications such as Cosmopolitan and Glamour, according to a Palo Alto, Calif., social psychologist. Surprisingly, these specialty magazines - traditionally touted as confidence builders - actually can lower women's self-esteem, says Debbie Then, who researched the role these publications play in women's lives.
The detailed answers for her recent study came from 75 female Stanford students, between the ages of 18 and 30, who answered a confidential survey. It didn't seem to matter that they were students at such an intellectually elite institution - their answers are consistent with how most American women feel, experts believe.
"When you're talking about gut-level feelings, you're going to find that women react as women first, without regards to age or education," explains Ann Kearney-Cooke, a Cincinnati psychologist who specializes in women's issues. Her self-esteem workshops for women include such exercises as going to a mall to prove that most women don't look like actresses or air-brushed models.
Overwhelmingly, the women in the study said they felt worse about their bodies and looks after reading the magazines, says Then, who started the research while still a graduate student at Stanford.
Respondents indicated a "love-hate" relationship with the magazines: They hated the pictures of the thin, gorgeous models, but loved reading the articles - especially those addressing issues of sex, health and relationships.
"I had no idea that women's self-esteem would be so diminished by the photographs," says Then, who works with Stanford's psychological faculty and also is affiliated with UCLA's Institute for the Study of Women. "On one level, they know that the photos are unrealistic, but they're still affected by them."
However, the women told Then that the magazines also gave them a non-threatening way to get answers to what can sometimes be embarrassing questions, and to be assured that other women were having the same concerns.
Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown, who introduced the "Cosmo Girl" with her first issue in 1965, believes the use of flashy models, ample cleavage and suggestive cover blurbs is perfectly justifiable. She's also proud of the magazine's story selections.
"Our criteria for stories is that we always ask ourselves: `Will it do something for the reader?' " says Brown, adding that people like looking at beautiful women.
"Even if you aren't a world-class beauty, you can't lie down and let the streetcar run over you," she says. "Life is much better if, along with brains and success, you are doing everything you can to improve your physical appearance."
Brown's publication has been the best-selling magazine on college campuses for the last 15 years, and she attributes that to a dependable editorial content.
"Within the magazine's 48 features each month, there always, always are stories that suggest some way to cope," she explains.
Then, who's in her 30s, started reading such magazines as Teen and Seventeen as an adolescent, mesmerized by the promise of clearer skin, more dates or thinner thighs. She moved on to Glamour and Cosmopolitan in high school and college. A few years ago, she was startled to see the contents in the Seventeen magazine of a friend's 15-year-old daughter.
"I thought that the articles were so advanced," and perhaps even harmful to impressionable young girls, says Then. She recalls that the stories told how to be more attractive to boys and whether to have sex on a first date.
It raised a question that eventually grew into her research project. Initially, the study's objective was to find out what articles women read so that she could encourage her fellow psychologists to be more aware of how such stories influence young women. Then presented her findings at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association last fall.
"Academicians and clinicians who conduct research on women and who treat women need to understand the unique relationship between women and their magazines, as well as the influence such magazines can have on a woman's self-esteem and body image," she says.
The Stanford women rated Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Mademoiselle, Vogue, Ms., New York Woman, Mirabella and Self as their favorites. Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Vogue, Mademoiselle and Elle are the top five sellers with a combined circulation of more than 7 million readers.
The women provided Then with a wealth of information she wasn't expecting. For instance, one woman wrote: "Cosmopolitan is my favorite magazine. I can't say I actually like it. Reading the magazine is more of a self-torture in that I often use it to see how I am doing in comparison to current beauty standards. It angers me that I put myself up to comparison with such unrealistic ideals."
Says Kearney-Cooke, the psychologist: "[The findings from the Stanford women are] very consistent with what women everywhere think because they've been trained to look outside themselves for body image instead of looking inside. Somehow, the message has been that if you change your body, you can change your life."
Although 68 percent of the women said they felt worse about their looks after reading a magazine, they exhibited mixed emotions about whether the publications hurt or help women, Then's study found.
What the women were clear on was their preference for articles on men, sex and relationships, citing such recent topics as birth control, safe sex and building intimacy. They also enjoyed articles by male writers who helped them understand how men think and stories that dealt with battling eating disorders.
One way Cosmopolitan is trying to meet its readership's demands is with a sister publication, Cosmopolitan's Life After College, targeted to recent graduates and seniors who are making the transition from college to career. On newsstands now, the second annual issue includes articles on finding jobs in a recession, roommates and living back at home.
The "problem" stories, as Then sees them, are those that reinforce negative beauty images and take on an "as-a-woman, it's-up-to-you-to-fix-it" attitude about relationships.
"What I worry about is that some women read them as if they're gospel," says Then, who also presents seminars on body image. "Women need to be sophisticated consumers about what they're reading as much as they are about other things."
In her talks with various magazine editors, Then says she's been told they try to help women by selling hope but that the readers want fantasy and escape.
"And I guess that as long as people continue to buy them, that's what they [publishers] will keep selling."