To What Extent Should Magazines Be Held Responsible For The Social Ramifications Of The Representations They Offer?

To What Extent Should Magazines Be Held Responsible For The Social Ramifications Of The Representations They Offer?

Now-a-days things such as newspapers, television news, radio, magazines and more play a major part in our lives. Everywhere we go and look there is media. Media is a controlling factor in our lives and so for many people, it over controls their lives. An example of this would be how the media that are published in things such as magazines tell girls about new fashion and hair styles. 

The magazine stating the top ten hairstyles, for example would normally contain a popular female celebrity on the front page, as the main image with the top hairstyle. Out of the many girls that didn't have this sort of hairstyle a large percentage of them would want to look as up to date as the popular celebrity. 

But, we have to take a step back and look at what this is doing to people, that we seem to overlook. We have to ask ourselves the question 'When does the line stop?' Is it right for girls to feel this way that they are not attractive as they don't currently possess the top celebrity hairstyle of the week. In my opinion, no. I think that the media on things like the magazines should not be so demanding. At times some of us may see that there are points on the front of magazines that would say something along the lines of "Top Hair Style Of The Week", but this however, requires money to change ones hairstyle. Especially, for some girls that don't have a lot of money and cannot afford to change their hairstyle, then because of the media they feel different and even worse if they feel ugly on the outside because they do not possess the up to date hairstyle. Also, in some cases by the time they have saved enough money to go to beauty salon and changed their hairstyle, there will soon enough be a new style out which people will want even more.

I feel that teenage girls now-a-days spend more time chasing a dream than living it.

Another point that some sorts of media seem to encourage for teenage girls would be their physical posture. An example of this would again be on the teenage magazines stating the new celebrity look. For me this is a much more serious matter as when on the front covers of magazines they say things like the 'real new look' and give pages and pages of new looks then some girls are so keen to stay up to date with fashion that they may even consider surgery. My view on this would be that it is wrong to have things such as surgery. Girls should be happy enough with their posture instead of having to chase the new celebrity looks and consider surgery.


Finally, what i would like to see removed from a now-a-day media item, such as a magazine would be the demanding captions on the front page of magazines basically ordering a variety of people, mainly women to keep their look up to date with the celebrities which can mean many different things, from paying to have their hair done, to having surgery. This is all done by many people to keep up with the current most popular celebrities.