Negative Images? : Twentysomethings Say Women’s Magazines Can Erode Self-Esteem

College-age females love women’s magazines.

They hate them, too.

Popular women’s magazines--from the teen-ager’s Seventeen to Glamour, Cosmopolitan and Redbook--undermine women’s confidence and self-esteem, and make them feel worse about their physical appearance, according to a new study.

In particular, advertisements and photographs in magazines targeted to women ages 18-34 inspire feelings of inferiority, claims UCLA and Stanford social psychologist Debbie Then. Still, women buy the magazines, apparently because they value information in the articles, she says.

“Magazines are a mixed bag,” says Then, who presented her findings Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Assn. “You take the good with the bad or you don’t read them.”

While study respondents said they like the sense of hope and encouragement the magazines give them, they rail at photographs of models that set almost impossible standards for physical attractiveness.

“Women are aware, on an intellectual level, that they are being manipulated by the photographs,” says Then. “But on an emotional level, they still feel diminished.”

Little research has been done on the impact these magazines have, other than marketing research commissioned by the magazines, she says. Then’s study consisted of a lengthy questionnaire completed by 75 Stanford students earlier this year. Their average age was 20, and most said they avidly read women’s magazines even though they were sometimes embarrassed to buy them.

While consumers may laugh at the typical headlines on the magazines’ covers--”The 29 and holding, and holding, corrective makeup”--studies have shown that the magazines are extremely popular. Cosmopolitan, for instance, has been the most popular magazine on college campuses for 14 of the last 15 years, Then says.

“These magazines play an important role in socializing girls to become adults in our society,” she says. “They really have a tremendous impact.”

Then says her most significant finding was how destructive these magazines can be to a woman’s self-image. She designed the questionnaire to inquire about the articles. But the one question regarding magazine photographs provoked the most emotional response.

Almost half the women said the magazines make them feel less confident about themselves, while 43% said their self-esteem is unaffected and 10% said they were “sometimes” negatively affected.

More than two-thirds said they felt worse about their looks as a result of reading the magazines; 8% said the magazines inspired them to improve. Overall, 61% said that the magazines, in general, hurt women.

“The ads make me feel insecure and ugly,” one woman said. “They make me feel that I need to lose weight to be beautiful.”

Ruth Whitney, longtime editor of Glamour magazine, agrees that the “images” in her magazine are idealized, but she doesn’t think they are beyond reach: “We’d all rather see what we could be.”

Whitney says that magazine editors are accustomed to criticism for using only slim models, but adds that manufacturers provide sample fashions that only fit thin women: “We don’t have a choice. . . . You can’t fit anything other than a slim woman in a sample size.”

The majority of the women surveyed (82%) said they had dieted in the past, and 10% said they either now have, or had, an eating disorder. Standardized weight charts showed that all the women surveyed were normal weight. “Yet they’re still reporting feeling fat and ugly,” Then says.

Studies show that most women begin dieting at age 13 and start to read magazines at 13 1/2. Although there is no evidence to link dieting information in the magazines to the motivation to diet, Then says the correlation deserves scrutiny:

“Clearly, we’ve got to look at what kind of relationship is going on. A lot of these messages (on physical attractiveness) start piling up at a very young age.”

Then will expand her study next to preteens and young women who have not attended college.

“Research needs to start early,” she says. “What sort of information is being imparted to girls, especially information on dieting and eating disorders?”

So why do women buy these magazines?

For the articles, Then says.

Sex, health, men and relationships were cited as favorite topics. Many women praised the magazines for writing about topics that aren’t openly discussed in society, such as sex and certain illnesses.

“I had an eating disorder,” one woman wrote. “Mademoiselle had an article in it that was so moving. It helped me come to terms with my disorder. I talked to my parents about it, and that led to therapy and help.”

Another woman said the magazines deliver “pep talks” that inspires her to take better care of herself.

Glamour’s Whitney says women appreciate magazine articles because “a magazine can do it more in-depth” than other media.

“The photographs can be balanced with editorial content that can be helpful to women,” Then says. “Several women said they got important information about safe sex through these magazines.”

Then also chastised the psychologists at her presentation for not paying closer attention to women’s magazines: “I don’t mean to condemn or condone (these magazines), but I think we need to know what’s in them. We need to legitimize women’s magazines. They are reflecting the standards of society as a whole.”

Then suggests women remind themselves while reading that the magazines’ standards of beauty are unrealistic.

The December, 1990, cover of Esquire, for example, featured a gorgeous photograph of Michelle Pfeiffer with the headline “What does Michelle Pfeiffer need? . . . Absolutely nothing,” Then notes. A few months later, another magazine revealed that what Pfeiffer’s photo “needed” was about $1,500 in touch-ups to achieve it’s cover-girl aura, she says.

“People need to know what goes on in the magazine industry to these photographs and how that contorts your own thinking about your looks,” Then says.

Or, as Then quotes super model Cindy Crawford: “I think it’s important for women to know that I don’t wake up looking like this.”