Unhealthy Image 1

Unhealthy Image:

Visual Persuasion in “Women’s” Magazines

Author Note

Daniel Shull, Communication Major, California State University East Bay, as part of the

Communications 3560 course Persuasion Theory and Practice, taught by Dr. Terry West.

Correspondence concerning this paper should be addressed to Daniel Shull,

Communication Major, Meiklejohn Hall, California State University East Bay, Hayward, CA

94542. E-mail: dshull@horizon.csueastbay.edu

Unhealthy Image 2

Introduction

We are by nature a visual society. It is essentially built into our evolution, and is our

primary means of accessing the world around us from a distance. We recognize patterns and

colors, and are trained from birth to make associations between the visual information we receive

and the language used to describe that information.

At the same time, we tend to (in terms of the Elaboration Likelihood Model, or ELM)

process certain information in direct ways (conscious and direct) and well as indirect or

peripheral ways (unconsciously). This may have served us well as an evolving species when our

tools were the only thing ensuring our survival, but it has now become an avenue of persuasion

that is taken advantage of by advertisers and others looking to persuade us of whatever message

is being sent.

One of the worst offenders – and perhaps even most unethical – in this particular game of

persuasion are what are referred to as women’s magazines. The images that are presented to the

world at large through the means of both cover and content, image and text, are all meant to

persuade a segment of our culture’s population about how they are supposed to look, behave and

ultimately be.

In this case study, I’m going to examine first the phenomenon, backed up by an excellent

series of videos by Jean Kilborne, created around 2000 or so (though the videos themselves were

uploaded in 2010). Then I’m going to examine a couple of theories that deal with the idea of the

visual as a persuasive act. Finally, I’ll draw a few conclusions about the issue, and perhaps offer

some suggestions to deal with this.

Unhealthy Image 3

The Phenomenon of Unhealthy Beauty

Women’s magazines are nearly ubiquitous, present in nearly every bookstore, grocery

and convenience store, and many other retail outlets. One of the “best” examples of this genre is

the magazine Cosmopolitan. Each and every cover not only has an image of a woman (usually

scantily clad) standing against a plain yet brightly colored background, and on top of that are the

various pieces of text that tell casual viewers exactly what is inside the magazine and why they

should buy it. In a Google image search for “Cosmopolitan cover,” over 1.7 million images

come up, and on the first page alone, the majority of the women are wearing clothes that either

reveal midriffs, cleavage, arms and legs, or are snug enough that the clothes leave very little to

the imagination.

In examining these images from the standpoint of the ELM, most consumers will see the

women, and will likely not think twice about the image presented. If they look at the text on a

cover, the word that gets used more often than not across covers for each month is “sex” –

usually having to do with a woman’s ability in the bedroom, or her ability to please a man, or a

position that will “spice things up.” The bright colors attract attention, the language on the cover

is suggestive, and the model presents an idea of how a woman should look.

Cosmopolitan is not the only magazine that presents a “type” for women to adhere to.

Glamour, Vogue, Marie Claire and Elle, for example, all have covers (as well as online sections)

that focus on topics such as fashion, beauty (often combined with hair) and sex (also combined

with relationships). And the image that is presented varies from Cosmopolitan only in choice of

background colors (generally less vivid than Cosmo) and typeface used to advertise articles.

Jean Kilbourne (n.d.) describes a process where magazines use Photoshop to remove

blemishes, wrinkles, and even pores from the pictures that are displayed in magazines and

Unhealthy Image 4

advertisements. Images of this sort are impossible, especially when the image in question has

actually had body features made more narrow, or emphasized, or even skin color lightened (in

the case of certain non-White women appearing on the cover). No woman can achieve this

“ideal of beauty” (Kilbourne, n.d.), but given the volume of magazines that promote these ideals,

it becomes almost impossible to avoid their impact.

This is even mocked in an image posted May 10, 2010 on the Twisted Sifter site (please

see Figure 1). The woman on the cover is indeed wearing an outfit that draws attention to her

“assets” (in this case, the actress is Christina Hendricks), and each of the various headlines on the

fictional cover make a mocking reference to the types of article headers present on a large

number of women’s magazines, both in the emphasis on sex and the idea of

The Visual Enthymeme: An Argument without Rebuttal

Valerie Smith (2007) published a paper that examines the idea of the visual argument as

an enthymeme. In an enthymeme, one of the portions of a syllogism is essentially taken for

granted, assumed as being part of the culture.

In the world of women’s magazines, the portion of the argument that is taken for granted

is that women are supposed to look this particular way. It is assumed by the makers of the

magazine, the people who are editing the pictures, the columnists and editors and anyone who

has a hand of any sort in creating the magazine – from concept to layout to final production. If

this were not the situation, women’s magazines would likely look very different from the way

they do now.

I understand that I may well be making a very large leap of assumption here. Magazine

companies are in business to make profit, and they do this by selling as many copies of the

magazine as possible. And very honestly, there is a statement that “sex sells.” So it could

Unhealthy Image 5

simply be that these companies are putting out products that have been tested for mass appeal,

and set up so that a person viewing them is more likely than not to purchase them.

Indeed, it is very possible that the Cosmo brand (as an example), with offshoots for both

girls and for women across the world, is providing a service that is guaranteed to appeal to the

largest variety of audience in order to make a profit. And it may well be that since sex is

appealing to human beings, that this service is being honest (and perhaps even ethical) in

choosing a “target” audience.

The problem with this is that the images on the covers of these magazines, as noted

earlier, are not real. They are in a number of senses unreal, even if a real human being is used as

the template for the image. Again, even if the woman herself can be considered in light of the

central processing route of the ELM model, the various other non-verbal cues presented by the

image are not necessarily being examined. The enthymeme is not being challenged.

As Kilborne states, “You almost never see a photograph of a woman considered beautiful

that hasn’t been Photoshopped (Kilborne, n.d.).” An example, in her Killing Us Softly 4 series

of videos (Kilborne, n.d.), there is an image she uses from a Ralph Lauren advertisement that

shows a woman who, in all anatomical likelihood, would simply fall over dead if she really

existed.

This is an impossible image to live up to. The argument remains, however, that in fact, a

woman should look like this (even if it is impossible, as Kilborne (n.d.) points out in both videos

I have cited here).

I recognize that I am making an assumption – that advertising is a form of argument. I

base this on a paper by M. Louise Ripley (2008) that makes this point exactly. In this paper,

Ripley (2008) draws on a number of sources including Aristotle (connected with the enthymeme)

Unhealthy Image 6

and modern argumentation theorists to say that – in terms of logic, the Toulmin model, and other

models and theories – the advertisement is a kind of argument based almost wholly on visual

elements. And especially in the covers of women’s magazines, the “advertisement” is for the

magazine itself; that is, the cover is a persuasive image meant to get a consumer to buy the

magazine.

But as I stated in the heading for this paper, I consider this form of argument to be

without a rebuttal, or perhaps more accurately, without an opposing side. While people like Jean

Kilborne are out there and passing the message along that these “arguments” exist and that they

are damaging to women, the relative volume of the counter-argument is minimal compared to

what is continually being put out by women’s magazines.

The persuasion here is not receiving any counter-persuasion, and people certainly are not

being trained to think critically about the number of women’s magazines that are promoting

physically, emotionally and mentally damaging imagery and text. Indeed, a woman is seemingly

more likely to encounter these artificial images and their parallel messages about tying self-

worth to those artificial images than they are to come across counter-arguments. This also

moves into a very gray ethical area: is it appropriate to create a persuasive argument that

overwhelms your potential opposition before said opposition has the chance to challenge the

argument?

Conclusions, and Potential Solutions

These visual arguments are very common, and likely to remain so. Magazine companies

are very likely to use tools such as market research, demographic sampling, focus groups and

real-time feedback (via the Internet) to ensure that the images they present remain appealing to

the audience they have targeted.

Unhealthy Image 7

Cosmopolitan, Elle, Vogue, Glamour and Marie Claire all present these visual

enthymemes as a means of selling more copies – and if the images were of healthier or more

average women, perhaps this form of persuasion would not be so harmful (and occupy an ethical

gray area). However, continued adjustment of the female image with computer programs means

that women are not presented with alternate arguments in this particular form of media. Similar

models and clothing are used across a number of these magazines (in a Google image search of

“women’s magazine covers,” I found that they were rather similar to each other), thus

reinforcing this enthymeme in a very effective manner.

Unfortunately, there is very little at present that can be done to directly challenge this

form of persuasion. Kilborne (n.d.) has videos freely available that discuss the topic at length,

but while she is very persuasive in her arguments, those arguments reach a much more limited

number of people than do the magazines. The Killing Us Softly 4 video has had over 600,000

views since being posted on March 12, 2010, while the Cosmopolitan circulation numbers as of

June 2009 were nearly 3 million (COSMO_Circulation_section, 2009).

What is necessary to counter this form of persuasion is to educate the public about critical

thinking and to demonstrate how to approach the advertisement (both the cover and contents of

women’s magazines) as a persuasive message – and how to dissect the enthymeme so that the

unspoken element goes from being an assumption to being able to be questioned.

Without the necessary education, I am willing to state that this form of persuasion will

continue to exist and overtly and subtly persuade women that they must adhere to an idealized

image that is impossible.

Unhealthy Image 8

References

COSMO_Circulation_section. (2009). Retrieved from

http://www.cosmomediakit.com/hotdata/publishers/cosmopoli2521681/categories/COSM

O_Circulation_section.pdf

Kilborne, J. (n.d.). Killing Us Softly 4. Retrieved from

http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DPTlmho_RovY

Kilborne, J. (n.d.). Killing Us Softly 3, Part 1. Retrieved from

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSXDCMSlv_I

Ripley, M. (2008). Argumentation Theorists Argue that an Ad is an Argument. Argumentation

(2008) 22, 507–519

Smith, V. (2007). Aristotle's classical enthymeme and the visual argumentation of the Twenty-

first century. Argumentation and Advocacy, 43 (Winter & Spring 2007), 114-123

Twisted Sifter. (2010) Picture of the Day – May 10, 2010. Retrieved from

http://twistedsifter.com/2010/05/picture-of-the-day-may-10-2010/

Unhealthy Image 9

Figure 1