relatability or ideology?

I enjoyed today's reading because it included a lot of feedback from real women regarding how they feel about women's magazines, both the content and the images. I wasn't incredibly surprised to learn that women often pick and choose the information they find relevant within magazines (Gaunlett) because I would tend to agree with that. However, it was very interesting to read women's reactions to photographs of women within these magazines (Dines & Humez).

It seems as though the majority of women do not relate at all to the women they see in these photos. In fact, much of the feedback given showed that some readers actually have disdain for them. There's been plenty of chatter about how magazines rarely portray "real" and relatable women, and that that's what the audience desires, so why is this (below) all we continue to see?

This brings me back to our discussion in class on Tuesday about how the ads in Ms. Magazine were generally driven by ideology rather than the wants of the audience. I think that this is also the case when it comes to photographs of women in magazines. If readers are actively saying that they want to see more realistic images of women, than why wouldn't a profit-driven magazine listen? Maybe because these magazines are more driven by ideology. Think about it - if Vogue had images of size 6 models (which is still thinner than the average American women, mind you) it simply would not be Vogue anymore. And that goes for mostly all magazines, and ad campaigns for that matter.

What makes this ideology so strong? Why are we constantly fed image after image of edgy or seductive or thin or [insert characteristic here] women when audiences are clearly saying that they do not relate to them? Maybe I'm wrong, and I hope that I am, but I think it comes down to the fact that we haven't fully escaped a patriarchal society. And by saying that I am not blaming men. What I'm saying is that we still tend to view a woman's beauty through what men consider to be beautiful. One of the woman that was interviewed in chapter 9 of Gauntlett referred to Berger in saying that "men watch women, and women watch men watching women" (212)....(which, reminds me of the "male gaze" we read about a few weeks ago). I think that we're still stuck in that rut, and I don't know if we'll ever get out.