This project represents the work done by the women in "Girlstories" a course taught in the Summer College for High School Students at Ithaca College during the summer of 2010.
The class studied images of girls and young women in children's literature, film, television, and fiction. This project represents the extension of our inquiry into the area of teen periodicals which we analyzed for both written and visual content. We looked at the articles presented in each text and considered the messages that they sent to young teen readers about self-esteem, healthy relationships, consumerism, and contemporary standards of beauty. We started by examining Nineteenth-Century texts at The History Center (see the "Early Teen Images" link below), and also viewed copies of the inaugural issues of Seventeen Magazine (see the "1940's Seventeen" link below).
Another focal point of our study was the advertising that appeared in each periodical. In preparation, we watched the documentary, Killing Us Softly 4, in which Jean Kilbourne discusses various advertising techniques which create a "toxic environment" for female viewers. We identified eight of these problematic techniques and considered them when analyzing each source:
1. Depicting women as a non-human object (for example, making her body into a beer bottle)
2. Fragmenting a woman's body so only body-parts are in the frame
3. Images that promote unhealthy thinness
4. The sexualization of food or eating
5. Women presented in infantilized through the use of vulnerable or silly poses and child-identified clothing
6. Women being visibly silenced through having their mouths covered
7. Pornographic or violent imagery
8. Male images which depict masculinity as violent or threatening.
Students began by making group web pages for the first texts which we studied, and ended by making their own individual web pages. Without the help--and great patience--of Ithaca College's Digital Media Coordinator, Mark Hine, this project would not have been possible. You can see the students' web pages by clicking on the links to the left of this page.
For more information on the scope of the project and the sources of our magazines, please click on "Modern Teen Magazines" below.
The class's conclusions about the project are compiled in the "Conclusions" page, which can also be accessed below. Finally, the Web Slideshow below gives a taste of the kinds of images that we saw in various sources.
Another focal point of our study was the advertising that appeared in each periodical. In preparation, we watched the documentary, Killing Us Softly 4, in which Jean Kilbourne discusses various advertising techniques which create a "toxic environment" for female viewers. We identified eight of these problematic techniques and considered them when analyzing each source:
1. Depicting women as a non-human object (for example, making her body into a beer bottle)
2. Fragmenting a woman's body so only body-parts are in the frame
3. Images that promote unhealthy thinness
4. The sexualization of food or eating
5. Women presented in infantilized through the use of vulnerable or silly poses and child-identified clothing
6. Women being visibly silenced through having their mouths covered
7. Pornographic or violent imagery
8. Male images which depict masculinity as violent or threatening.
Students began by making group web pages for the first texts which we studied, and ended by making their own individual web pages. Without the help--and great patience--of Ithaca College's Digital Media Coordinator, Mark Hine, this project would not have been possible. You can see the students' web pages by clicking on the links to the left of this page.
For more information on the scope of the project and the sources of our magazines, please click on "Modern Teen Magazines" below.
The class's conclusions about the project are compiled in the "Conclusions" page, which can also be accessed below. Finally, the Web Slideshow below gives a taste of the kinds of images that we saw in various sources.