Ok, as promised I went into a local store and did this research:
http://instagr.am/p/KK-RXOwWyt/ I have to say I genuinely expected that I
might have to admit to being wrong. I'm pleasantly surprised the say I
don't think I was!
But first, just to say, I felt like a bit of an idiot taking a photo and
then jotting down notes in the shop. Which turned into feeling like a right
prat when one of the shop assisstants asked what I was doing ;)
Anyway.
It's immediately obvious from the photo (which cuts off a portion either
side of the stand, sorry) that there are a LOT of women on these covers.
However things break down in an interesting way. The vast majority of
covers featuring a woman, clustered to the right hand side halfway up, are
female interest magazine (fashion, gossip, etc.). Targetted at women they
almost exclusively feature a photo of a woman - but they are fully clothed,
it is often a headshot and the focus is fashion/style (or a celebrity). I
don't think these are sexist.
Below them are another set of female interest mags - home and hearth. None
of these feature a woman on the cover (though some have a person as a wider
part of the image).
Opposite these are two male-targetted types of magazine. On the middle
shelf cars etc. and on the lower shelf computers. These almost entirely
feature no people at all - with the exception of one PC mag which features
a tasteful headshot of a computer generated woman (I'm willing for this to
be included in the next set of figures, if you like) and a few with men on
the covers.
Which leaves us the top shelf - a total of 10 magazines, 5 each targetted
at men and women. Of the 5 targetted at men you can see that 4 are
obviously feature an amount of nudity sexualisation (although there is no
actual bits on show). The fifth male targetted mag features a woman as
well, dressed, but with a bared shoulder and a sexualised pose.
Of the female-oriented magazines three of them feature a man with his top
off. One doesn't feature a person on the cover. And one (ironically going
back to the blog post linked last night) features a man with his top button
undone... and water spilling down his chin and onto his chest.
I make that 5:4, or 6:4 if you want to include the other image.
My conclusions?
Sex sells to men and women, somewhat equally. Tasteful pictures of women
sell to women. Cars and digital imagery sell to men.
Tom
On 2 May 2012 22:52, Ryan Kaldari <rkaldari(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
**
On 5/2/12 2:38 PM, Thomas Morton wrote:
On 2 May 2012 22:36, Ryan Kaldari <rkaldari(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
Perfect opportunity to share one of my favorite
blog memes:
http://thehairpin.com/2011/11/women-struggling-to-drink-water
Seriously though, it doesn't seem that controversial to say that
mainstream advertising heavily skews to female nudity. Next time you pass a
magazine stand, count the number of covers with female nudity and male
nudity. I'll bet you a wiki-beer it's greater than 2 to 1. Judging by the
last time I was in Paris, I would guess 10 to 1.
Ryan Kaldari
On the principle of genuine interest I will take you up on that
challenge :) and will report back tomorrow.
Tom
I'll be very happy to be proven wrong. I'm certainly subject to perception
bias, but perception isn't always wrong. Don't forget to take a cell-phone
photo if you want to collect your wiki-beer :)
Ryan Kaldari
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